J. H. Prynne

[luka]

"The subject is the 'doer' of the action. For example, take the sentence “We are watching Netflix.” Here, the subject is the pronoun 'we'. Objects are the opposite; instead of doing something (like watching Netflix), they are acted upon."

 

[Benny Bunter]

I started a thread about poetry and translation the other day but it hasn't really gone anywhere yet.

Poetry in translation/reading in other languages

@woops idea, thought I'd start it for him though. Fascinating topic in general Not just a thread to post poems you like, though that's fine, but also to discuss the issues - what translators should be aiming for, good and bad examples, what is lost and what is gained. Apart from English I only...

dissensus.com

 

[Benny Bunter]

I'm so gonna take the book to the park with me now and scour it for Oasis references

 

[sufi]

"The subject is the 'doer' of the action. For example, take the sentence “We are watching Netflix.” Here, the subject is the pronoun 'we'. Objects are the opposite; instead of doing something (like watching Netflix), they are acted upon."

i dunno whether it's passive voice, future perfect participle, imperative intransitive or what, but whenever i hear "get it done" i feel nauseated

 

[woops]

examples

passive voice = it is done
future perfect = i will have done ("done" bring the participle)
imperative intransitive = kill!

i thought i was fussy about this kind of stuff but "get it done" is just like saying "get lost", seems fine to me,

another imperative intransitive is "enjoy!" that one does my head in.

 

[sufi]

examples

passive voice = it is done
future perfect = i will have done ("done" bring the participle)
imperative intransitive = kill!

i thought i was fussy about this kind of stuff but "get it done" is just like saying "get lost", seems fine to me,

another imperative intransitive is "enjoy!" that one does my head in.

it's a borisism,
i'm trying to isolate the particular grammatical form so that i can avoid it or maybe burn it

 

[sufi]

it's a borisism,
i'm trying to isolate the particular grammatical form so that i can avoid it or maybe burn it

i think it depends slightly on whether it's
"Get Brexit done!"
"we will get Brexit done"
or what but i hear the construction creeping into people's vocab and want to avoid it like the accursed plague ridden poxy tory .... sorry don't let's even get started on that

 

[Benny Bunter]

it's a borisism,
i'm trying to isolate the particular grammatical form so that i can avoid it or maybe burn it

It's a type of causative I think, though we usually use it to mean someone else does something for us, like 'get my hair cut'.

I only know this cos I used to teach English and foreigners had a lot of trouble learning it, so I suppose it's a weird English thing.

 

[jenks]

Is it because the object is sitting between two verbs get and done? ‘Get’
working like an auxiliary but in English we can’t really say ‘get done it’ maybe we would just need to ‘do it’

 

[jenks]

Is it because the object is sitting between two verbs get and done? ‘Get’
working like an auxiliary but in English we can’t really say ‘get done it’ maybe we would just need to ‘do it’

And again it seems agentless - who is doing the doing? Is there an implicit subject? Or is it an evasiveness with no definite subject? Who is getting it done?

 

[woops]

Is it because the object is sitting between two verbs get and done? ‘Get’
working like an auxiliary but in English we can’t really say ‘get done it’ maybe we would just need to ‘do it’

the "done" isn't working as a verb though, it's working as an adjective. it's just like "make it so" or "let me in"

 

[Benny Bunter]

I suppose 'Get it done' implies it's something that's arduous or tedious but needs doing eventually, like 'get it out of the way'

 

[Benny Bunter]

imperative intransitive = kill!

i thought i was fussy about this kind of stuff but "get it done" is just like saying "get lost", seems fine to me,

Sort of related, I've noticed quite a lot of these quite violent little monosyllabic imperative commands in Prynne's stuff cropping up.

Just seen now in Land of St Martin "See it carried out as we like no less", in Sub Songs "Now get out." In Refuse Collection "Go on do it" Elsewhere I've seen "Shut up", but there's loads more examples. "Get lost" is probably in there somewhere too. It's definitely a thing of his.

 

[line b]

they mean subject like 'i' 'me' 'the lads'..... i assume

You should ask the translator why he felt he need to assign a subgect then and not just let it be a loose collection of images without any 'I' 'me' 'the lads'

 

[line b]

I was actually tattooing two people from china today, one having studied Chinese like an English major studies English, and he said that was more a stylistic decision than a constraint of the language

 

[woops]

You should ask the translator why he felt he need to assign a subgect then and not just let it be a loose collection of images without any 'I' 'me' 'the lads'

well that's interesting cos if you remove the subject words the phrases start to sound more like imperatives, as happens already in the last two lines.

so one way round that is to make the verbs into nouns (which obviously removes the need for a subject)

like so

on the bridge deliberation of the ancient words
vision of the ancient view at the end of the bridge
the wasteland covered by moss
a heart to heart talk between friends
the taste of good tea in the rainy day
the enjoyment of a sense of inner peace for a long time before heading back

but obviously i don't speak any chinese and i'm not claiming this is a "better" translation

 

[line b]

Thirdform speaks Chinese we should ask him

 

[woops]

Where's Zhao when we need him!??

 

[sus]

Did you know the town I live on is called Stone Lake eh Luka

 

[luka]

You should ask the translator why he felt he need to assign a subgect then and not just let it be a loose collection of images without any 'I' 'me' 'the lads'

The translator explains the decision. It's cos they assume we are too thick to understand it otherwise.