First off, a big thank you to Prudence.
She's posted a lovely piece on reflections, and in doing so has highlighted just how weird our little gang is. Boy, do we have some freaks hiding in our closets!
Most of all I want to thank her for reminding me of Sassy's "Thanksgiving With The Dead (and a Chihuahua)" post. Everybody on the planet should read this post, so click on the link now and give yourself a good day.
Enjoy that? Thought you would …
I'm feeling a little freaky myself, this morning.
I've been moaning to the train gods for years about twats who keep digging their elbows into me and waking me up.
And this morning, there I am dozing happily on the train when this guy plonks himself down next to me and I just know he'll be elbowing me all the way in to London.
Through half-closed and annoyed eyes I can see him place a fucking Blackberry on the table in front of him.
Bastard!
Blackberry users just sit there going flicky, flicky, flicky with their thumbs and it's like having an onanist with a nervous twich digging their fucking elbow into my arm.
No sleep this morning, then …
After a couple of minutes I must admit to having my curiosity piqued by the fact that he's using the bloody thing one-handed. Why can't everybody be so considerate?
Then I get to thinking, somewhat blearily, "Where's his fucking arm?"
Woohoo!
The train gods have answered my prayers and sent me a one-armed man!
This is bliss!
I celebrate by moving across to take the whole of the armrest.
Oh, happy day.
The train gods smile upon me (about fucking time).
Ten cultural nerd points to anyone who can tell me the significance of this post's title (and where the quote is from).
30 comments:
Woohoo. A one-armed man! The train gods really did present you with a gift.
I can't guess at the title--not enough of a dork, I guess. Portuguese?
Hee hee. I like gifts.
And two points for the language, Robyn: mediæval Portuguese.
Now what's the relevance and where is the quote from?
Got me! Glad your ride was better than usual. When do you get to start your homebound employment options?
OMG! Was the one-armed man sitting next to the one-legged woman? The'd make quite a pair wouldn't they?
She wouldn't have a leg to stand on and could be his right-arm-gal at the same time!
I don't know what I'm typing!
But I DO know that your Portuguese title says...The Weapons and the Barons...written by Noble Eduardo...
Significance? He was that guy on the train?
;)
Hee hee.
Nope. Sorry Ame; not Noble Eduardo. It's from a much more famous epic poem and it's actually the modern (and extremely well known) mistranslation that gives it relevance.
And Prudence, I was due to start my three-day-a-week working from home last week, but like this week, I have had too many meetings and duties in London to start it yet.
OK, I am slowly catching on with my feeble brain--I don't know where it's from, but my online translator wants it to mean weapons. I suspect you mean "arms" instead. Very funny.
Hee hee. Two more points to Robyn. You're getting very warm.
But where's it from and what is the modern mistranslation?
Come on, guys.
Hint:
I've done a big, ranty post about this very poem before (though not the modern play whose mistranslated title gives it relevance to today's post).
Sheesh … How many clues does a guy have to give?
"Sheesh … How many clues does a guy have to give?"
Evidently more than you have furnished at present! Where is that brainiac Sassy when you need her!
Exactly what I was thinking, Prudence.
Sassy? Are you out there? Or has luurve turned that major league brain to jello?
Would it be arms and heroes? Not sure about significance though.. lol
Close, but no cigar, Lynne.
My goodness, does nobody read mediæval Portuguese epic poetry or twentieth century British authors and playwrights these days?
Tsk! It's a cultural desert out there (hee hee hee).
OOOOOOH-OH-OH-OH-I-KNOW-I-KNOW!
Swords and Arms....so the guy on the train had his arm cut off by a sword in the Boer War!
Which means he's responsible for you thinking about your UNshagged life???
Is that it DB? ;)
xoxoxxoooooooooo
Hee hee.
Planet Ame must be such a wonderfully surreal place to live.
This made me think of the one-armed man in Twin Peaks.
I'm glad you liked that little post about my Thanksgiving.
I'm sorry that I don't know the answer.
That's what love does to a previously fine brain …
I just come here for the freaks.
Do tell me something: why have you decided, after all these months, Dive, to add an 'e' to my name?
lol i'm just thoroughly pissed off that i can't get this and that you say this is a cultural desert. GRRR!
Luis de Camoes 16th c. writer. Yay! Erm.. where do i go from there? Dunno.
Armas, e os Baroes assinalados,
Que da occidental praia Lusitana
Por mares nunca de antes navegados
Passaram ainda alem da Taprobana,
Em perigos, e guerra esforcados
Mais, do que promettia forca humana:
E enter gente remota edificarao
Novo reino, que tanto sublimarao:
Arms and the renowned heroes
Who from the western Lusitanian shore
On seas never before navigatd
Passing even beyond Taprobane,
In dangers, and forced wars,
More, of what promised the human force,
And among remote people, raised
That is the first verse. Ta Da !!!! Now where?
Can I have ten points anyway?
I'm nice.
It means "I am a one armed window cleaner and I need someone to wring out this fucking chamois leather"
I used to work for him.
p.s I got your QI dvd's bro, see you Sat?
lol Full! QI wow. Sorry totally interloped your personal message. Yep see you Sat anyway. What time? ;)
Lynn (without the "e"; sorry, my old secretary was Lynne and I type it without thinking); you may have five points for Luis vaz de Camõens.
The quote is indeed the opening line of Os Lusiadas, his epic poem telling of Vasco da Gama's voyage around the Cape of Good Hope and on to India and the start of the Portuguese Empire.
And if you scroll down to my links and hit "Language", you will eventually find the "Lost in Translation" post that trashes the Penguin translation of same.
As it's bedtime, I'll tell you the rest of the answer:
The mistranslation of the first line became the title of George Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man", which gives us the relevance to today's post.
Any Radio 4 listener would have got that in a flash, but I suppose people these days prefer crappy television.
Sigh …
So:
Lynn wins with five points.
Robyn second with four.
And Sassy gets ten points for being in dumb love (hee hee).
hee hee five points! I'm unspeakably thrilled. Given a chance I morph into Monica from FRIENDS i'm afraid, so i'm jumping around! lol.
lol love Sassy's ten points too!
Hi Dive,
The title of your post really intrigued me (yes I'm Portuguese) cause I immediately recognize it but wasn't following. It's the most famous verse from Lusiadas. Have you read it? I should be ashamed but, in school, I managed to avoid it. LOL!
Portuguese? worse than bloody spice racks they are.
I thought for a moment is other arm was under the table having a ham shank.
I wonder if hes doing a post about all the two armed cunts he has to sit beside on the train?
Hi, Carlos.
Yes, I have read Os Lusiadas. My friend Jorge - a lovely old guy from Lisboa who is fiercely proud of Portugal's history - helped me through it.
Like Shakespeare over here, it is something to be avoided at school but cherished in later life.
Old K. Onanism techniques for amputees is a sadly neglected subject, but one that I am in no hurry to explore further.
Dive,
I really admire you for reading the Lusiadas... it's not an easy one. In school I was forced to read Os Maias from Eça de Queiroz, a huge book that terrorized everyone. Let me tell you, it was the best book I have ever read (read it twice).
Perhaps next year you can meet Ame again... in Lisbon. I'm trying to convince her to come to Portugal.
All the best.
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