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crime prevention ice cream
Jan. 15th, 2021 05:25 pmSubject line brought to you by a Taisho-era dessert served to the Prince Regent, the correct translation of which has defeated me. They did not deal with phonetics quite the same way back then.
Chinese: Mostly Chinese grammar/syntax is not like Japanese, but sometimes it is. Just to leave one in a complete state of confusion. There are words like 正好 or 早就 that are a nuisance to render in English but match perfectly with a single Japanese expression (in this case ちょうど and とっくに respectively), and syntax things like some of the usages of 都 and 也 that are exactly like も in Japanese. I need a space for Chinese in my head that has doors open at both ends to English and Japanese and can balance effectively between the two.
Writing: Making very gradual progress with Book II and wondering why I've set myself so many tasks that do not play to my strengths. Once in a while, satisfyingly, something occurs to me that I feel like I didn’t think of myself. I mean, obviously I did think of it myself, Lai Su [cf recent interesting Guardian scene discussion via sakana17 and company] aside the characters are not independent beings, but not so much “hm, what should I have her do, oh I know” as “omigod, yes, that is what she’d do, isn’t it,” and so on. The trouble at the moment is that the illuminations are either big-picture things—good to know but not as helpful in daily writing as they might be—or “yes, having all three characters fall in love would solve the problem nicely but might also be hopelessly out of character/out of setting, too bad for them.”
Photos: A walk across the city and back (amazing what you can see when avoiding public transit).
( Read more... )
Be safe and well.
Chinese: Mostly Chinese grammar/syntax is not like Japanese, but sometimes it is. Just to leave one in a complete state of confusion. There are words like 正好 or 早就 that are a nuisance to render in English but match perfectly with a single Japanese expression (in this case ちょうど and とっくに respectively), and syntax things like some of the usages of 都 and 也 that are exactly like も in Japanese. I need a space for Chinese in my head that has doors open at both ends to English and Japanese and can balance effectively between the two.
Writing: Making very gradual progress with Book II and wondering why I've set myself so many tasks that do not play to my strengths. Once in a while, satisfyingly, something occurs to me that I feel like I didn’t think of myself. I mean, obviously I did think of it myself, Lai Su [cf recent interesting Guardian scene discussion via sakana17 and company] aside the characters are not independent beings, but not so much “hm, what should I have her do, oh I know” as “omigod, yes, that is what she’d do, isn’t it,” and so on. The trouble at the moment is that the illuminations are either big-picture things—good to know but not as helpful in daily writing as they might be—or “yes, having all three characters fall in love would solve the problem nicely but might also be hopelessly out of character/out of setting, too bad for them.”
Photos: A walk across the city and back (amazing what you can see when avoiding public transit).
( Read more... )
Be safe and well.
