When you are reading a book in your native language, but you still need a translation....
Sere reeds...
Salmon and peal from the sea...
Voles...
Alder and sallow grew on its banks...
Musical over many stretches of shillet...
Straying from the wood beyond the mill-leat...
His holt was in the weir-pool...
At dimmity it flew down the right bank of the river...
Seeds of charlock...
A ream passed under the stone bridge...
Where a gin was never tilled and a gun was never fired...
The nightjar returned...
He yikkered in his anger...
His mother, tissing through her teeth...
The pair of cole-tits that had a nest...
Like brown thong-weed...
Hound-taint from a high yelping throat...
A dozen hounds were giving tongue...
Chiffchaffs flitted through honeysuckle bines...
The shock-headed flowers of the yellow goat’s beard...
A grey wagtail skipped airily over the sky-gleams of the brook...
Paler than kingcups...
Her rudder dripping wet behind her...
Here burred the bumblebees...
The grunting vuz-peg...
At dimpsey she heard the blackbirds...
The breaking of rank florets and umbels...
They came to a bog tract where curlew and snipe lived...
Tell me, please, is it just me or are these unfamiliar words to you, too?
For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.
Mmmm, English is not my first language, so... lol ! But there are several of them I can guess, like the bumble-bees burring or her mother tissing :) I read a French novel like that, once, but it was more slang than anything else. And there is also Clockwork orange, I simply gave up after two pages !
ReplyDeleteI know that some of it is just nature-talk, yikkered and burred, and the names of creatures. Still, it's a tricky read.
DeleteI do like reading but if I cannot read it because of a different language I leave it.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it feels like it's in a different language even when it is in English.
DeleteI only recognize one of them - gin. But I guess that is a totally different meaning in this context?
ReplyDeleteI love what you did today and now you have a whole list of future WWWW to entertain us with.
Thanks for taking part and for visiting dear Debbie.
Elza Reads
Gin (apparently) also means a trap. There are some ugly pictures of gins, if you Google it.
DeleteThe bird names and floral references are familiar, the other words not so much. I enjoy running across unknown words in my reading. That's part of the adventure!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Dorothy. It's part of the fun.
DeleteNo it is not just you! Isn't it funny how much language can change even in such a relatively short amount of time? I always enjoy older books but the language can definitely be challenging!
ReplyDeleteIt's challenging, but rewarding.
DeleteIt is beautifully written, but it's a slow read.
ReplyDeleteI knew 22 of them but I have country relatives (dimmity and dimpsey - I use dimpsey still myself to keep it going) and the bird and flower names. I think a lot of them are onomatopoeia rather than actual words, too.
ReplyDeleteIt is beautiful writing, and I am glad that these words are still in use in your part of the world.
DeleteI'm familiar with voles, goat's beard, and curlew. The others are all foreign to me!
ReplyDeleteI'm familiar with a few - a very few. The full list reads a little like a Lewis Carroll poem.
ReplyDeleteTwas bryllyg, and the slythy toves
Did gyre and gymble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves;
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Lynn :D
I’m only familiar with gin, voles, chiff chaffs, snipes, rudder, wagtail and burred! As for the others.......
ReplyDeleteDefinitely unfamiliar.
ReplyDelete