Tuesday, November 20, 2007

quote

"kazhdyj pishet chto on slyshet
kazhdyj slyshet kak on dyshet
kak on dyshet tak i pishet
..."
B. Okudzhava

"everyone writes what they hear
everyone hears the sound of their own breathing
how you breathe is how you write..."

(with apologies for the bad translation: i can't get it to be as elegant as the original Russian. this is from a song that i have known and loved and sung for close to thirty years; incredibly enough, i seem to never have picked up on the actual meaning of the words.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Things look different when looked at in a different light. Or with another filter. Our power of observation is a matter of ...what did you call it? A strengthening of ability? No, that is not quite it - help me. Thank you for the magic of this quote. I can see where the rhyme accentuates the grace of it in the original, but the thought is graceful enough to be beautiful even when wearing English.
xxx, Sam

Anonymous said...

hoeveel talen beheers jij eigenlijk?

Véronique said...

het hangt er vanaf wat je bedoelt met 'beheersen'. mijn geschreven nederlands, bijvoorbeeld, is waardeloos, maar ik spreek het wel vloeiend. en mijn geschreven Russisch, die bestaat niet eens. dus min of meer 4.

Anonymous said...

is dat kreeft-eiegn om de lat hoog te leggen??
Min of meer 4 vind ik bijzonder :)

Anonymous said...

ik schrijf zelfs eigen verkeerd