Contribuții/Mesaje: 7
Limbă: English
yyaann (Arată profil) 1 februarie 2010, 17:42:29
Much to my frustration, I realize that after five years of English studies, I can't come up with a good translation, not only for "kiseme" which is difficult to render anyway, but also for "rigardis". Indeed, I seem to be confuzed by the many English words which convey the idea of looking. To name a few that come to my mind:
- "To look at" somehow feels too banal in the context of the original sentence.
- "To stare at" I tend to associate with something creepy, as if the guy was a stalker. Could be that my understanding of this word is poor though.
- "To watch" feels like he's monitoring her. Again maybe I didn't quite grasp the meaning of that word.
- "To glance at" I understand as meaning that he's watching furtively, maybe because I tend to associate it with the phrase "a quick glance".
Thanks in advance!
erinja (Arată profil) 1 februarie 2010, 18:26:57
There isn't a single-word English translation for kiseme, but I would render the whole sentence as "He gazed at her, longing to kiss her" or something. Sounds like it comes from a romance novel!
jan aleksan (Arată profil) 1 februarie 2010, 19:13:55
erinja (Arată profil) 1 februarie 2010, 19:29:20
You can be "parolema" in situations when you are required to be silent; you are acting against your inclination by not talking, but that doesn't change your "parolema" feeling.
yyaann (Arată profil) 2 februarie 2010, 22:31:36
erinja:There isn't a single-word English translation for kiseme, but I would render the whole sentence as "He gazed at her, longing to kiss her" or something. Sounds like it comes from a romance novel!Thank you Erinja for this translation and the explanation about "To gaze at".
I have one more question: how different are "to be eager to", "to have a urge to", "to have a drive for", "to have a need for" from "to long for"? Are they stronger/weaker?
erinja:You can be "parolema" in situations when you are required to be silent; you are acting against your inclination by not talking, but that doesn't change your "parolema" feeling.That's also how I understand -eme, -ema, mainly because I have read some sentences written by Claude Piron where the suffix was used exactly in this way. Besides, I believe the meaning is clear context-wise.
jan aleksan:kiseme? or kisvole? (kiseme can mean that he actually kiss).Well despite having asserted above my belief that -eme can very much imply an unfulfilled desire, I have to admit that kisvole, unlike kiseme, leaves no doubt about the unaccomplishedness(*) of the kiss.
Thank you, Jan Aleksan, for suggesting it.
(*) Not sure I can get away with this word.
formiĉjo (Arată profil) 3 februarie 2010, 05:51:26
jan aleksan (Arată profil) 3 februarie 2010, 09:16:18
yyaann:Well, I simply was not sure. I think kiseme is better because of this ambiguation of the meaning (by this way, one can imagine He do not kiss for real, but do it in his imagination). Depend if you want to be precise or to be more... poetic.
jan aleksan:kiseme? or kisvole? (kiseme can mean that he actually kiss).Well despite having asserted above my belief that -eme can very much imply an unfulfilled desire, I have to admit that kisvole, unlike kiseme, leaves no doubt about the unaccomplishedness(*) of the kiss.
Thank you, Jan Aleksan, for suggesting it.
(*) Not sure I can get away with this word.