On Friday evening one of my English teaching colleagues picked me up at Itsukaichi station and drove up the hill to her clients at the Inokuchidai MASHU hair and beauty salon. The idea was to give her students a one-off 60 minute English conversation session with a native English speaker, [Read more…]
The day after Saint Brigid’s Day is Candlemas, which is the day on which all the candles which will be used in the ceremonies of the church for the next year are blessed, and at the same time it is the commemoration of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, forty [Read more…]
The first of February is Saint Brigid’s day, or Imbolc, the Gaelic festival of the beginning of spring, sacred to the goddess Brigit, many of whose attributes were later attributed to Saint Brigid of Kildare. One of her attributes is that she can turn water into beer, presumably without going through [Read more…]
Continuing to look at Statius’ description of human generation in the 25th Canto of Purgatory, it is interesting to note that A. S. Kline translates “anima” as “spirit” rather than “soul.” Either word can be defended as a translation choice. What is being described by Stazio is the “ensoulment” of [Read more…]
Yesterday I looked at how Clive James translated Statius’ account of “perfect blood” in Purgatory 25. Today I will look at a few more lines of the passage, concluding with line 66, perché da lui non vide organo assunto. Dante, Purgatorio 25, 66. Yesterday we left off in the middle [Read more…]
In yesterday’s blog post I wrote about Clive James translation of Dante’s Purgatory, Canto 25, lines 37-66. I contended that if you knew nothing about Galen’s medical theories then much of Clive James’ translation of Statius’ account of human generation would be incomprehensible. In contrast, A. S. Kline’s prose translation [Read more…]
On Wednesday evening I was reading Clive James’ translation of the 25th Canto of Dante’s Purgatory with my private student Dr. M and was struck by the curious convolutions of the passage on the generation of the human soul. To put it in its context, Virgil is leading Dante through [Read more…]
Here’s a review of a game of chess I played against my regular chess partner, Dr M, at the conclusion of his private English class on Wednesday evening. I was White and opened with d.4, moving my Queen’s pawn forward two spaces. The opening moves led us into the Marshall [Read more…]
One of my “teaching gigs” is at Hiroshima College of Foreign Languages, HCFL or “Gaigo” for short. “Gaigo” or 「外語」 is the abbreviation of the Japanese name, 広島外語専門学校, Hiroshima Gaigo Senmon Gakko. A “senmon gakko” is a vocational college and the courses last for two years as opposed to three [Read more…]
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