2012年4月29日 星期日

The Common by Virginia Woolf , the unique quality of a Chekhov story


2010為作此條
Virginia Woolf mused on the unique quality of a Chekhov story in The Common Reader (1925):
But is it the end, we ask? We have rather the feeling that we have overrun our signals; or it is as if a tune had stopped short without the expected chords to close it. These stories are inconclusive, we say, and proceed to frame a criticism based upon the assumption that stories ought to conclude in a way that we recognise. In so doing we raise the question of our own fitness as readers. Where the tune is familiar and the end emphatic—lovers united, villains discomfited, intrigues exposed—as it is in most Victorian fiction, we can scarcely go wrong, but where the tune is unfamiliar and the end a note of interrogation or merely the information that they went on talking, as it is in Tchekov, we need a very daring and alert sense of literature to make us hear the tune, and in particular those last notes which complete the harmony.[99]
 The Common by Virginia Woolf
在網路上應該可找到的






frame
v., framed, fram·ing, frames. v.tr.
  1. To build by putting together the structural parts of; construct: frame a house.
  2. To conceive or design: framed an alternate proposal.
  3. To arrange or adjust for a purpose: The question was framed to draw only one answer.
    1. To put into words; formulate: frame a reply.
    2. To form (words) silently with the lips.
  4. To enclose in or as if in a frame: frame a painting.
  5. Informal.
    1. To make up evidence or contrive events so as to incriminate (a person) falsely.
    2. To prearrange (a contest) so as to ensure a desired fraudulent outcome; fix: frame a prizefight.
v.intr.
  1. Archaic. To go; proceed.
  2. Obsolete. To manage; contrive.
n.
  1. Something composed of parts fitted and joined together.
  2. A structure that gives shape or support: the frame of a house.
    1. An open structure or rim for encasing, holding, or bordering: a window frame; the frame of a mirror.
    2. A closed, often rectangular border of drawn or printed lines.
  3. A pair of eyeglasses, excluding the lenses. Often used in the plural: had new lenses fitted into an old pair of frames.
  4. The structure of a human or animal body; physique: a worker's sturdy frame.
  5. A cold frame.
  6. A general structure or system: the frame of government.
  7. A general state or condition: The news put me into a better frame of mind.
  8. A frame of reference.
  9. Sports & Games.
    1. A round or period of play in some games, such as bowling and billiards.
    2. Baseball. An inning.
  10. A single picture on a roll of movie film or videotape.
  11. The total area of a complete picture in television broadcasting.
  12. An individual drawing within a comic strip.
  13. Computer Science.
    1. A rectangular segment within a browser's window that can be scrolled independently of other such segments.
    2. A single step in a sequence of programmed instructions.
  14. Informal. A frame-up.
  15. Obsolete. Shape; form.
[Middle English framen, from Old English framian, to further, from fram, forward. See from.]
framable fram'a·ble or frame'a·ble adj.

[名]
1
(1) (窓などの)枠, 額縁;(鏡の)縁;((通例〜s))(眼鏡の)フレーム.
(2) (新聞・雑誌などの囲み記事の)枠, 囲み.
2 (建物・機械・家具・車・船・飛行機などの)骨組み;(機器の動作部分を支える)台枠;(ししゅうの)枠;《海事》フレーム, 肋材(ろくざい).
3 [U][C](人 などの)体格, 骨格;(特に性的魅力のある女性の)上半身.
4 心の状態, 気分
be in a proper frame of mind to do [for doing]
…するのにぴったりの気分である.
5 (抽象的な)構造物;(政治・社会などの)組織, 機構, 体制.
6 (ガラス張りの)温床, 温室, フレーム.
7 《野球》イニング, 回;《ボウリング》フレーム.
8 (フィルム・続き漫画の)1こま.
9 《コンピュータ》フレーム:動画像のもとになる静止画像の一こま.
10 《テレビ》フレーム:走査線の連続で構成される画面1枚.
11 《印刷》植字台;《製本》(本の表紙の)縁飾り.
12 ((俗))=frame-up.
━━[動](他)
1 …を組み立てる, 形作る;〈計画などを〉立案[考案, 構想]する;〈詩・文書などを〉作る
frame a new tax bill
新 しい税法案をまとめる
frame a theory [a rule, a story]
理論[規則, 話]を作り上げる.
2 〈考えなどを〉心にいだく;〈言葉・返事などを〉口に出して言う.
3III[名]([副])]… を(目的に)合わせる((for ...));[V[名]to do](…するのに)合うように作る
a novel framed for younger readers
若い読者向けの小説.
4 ((略式))〈計画などを〉たくらむ, でっち上げる;〈試合などを〉仕組む, 八百長する((up));〈人を〉陥れる, はめる, 〈人に〉ぬれ衣(ぎぬ)を着せる((up))
frame a scandal
醜聞 をたくらむ
frame a person up for murder
殺 人のぬれ衣を着せる.
5 〈絵・写真などを〉額に入れる;…を囲む, 縁どる.
━━(自)((古))
1 おもむく, 行く(go).
2 〈計画・行動などが〉進行[進展]する;進行[進展]の見込みがある.
[古英語framian (fram利益のある)利益が上がる→押し進める→建設する. △FROM
frám・er
[名]考案[立案]者;額縁屋.

