A few months back I somehow ended up at the image below(*), a sketch for the unfinished middle panel of an incomplete triptych Dante Gabriel Rossetti set out to make for a cabinet belonging to William Morris ca. 1859.


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Some of my creative writing can be difficult to follow due to the expectations I have of the readers' vocabulary and cultural background. It is regrettable; when I write something I do not intend my style to be an impediment to meaning, but rather a tool for packing it more densely. I feel especially bad when I have written something for someone ( Read more... )

So, where were we? I remember promising an update on what's been happening with me these last few months some time in early January. I got distracted. OK, no. I crawled back inside my head. Inward. Coward. I've been doing it so long, it's an ingrained habit now, difficult to shake ( Read more... )

"One day Odysseus wandered hunting at the foot of the mountains of Delphi, when he met on his path two maidens who held each other by the hand. One had hair like violets, transparent eyes, and solemn lips; she said to him: 'I am Arete.' The other had languid eyelids, delicate hands and soft breasts; she said to him: 'I am Tryphe.' And together they ( Read more... )

The most masochistic type of translation is a faithful rendition of a song preserving both its rhyme scheme and metre. "Cheap, fast and good: pick any two" applies to this lyrical troika as well; usually faithfulness is the first thing to go. But I think I did a pretty good job below, with a minimum of spackle.

( Staszewski & Son )

Since I am on some sort of a roll and even made a special tag for this, might as well keep on going: here's a translation I did of the lyrics to a Danish trance progressive house(?) track someone posted in linguaphiles. The artist was 16, btw. Damn kids, get off my lawn... and make me some more music!

Mike Sheridan ft. Maya Albana - Med små skridt

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( With Small Steps -- Danish )

And another for my Russophile readers: this is probably the best tango I have ever seen. In your face, Buenos Aires and myintimia! :)

From the Vacation of Petrov and Vasechkin, a 1984 story set at Young Pioneer camp. In this tango, Vasechkin is trying to come clean about not being the terrible bully he has been impersonating, but the KGB isn't buying it, ( Read more... )

The girl singing looks like my mother in her youth. This is from a Polish TV serial about a tank, its four crewmen and their dog, and how they win the Second World War with help from the Soviets. I'd call it propaganda, only what wasn't? It was quite good. M.A.S.H. + Band of Brothers + Polish cheesecake.

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Piosenka Marusi ( Read more... )