On Fri, 30 Nov 2001 11:42:38 +0100, Martin J. Walker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Actually, Erminia, it was my mistake, and you've taught me an English word:
>I thought you had misspelt "rifle", whereas you meant what you wrote (this
>time) ~ riffle, a ripple, produced by a gust of wind, usually referring to
>water but what the hell. Ripple I would have recognized, riffle I didn't.
Here's to your work on Fortini. As for English men...Men
>everywhere...Women, come to that...Or
>dictionaries. Take 'em or leave 'em, he said shuffling back into his cave.
>Best, Martin
I am soooooo pleased to hear that, Martin. You see? I did well spending my
years on dictionaries and this is what they are for (for a foreigner like
me who had to translate many English poets...), if you do not have a living
community speaking the language you want to acquire (in my case, English).
Also, you solicit in me a memory: when I was a child, whenever I would say
something slightly incorrect, my mother , who was obsessed with
dictionaries, would chase me around the hose holding in her hands like a
prayer book the open dictionary at the page where the evidence of my error
was displaced. I would then run across the rooms finally locking myself in
the parlour but she, who would give up her role as a teacher at home -
would make her voice penetrate in my ear through the thin opening on the
key hole, keeping reading the correct definition of my wrong usage.
(I suffer from idealization of my maternal figure, you see, and whatever I
do, probably I do to imitate what she used to do....)
Ciao then, Erminia
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