Words

Busy days beget numerous words, about a last spurt of blackberry scavenging, the advent of pastry making for future pies, and some actual translation of Spanish into English. Actual translation! How awesomely strange it is a thing to do.

Translation is not very different to original composition, except that you are trying to write somebody else's ideas into your language instead of your own. Otherwise it is the same fascinating and intangible process of making something intangible absolute, of drawing definition from some unknown source and putting an 'idea', a set of concepts which only exist (in English) in your head, on a piece of paper. It's wonderful and terrifying to assimilate the source text and then recrystallize it into a whole new language, a whole new mental system. Or I could just be speaking drivel. Who knows?

Some time ago, so long ago that it's a shame I never actually followed it through, someone suggested to me that I take a blog post and translate it into Spanish. In fact, they - it was Flighty Fernandez of Seville - suggested the original theme as well. It was 'The Solitude Of The Swimmer', and would have been a major challenge. Perhaps that would be a good idea, now that so many plans have fallen through into the sands of failure and mathematical programming code is dribbling pitifully onto a grand pile of unsuccessful nothingness. Good grief, it's been a rough time tor projects coming to grisly standstills! Yes, perhaps some Spanish translation practice is a good idea... Also, I have to get rid of the ellipsis ('...') habit... Oh, blast!

Golly, jeepers, criminy and splat. Maybe analytical work is the way forward. This is a terrifying thought. Can anyone remind me how to do mathematics? Is it more complicated than short crust pastry? Is it less hazardous than braving brambles for their blackberry booty? Send all answers via magic balloon to the Quirky Muffin. Magic balloons available at all good Mystic Muffin outlets in Great Britain, and parts of France*.

O.


* No, of course not! Are you mad? Oh, really? Well, that's actually rather impressive. Thank you. Have a magic balloon.