All Questions

I was reading Translator’s Note: Three Poems by Ko Un from the Poetry Foundation and came across this excerpt: We translated “명사도 동사도 다” (“all nouns and verbs”) as “all words,” which sounds less ...

Daniel’s question a few days ago - about the 1960s kids’ book with “invisible dust” - got me thinking. I remember the grammar school book-buying program Daniel mentions - I think that may have ...

For example, in Les Miserables (my english translation) the first lines read: In 1815, M. Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of D—— He was an old man of about seventy-five years of age; he ...

One of Ko Un's very short poems, translated by Brother Anthony of Taizé and available on the Brief Poems blog, goes as follows: Some say they can recall a thousand years Some say they have already ...

I recall a story, written in English, about a British or American WW1 or WW2 soldier who has to cross enemy lines to deliver a message which he was not to read. In the rain and mud, fearing the ink ...

I recently read in an excellent verbose answer that the existence of the Ur-Hamlet, on which Shakespeare's Hamlet is presumed to have been based, is known from a throwaway line of Thomas Lodge, ...

In comments below the question What style are Kafka's novels?, Peter Shor said, Kafka has been characterized as "magical realism". On the other hand, there are lots of people who disagree ...

Google has not helped me figure this out. This is from the first or second page of the book (I'm not sure exactly since my electronic copy of the book doesn't seem to have page numbers): I saw very ...

I read this story a long time ago in one of our class readings. It keeps coming back to my mind but none of my Internet searches return a story except for news articles. The story goes like this: A ...

Sorry if this is off-topic. When I was a child (around 10 so early 90's), my grandparents gave me a book about the history of Santa Clause/Saint Nicholas/other alternate names. What I recall about the ...

I am trying to find the English name of the memoirs by Leo Tostoy titled Without love, It's easier to live (original Russian title Без любви жить легче). I could not find any mention of it neither in ...

I first read C. S. Forester’s Beat to Quarters as a teenager in the mid-1970s. I remember it as having been included in a Readers’ Digest Condensed Book, but the Wikipedia listing of these books ...

A Guardian article from summer 2020, "The Covid novels are arriving. And they'll be a warning to future generations" by Laura Spinney, includes some discussion of the (apparently minimal) ...

I was enjoying a song "Butterflies" by Kacey Musgraves and in the lyrics there is "Stealing my heart 'stead of stealing my crown". What does "steal my crown" mean? I am ...

In the 1960s, my grammar school (grades 1-8) encouraged us to buy cheap kids books; they had lists and we checked off what we wanted and paid for them. They were cheap; these were not new releases, ...

I would like to know what "an appeal, a right violated and invoked" means in the following sentences: I stood. ‘I need to go,’ I said, knowing it was true. Your face, your limbs – it was as ...

I would like to know what "I’d lost you" means in the following sentences: We walked back to the veranda, and I couldn’t look at you, only at the ground, not sure what had just happened. I ...

I would like to know what "the same faces" means in the following sentences: That afternoon Hania said she was preparing a surprise for us; after lunch she and Agata went out with two empty ...

Yesterday, EJoshuaS - Reinstate Monica asked Is Jonathan Culler saying that literary theory is effectively the same subject as cultural studies? The question was based on the second edition of Culler'...

I would like to know what "the gigantic gates and lines of soldiers that protected the castle that was the Soviet embassy" means in the following sentences: We whizzed off, speeding ...

I would like to know what "And it won’t be weird with Hania? Coming on to you?" means in the following sentences: You stopped and looked at me with a consolatory smile. ‘Don’t worry, this ...

I would like to know what "You look a little … something." means in the following sentences: You and Maksio reached her just as the song came to an end, a storm of cheers and ...

I would like to know what "I wished it could be us out there." means in the following sentences: ‘Goodness,’ sighed Karolina, rolling her eyes, ‘doesn’t he tell you anything? Maksio and ...

I would like to know what "At once a string of quick, light beats prepared the room, gathered our attention, ecstatic, simple and single-minded." means in the following sentences: And then ...

