Browsing this Thread:
1 Anonymous Users
|
Re: How to translate this phrase? |
||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Webmaster
Joined:
2006/1/16 17:41 From Taipei, 大羅天
Group:
Webmasters Registered Users Posts: 1767
Level : 35
HP : 0 / 856 |
Is this from Dylan Thomas' Deaths and Entrances?
Quote:
<Content from http://www.undermilkwood.net/poetry_deathsandentrances.html > From the context, it seems to refer to one of the people you love best. Here "at the great least" seems to be an emphatic form of "at least". So it can be rephrased as "When one who could be (nevertheless) at least counted as one of your best loved" Hope this helps. Tim
Posted on: 2008/4/25 12:36
|
||||||||||
|
Re: How to translate this phrase? |
||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Just popping in
Joined:
2008/4/25 4:13 Group:
Registered Users Posts: 5
Level : 1
HP : 0 / 8 |
You're right. It's all about that strange poet. Thanks for your response.
Using 'the great' to emphasize 'at least' seems to be his signature move only. No one has gone to that path so far. While we're here, would you mind to go over the poetry with me if that is not too much trouble for you? For the 3rd section in the poem, how would you interpret it then, such as the key, the lock, the Samson and the thunderbolts? I know it is somewhat odd to make sense out of them.
Posted on: 2008/4/25 16:09
|
||||||||||
|
Re: How to translate this phrase? |
||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Webmaster
Joined:
2006/1/16 17:41 From Taipei, 大羅天
Group:
Webmasters Registered Users Posts: 1767
Level : 35
HP : 0 / 856 |
This poem is really hard to decipher as we do not have enough background information. What it seems to me it's about the scene on a thundering night and someone is about to die. The first line "On almost the incendiary eve" reveals the thunderous state. The key and lock part should allude to the title "Deaths and Entrances." Samson should refer to the Biblical figure, the mighty hero as mentioned in the Old Testament.
Any opinions from our dear friends? Please chip in your thoughts. Tim
Posted on: 2008/4/25 23:49
|
||||||||||
|
Re: How to translate this phrase? |
||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
Joined:
2006/10/25 14:16 Group:
Registered Users Posts: 1416
Level : 32
HP : 0 / 782 |
My two cents:
"... at the great least of (your best loved) ..." = (至愛/至親)本已不多, 比起"少"來說更要"少" (現更買少見少, 死一個便少一個) Dylan Thomas expresses his feeling towards the loss of lives during the blitz --- Germans' air attacks on UK towns for over two months.
Posted on: 2008/4/26 5:47
|
||||||||||
|
Re: How to translate this phrase? |
||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Home away from home
Joined:
2006/1/20 18:03 From Taipei
Group:
Registered Users Moderators Posts: 999
Level : 27
HP : 0 / 674 |
"... at the great least of your best loved..."
I would take "great" as a modifying adjective only. It can be replaced by wonderful, valuable, cherished, unforgetable,... where appropriate. What do you guys think?
Posted on: 2008/4/26 11:01
|
||||||||||
|
Re: How to translate this phrase? |
||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Webmaster
Joined:
2006/1/16 17:41 From Taipei, 大羅天
Group:
Webmasters Registered Users Posts: 1767
Level : 35
HP : 0 / 856 |
The Century Dictionary lists both "at least" and "at the least", so "at the least" should be just an older form of "at least".
Tim
Posted on: 2008/4/27 23:52
|
||||||||||
|
Re: How to translate this phrase? |
||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Just popping in
Joined:
2008/4/25 4:13 Group:
Registered Users Posts: 5
Level : 1
HP : 0 / 8 |
Thanks, indeed.
By digging some information around it, there are surely tons of cultural elements piled around the poem, which unfortunately reflects what I lack of. Regarding Samson, it's surely very indicative that appears to refer to the powerful Samson in Bible. Yet, at the time there was a known figure, named Samson, in England who happen to be keen on Zodiacs related interpretations. It is added another layer of suspicion that the author was tickling that Samson. Anyway, it's an interesting to see that it gets stuck there in an attempt to make senses out of that poem even though nothing on the surface of wording is unsolvable. Nice to know.
Posted on: 2008/4/29 5:38
|
||||||||||
|
Re: How to translate this phrase? |
||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Just popping in
Joined:
2008/4/25 4:13 Group:
Registered Users Posts: 5
Level : 1
HP : 0 / 8 |
Um, nice getting ...
So in other words, 'one' is the one who happens to be one of a few survivors who are rapidly reducing as his group of 'the best loved'...? Am I making sense here?
Posted on: 2008/4/29 5:47
|
||||||||||
|
Re: How to translate this phrase? |
||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Just popping in
Joined:
2008/4/25 4:13 Group:
Registered Users Posts: 5
Level : 1
HP : 0 / 8 |
If 'at the least' is the old form of 'at least', which I am not sure it would have a conflict with 'at the least' expression to begin with, it might make sense.
Thus, 'great' is further strengthen the meaning of 'least'. Then, it is meant to describe how reluctant someone is referred as part of 'the best loved'?
Posted on: 2008/4/29 5:52
|
||||||||||
You cannot start a new topic.
You can view topic.
You cannot reply to posts.
You cannot edit your posts.
You cannot delete your posts.
You cannot add new polls.
You cannot vote in polls.
You cannot attach files to posts.
You cannot post without approval.