Michael Gilleland < Christoph Irmscher < Longfellow: The difficulty of translation lies chiefly in the color of words. Is the Italian “Ruscelletto gorgoglioso” fully rendered by “Gurgling brooklet”? Or the Spanish “Pájaros vocingleros” by “Garrulous birds”? Something seems wanting. Perhaps it is only the fascination of foreign and unfamiliar sounds; and to the Italian or…
Carles Miró has serendipited one N Tassin’s enlistment of Josep Pla and Eugeni Xammar, as short of money as they were of Russian, in his mission to bring to the benighted South Americans the curious blessings and recommendations produced in such prodigious quantities by his compatriot. Here’s a high-speed bit of unplanned Pla: Tassin placed…
The latest pseudo-anglicism to cheer my bedraggled brain comes from a 20-year-old Albacete knife manufacturer. (See also camping, parking, lifting, shampooing, footing, and Wikipedia.) I like the dropped /g/, which interestingly goes against a trend in Andaluz and increasingly in other versions of Spanish to add a terminal /g/ to words previously ending in /n/.…
Lenox may be on the verge of an important discovery. (It has been suggested that I am Lenox, or vice versa. Many faces fortune wears, but that is not one of them.)
Francisco Gabilondo Soler has been denounced for his song, Ratón Vaquero, from the Cri-Cri show (more here), in which a Yankee mouse demands his freedom from the trap into which he has fallen: The offending lyrics in full: What the heck is this housefor a manly cowboy mouse?Hello you! let me out!and don’t catch me…
The neighbourhood Pixar voice-dubber alleges that Looper – an amusing dash through time-travel clichés – was going to be released in Spain as Lúpula, because it’s about hops. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Sorry man, I was yust yoking – there’s been a lack of crap bilingual puns here recently.
Chez Lenox, not to be confused in any way or to the slightest degree with Lenin, whose typically deranged pamphlet, One step forward, two steps back, is here. Comrade Vladimir doesn’t address our particular theme, but those interested in the recent roots of Iberian politics may inspect with interest the mud he throws in the…