I would like to know what "I pressed her against me" means in the following sentences: We had another drink and had just started to move to the music when an arm snaked itself around my ...

I tried to google it, I searched in libraries and can't find it. But 15 years ago I read a poem by Charles Bukowski where he describes how every morning he wakes up and tries to be a poet/writer. Any ...

One of the interesting features of Richard Adams's novel Watership Down is his invented language "Lapine" spoken by rabbits in the story. Mostly, of course, the rabbits are shown speaking in ...

Could you give me some examples to explain what is the reason for the significance of the Riverside Miming Theatre for Jake, in Iris Murdoch's novel Under the Net?

I'm trying to understand the difference between Symbolism and Romanticism as literary movements. As I understand it, the symbolists explicitly wanted to distance themselves from the romantics. But if ...

I would like to know what "bottles" means in the following sentences: We followed him through a wood-panelled corridor into a large room filled with smoke and people. Music blasted ...

I would like to know what "I need to check on somebody." means in the following sentences: We followed him through a wood-panelled corridor into a large room filled with smoke and people. ...

I would like to know what "Your arched back defined" means in the following sentences: Afterwards you got up and switched on the radio, sitting on your haunches, turning the tune button. ...

I would like to know what "came through to the corridor with me" means in the following sentences: ‘No, thank you,’ you said, waiting for her to stop. ‘I won’t trouble you for long. Ludwik ...

I would like to know what "pact you’ve made with yourself" means in the following sentences: ‘Did you hear?’ he said with his smoker’s voice, almost immediately after picking up the phone. ‘...

I would like to know what "searching the flats and offices, returning to interrogate the man and the woman and to take down their details" means in the following sentences: There was a ...

I would like to know what "I heard her shoving the brooms up against it, heard running in other parts of the office, and then the sound of her heels on the wooden floor of the corridor." ...

I would like to know what "It made me think that throughout my life, up to this point, everything I’d done had felt either irrelevant or replaceable." means in the following sentences: I ...

I would like to know what "Behind it lay the nuns’ convent, their cloister with its orchards and grazing cows, and new residential blocks towering just above." means in the following ...

I would like to know what "her bike" means in the following sentences: I was very young; Father had just left us and Mother was so distraught I was afraid she’d die from grief. She stayed ...

I would like to know what "tucked in below the ramparts of the faculty grounds" means in the following sentences: During those weeks, you and I would go to the university pool every now and ...

I would like to know what "mind our own business" means in the following sentences: ‘There’s no law against what we’re doing.’ ‘I know that.’ Your voice softened. ‘But we need to act as if ...

I would like to know what "a satisfaction in the forbidden, a challenge" means in the following sentences: I walked home slowly. The air was suffocating. The sky was grey, and sticky wind ...

I would like to know what "a sort of thought-through whisper" means in the following sentences: ‘That’s the right attitude.’ He leaned forward and put his chunky arms on the desk, his ...

I would like to know what "referred from the centre for student accommodation" means in the following sentences: When I arrived in the flat, it seemed smaller to me than before. The kitchen ...

Recently I read a couple of books with either of the following mistakes: Spelling Phrasing Scientific errors in equations Word duplications Other typography errors: formatting, missing colors, etc. ...

After a long climb, she emerged on a wooded hill, above a Greek-style amphitheater. She was surrounded by golden grasses, whose feathery seeds were borne on the wind. Eucalyptus fronds, giving off ...

In chapter 3 of the second edition of Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, we find the following paragraph: Theory has enormously enriched and invigorated the study of literary works, but... ...

I often read that some things are very difficult to translate without losing significant meaning. For instance, many Muslims say that the Koran can be understood only in the original Arabic: ...

In chapter 43 of Anna Sewell's Black Beauty, the lady at the hospital mentions "Mary" several times. It seems like Mary is Jerry's wife: “Well, Barker,” she said, “it would be a great pity ...

In "In the Midst of Alarms" (1894) by Robert Barr, the author is describing a young boy in a Canadian village, who was smoking: Young Hiram’s devotion to the Goddess Nicotine had never ...