Re: Better than fiction!

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 18:10:47 -0700, "Koolchicki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
<john.kulczycki@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Towse wrote:
Koolchicki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Here's a link as to the complexity of the translation . Rememeber,
Farsi is a language of near poetic phrases used to describe things or
events.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_steele/2006/06/post_155.html

"boring philology" indeed. I loved this bit:

"I won't waste time on him [David Aaronovitch, a columnist on the Times
(of London)] since his knowledge of Farsi is as minimal as that of his
Latin. The poor man thinks the plural of casus belli is casi belli,
unaware that casus is fourth declension with the plural casus (long u)."

Yow!
--
Sal

When you think about a language that is oh about 5000 years old or so,
it really is second nature to the native speaker and its implication
is understood by the native listener. an outsider can get the whole
thing wrong very quickly. Now the written language may be different
yet because it starts at a different time in is more of an
amalgamation because it has to be portable without explaination. So
even writing down the spoken word is open to misconception and
mistake. And then you get a dozen questionably educated US
Presidential candidates using every questionably translated phrase to
make political hay in the US of A while villifying the Iranian

You're making too much of it.

BTW I thought Lee Bollinger conduct was dispicable.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought he handled a difficult
situation with aplomb. There was enormous pressure not to let the
fellow talk -- pressure which I strongly disagreed with, because I've
no respect for people who try to block the speech of others, who think
that freedom of speech is something we accord only to those we agree
with. So Bollinger was in a difficult spot. And at the same time, he
was playing host to a -- I was going to say criminal, but the word
doesn't quite describe the sort of man who supports terrorism: monster
is probably more applicable.

--
Josh

"I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what
everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil." - Alan Greenspan
.