2012年4月25日 星期三

Brighton as a secret bolthole for Londoners


帕米安的大佛在數年前被炸毀



我上周被某人將bolt-hole 翻譯成"如螺栓洞的逃避所"的誤導  沒去查字典 反而問螺絲專家Justing 為什麼會這樣

今天 研究一下英國的海邊名勝地 Brighton 因為想讀七零年代末該讀而未讀的小說 Brighton Rock
我去過Brithon一次 不過小說第一頁的路線圖卻完全沒印象 所以多查一下 沒想到該城市變化甚大 Brighton Rock 一書所談的地理背景是兩次大戰之間的Brighton 現在改建很多

資料庫收有牛津文學英國和愛爾蘭
從S JOHNSON與該地因緣說起 很有意思

讀到下句 我去查牛津美國英文辭典 發現 bolt·hole在英國就是兔子等用來逃脫的穴路或濄
我才知道BOLT還有其他意思 不只是螺絲等等
Alan Brownjohn's poem ‘A Brighton’ makes engaging use of the town's reputation as a secret bolthole for Londoners:
"‘Brighton’: not far, a lie or an excuse
Like dental checks or grandmothers' funerals.
‘Did you have a nice day at Brighton?’ asks the master
Receiving a boy's forged note about his cold.




 bolt·hole  (blthl)
n.
1. A hole through which to bolt: found a bolthole in the fencing.
2. A place affording escape.

bolt[bolt1]

  • レベル:大学入試程度
  • 発音記号[bóult]

[名]
1 (門・戸・窓を締める)差し錠, かんぬき, さん.
2 ボルト, 締めくぎ. ⇒NUT
fasten ... with a bolt
…をボルトで締める.
3 急な飛び出し, 突進;逃亡
do a bolt
逃げ去る
make a bolt for ...
…に向かって逃げ出す
make a bolt for it
((略式))突然逃げ出す.

2012年4月20日 星期五

莎士比亞十四行胡適日記

胡適日記全集, 第 8 卷: 1940-1952

1951.6.13 此日的日記 台灣版 網路上看不到 

中國版附梁宗岱的翻譯



 胡適某友人摘出一些"百讀不厭"的莎士比亞十四行

現在網路上有很不錯的 相關網站

例如第六十四首

 Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate
That Time will come and take my love away.
   This thought is as a death which cannot choose
   But weep to have that which it fears to lose.

 (毀滅便教我再三這樣反省  時光終要跑來把我的愛帶走 哦 多麼致命的思想! 它只能夠哭著去把那刻刻怕失去的佔有)

分析見

http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/64

 

 

73  

 This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
   To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.

 (看見了這些 你的愛就會加強 因為他轉瞬要辭你溘然長往 )

 突然。唐˙白居易˙與元九書:「溘然而至,則如之何?」

 http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/73

 

 

 30 (原文缺)

    But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
   All losses are restor'd and sorrows end.

(但是只要那刻想起你 摯友 損失全收回 悲哀也化為烏有)

 http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/30

 

 

104 

sonnetCIV

To me, fair friend, you never can be old,
For as you were when first your eye I ey'd,
Such seems your beauty still.

 (對於我 俊友 你永遠不會衰老 因為自從我的眼碰見你的眼 你還是一樣美 )

 

 

56

應是第五十七首

So true a fool is love, that in your will,
   Though you do anything, he thinks no ill.

(愛這呆子是那麼無救藥的呆 憑你為所欲為 他都不覺得壞)

http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/57

 

2012年4月18日 星期三

The Aga Saga




rumpy-pumpy

noun
noun, Brit

Sexual intercourse; also = hanky-panky noun 2. Also rumpty-tumpty. (1986 —) .

[Prob. elaborated from rump noun or a derivative.]



