Dearest Members,
I keep getting mail asking me
what I do all day through, how I manage to occupy my time...
[Herdaim mesajlar alıyorum -- bütün gün neler yaparım, vaktimi nasıl
dolduruyorum diye soran...]
With
triffles, my dears, with triffles...
[Entipüften şeylerle,
dostlar, entipüften şeylerle...]
I keep
wondering, for instance --
[Örneğin, merak eder
dururum --]
Why do we
call a person who plays the piano a pianist, but not call a racing person a
racist?
[race
/reys/ = 1. yarış; 2. ırk....
racism /rey-sizm/ =
ırkçılık... racist /rey-sist/
= ırkçı...]
We pronounce 21 as "two-enty-one"... Then, why don't we, for the life of me,
pronounce 11 as "onety-one"?
[for
the life of me = Allah aşkına yav...]
When we are photographing cheese, why don't we say "Say 'humans'"?
[Neden peynir resmi
çekerken, "İnsaan de!" demiyoruz?]
How should we
address a male ladybird? Mr. Ladybird?
[Erkek
hanımböceklerine (uç-uç böceği) nasıl hitap etmeliyiz? "Bay Hanımböceği"
şeklinde mi?]
If a fire-fighter fights fire and a crime fighter fights crime, what does a
freedom fighter fight?
If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
[Madem aşkın gözü kör;
iççamaşırları neden bu derece popüler?]
If they squeeze olives to get olive oil, how do they get baby oil? By
squeezing them only so very gently?
[to
squeeze = ezerek, sıkıştırarak, sağarak veya sıvazlayarak sıkmak...
Peki sözcük çalışmaları sırasında, sözcüğü bu şekilde ezberlemenin pratik
bir değeri var mı? Asıl yapmanız gereken şey, deyim/deyiş ezberlemek:
squeeze a ball inside your palm,
squeeze lemon juice,
hand squeeze (tokalaşma =
"hand shake" çok daha yaygın),
salary squeeze (ücretleri düşürme),
gave her a big squeeze
(sevinç ve sevgiyle kucakladı, bağrına bastı... Ve daha kimbilir
niceleri...]
Now, what
follows is for the connoisseur...
Bu noktadan sonrakiler için çeviri vermeyeceğim; İngilizce'nizi
geliştirmemekle neler kaybettiğinize bir kat daha hayıflanmanız için...
Then I begin to
wonder:
1
Since
people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called
Holes?
And, if they
were, would the Pope in the Vatican kick up a fuss when they are refered to
as "Holey-men" ?!
[Hadi, bu sözcük
oyunları şölenine katılamamanıza kıyamadım yine:
Holy Man = "Kutsal adam" (din
adamı)... "holey-man" =
"delikli" adam!!...
2
Do
infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?
[Hadi, kıyamadım yine:
infant /in-fınt/
= bebek... infancy /in-fınsi/
= bebeklik dönemi... adult /e-dalt/
= erişkin, yetişkin.... adultery
/ı-dal-tıri/ veya /ı-dalt-ri= zina...]
3
Why
is the word "bra" singular, "panties" plural?
My
explanation is that both words must have evolved over the centuries into
their present meaning... "Bra," of course, is short for "brassiere," which
is actually plural, coming from the Latin expression "clothing which is hard to get off in
the dark by the male" !!
Whereas,
"panties" is the feminine equivalent of "pant" (which is singular). Let's
say it comes from the Latin phrase for "a male breathing heavily, as the
female
hasn't got them off yet" !!
[I feel even for the
connoisseur an explanation might be in order here: Just think of the meaning
of "to pant" as a verb...]
might be in order here =
"burada gerekli ve yerinde olabilir" şeklinde çeviriniz...
3
As
dishonest lawyers are disbarred and self-seeking clergymen are defrocked...
wouldn't it
follow that --
[gerekmez mi...
mantıklı değil midir ki...]
electricians
be delighted; musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, portrait artists defaced,
dry cleaners depressed, tree surgeons debarked, wine makers deported, models
deposed, porn stars denuded, and hens are delayed
??!!
and, in a more serious vein,
the double-faced self-seeking politicians
[who draw a 6.3-billion-lira salary
from the State, plus their overt and covert extras -- in a country where the
minimum wage is only 1/20th of this gargantuan amount]
should be defaced & dethroned...
the present immoral and
hypocritical [iki yüzlü,
yalancı] triumvirate
of the rich - the media - the government, and the ensuing Second Dynasty
[ve sonuçta oluşan İkinci Hanedan] be tumbled down...
our pre-1980-coup moral/intellectual milieu
be reincarnated...
the "democratic, secular,
social republican" state be reinstated...
and the lost izbul be
re-found...
and I promise
[if Prof. Whitehorse and Prof.
Bluishblue (master
painters of pink pictures) can, on my budget, make the two ends meet for a single month] to
give them free lessons as long as they need them (possibly for a whole
lifetime) in Scholarly Ethics as well as in English...
Well,
you've asked me, and I've told you... Go have a nice day now, and don't do
anything I wouldn't do... izbul