探討女性情感關係的小說:

The Aga Saga is a sub-genre of the family saga of literature. The genre is named for the AGA cooker, a type of stored-heat oven that came to be popular in medium to large country houses in the UK after its introduction in 1929. It refers primarily to fictional family sagas dealing with British "middle-class country or village life".[1] The nickname "Aga Saga" is sometimes used condescendingly about this type of fiction.[2] The term was incorporated into the Oxford Companion to English Literature in 2000.[3]

Contents

 [hide

[edit] Characteristics

While the label has been applied to settings within other genres,[4] it is typically interpreted to refer to "a tale of illicit rumpy-pumpy in the countryside" according to a 2007 article in The Observer.[5] In setting, according to an earlier article in that paper, it offers a "gingham-checked world" associated with "thatched English villages" and "ladies in floral dresses".[6] Guardian book critic Laura Wilson described an Aga Saga setting as "complete with sprawling, untidy farmhouse (flagstones, dogs, Wellington boots, and much nursing of mugs of coffee)".[7]

2012年4月15日 星期日

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard



A Year in the World ( Frances Mayes ) 地球玩一年

這本書有些地方讓作者想起她高中讀的莎士比亞 羅密歐與茱麗葉等



本書有拜訪過的半張世界的地圖 很方便了解相對位置
但是作者對於園藝與語文的豐富知識 會讓我們目不暇給 
 所以即使書名改成有點酷
讀於讀者的要求很大

 譯者一般表現不錯 不過有些地方仍有改善的空間
 譬如說談"英倫三島"
knot garden是專門語

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_garden
翻譯成結園 還是不清楚
書中選的Thomas Gray的 Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 的一段 翻譯還可改善

 
Stanza 11
41. Can storied urn or animated bust  胸像 bust不是雕像
42. Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?  此句過分意繹
43. Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
44. Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
Notes
(1) Storied urn: Vase adorned with pictures telling a story. Urns have sometimes been used to hold the ashes of a cremated body. (2) Bust: sculpture of the head, shoulders, and chest of a human. (3) Storied urn . . . breath? Can the soul (fleeting breath) be called back to the body (mansion) by the urn or bust back? Notice that urn and bust are personifications that call. (4) Can Honour's . . . Death? Can honor (Honour's voice) attributed to the dead person cause that person (silent dust) to come back to life? Can flattering words (Flatt'ry) about the dead person make death more "bearable"? (5) General meaning of stanza: Lines 41-45 continue the idea begun in Lines 37-40. In other words, can any memorials—such as the trophies mentioned in Line 38, the urn and bust mentioned in Line 41, and personifications (honor and flattery) mentioned in Lines 43 and 44—bring a person back to life or make death less final or fearsome?
 http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/ThoGray.html





2012年4月7日 星期六

Pope's An Essay on Criticism


Pierian Spring

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
In Greek mythology, the Pierian Spring of Macedonia was sacred to the Muses. As the metaphorical source of knowledge of art and science, it was popularized by a line in Alexander Pope's poem "An Essay on Criticism" (1709).
Pieria, where the sacred spring was situated, was a region of ancient Macedonia, also the location of Mount Olympus, and believed to be the home and the seat of worship of Orpheus[1] and the Muses[2][3], the deities of the arts and sciences. The spring is believed to be a fountain of knowledge that inspires whoever drinks from it.

[edit] Literature

An early reference to the Pierian spring is found in the Satyricon of Petronius[citation needed], from the late 1st century AD:
"This is the right armour of genius–
'Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring.'
Only then pour out your heart."[citation needed]
Lines 215 to 232 of Pope's poem An Essay on Criticism read:
"A little learning is a dang'rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fir'd at first sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts,
While from the bounded level of our mind
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;
But more advanc'd, behold with strange surprise
New distant scenes of endless science rise!
So pleas'd at first the towering Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky,
Th' eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last;
But, those attain'd, we tremble to survey
The growing labours of the lengthen'd way,
Th' increasing prospects tire our wand'ring eyes,
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!"
In Greek mythology, it was believed that drinking from the Pierian Spring would bring you great knowledge and inspiration. Thus, Pope is explaining how if you only learn a little it can "intoxicate" you in such a way that makes you feel as though you know a great deal. However, when "drinking largely" it "sobers" you now that you are wise and have a greater understanding, and also "drinking" it "largely sobers" you so you may never acquire complete wisdom and understanding.
The opening stanza also appears in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, as Fire Captain Beatty chastizes Guy Montag, the protagonist, about reading books, which are forbidden in the society of the novel.
Sir William Jones (1746–1794) also made reference to "the fam'd Pierian rill" (a brook or rivulet) in his poem about the origin of chess, "Caissa".

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Orpheus and Greek Religion (Mythos Books) by William Keith Guthrie and L. Alderlink, 1993, ISBN 0691024995, page 62
  2. ^ Classical Mythology in Literature, Art, and Music (Focus Texts: For Classical Language Study) by Philip Mayerson,2001,page 82: "... the Muses who were said to have frolicked about the Pierian springs soon after their birth. The Castalian spring on Mount Parnassus ..."
  3. ^ E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2,Πιερίας—between Mt. Olympus and the Thermaic Gulf, the original home of the muses and birth-place of Orpheus.

2012年4月6日 星期五

林紓譯狄更斯 From Pickwick Papers to The Mystery of Edwin Drood/wellerism


 胡適讀林紓譯狄更斯(迭更司)Charles Dickens

Being Charles Dickens/ Dickens 2012/ 哪本狄更斯的書最暢銷


胡適在1910年 12月 14 日 (陰曆)
胡適日记全集, 第 1 卷 1906-1914 讀畢《冰雪因缘》
 認為比之前讀的《滑稽外史》《耐兒傳》《塊肉餘生》等更好   末本他更有十絕句題它


胡適應該看過更多的林譯狄更斯 因為晚年似乎提過另一本 待查



wikipedia 的林紓
 http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9E%97%E7%B4%93
 他譯狄更斯(迭更司)Charles Dickens 不全
  • 《孝女耐兒傳》,即《老古玩店》,英國狄更斯,林紓、魏易合譯(1908)
  • 《賊史》,即《孤雛淚》(Oliver Twist),英國狄更斯,林紓、魏易合譯(1908)
  • 塊肉餘生錄》,即《大衛·科波菲爾》,英國狄更斯,林紓、魏易合譯(1908)


 这些小说现在分别通译为《滑稽外史》(《尼可拉斯·尼古尔贝》)、 《孝女耐儿传》(《老古玩店》)、<块肉余生述>(《大卫·科波菲尔》)、《贼史》(《奥列佛·退斯特》)、《冰雪因缘》(《董贝父子》).这是林纾翻译的.





Word of the Day:
wellerism
(WEH-luh-ri-zuhm)

noun
An expression involving a familiar proverb or quotation and its facetious sequel. It usually comprises three parts: statement, speaker, situation.
Examples:
"Everyone to his own liking," the old woman said when she kissed her cow.
"We'll have to rehearse that," said the undertaker as the coffin fell out of the car.

Etymology
After Sam Weller and his father, characters known for such utterances in Charles Dickens's novel Pickwick Papers (1837).

Usage
"All of the Shavian proverbs and most of the wellerisms have been recorded in a literary context ... Anyhow, 'So far so good,' as the boy said when he had finished the first pot of his mother's jam." — W F H Nicolaisen; The Proverbial Bernard Shaw; Folklore (London, UK); 1998.
Wordsmith.org)


Wikipedia article "Rochester, Kent".

Culture

Dickens

The town was for many years the favourite of Charles Dickens who lived nearby at Gads Hill Place, Higham, and who based many of his novels in the area. Descriptions of the town appear in Pickwick Papers , Great Expectations and lightly fictionalised as Cloisterham in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Restoration house located on Crow Lane was the house on which Charles Dickens based Miss Havisham's (from Great Expectations) house, Satis House. This link is celebrated in Rochester's Dickens Festival each June in the Summer Dickens Festival and December with the Dickensian Christmas Festival. The 16th century red-brick Eastgate House once housed the town's museum. In the 1980s the museum was moved further west to the Guildhall so that Eastgate House could become the Charles Dickens Centre.
In the same decade the High Street was redecorated with Victorian-style street lights and hanging flower baskets to give it a more welcoming atmosphere.
The Dickens Centre was ultimately unprofitable and shut in November 2004. Medway Council's Cabinet agreed proposals for the restoration and development of Eastgate House as a major cultural and tourist facility, and for the project to be recognised as a key cultural regeneration project on 7 November 2006.[12]

Rochester Sweeps Festival

Since 1980 the town has seen the revival of the historic Rochester Jack-in-the-Green May Day dancing chimney sweeps tradition, which died out in the early 1900s. Whilst not unique to Rochester, (similar sweeps gatherings were held right across southern England, notably in Bristol, Deptford, Whitstable and Hastings), the Rochester revival was directly inspired by Dicken's description of the celebration in Sketches by Boz
It has since grown from a small gathering of local Morris dance sides, to one of the largest in the world.
The current festival begins with the awakening of the Jack-in-the-Green ceremony, atop Blue Bell Hill at sunrise on May 1.[13] and continues in Rochester High Street over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Wikipedia article "Rochester, Kent".