Monday, December 05, 2005

 

"Moo ... Mouse ears! Mouse ears!"

By The Erudite Redneck

It’s the time of year that causes me to turn to classics in everything I consume. Something about winter and Christmas does that to me.

Reading? “A Christmas Carol,” by Dickens.

Drinking? Finer wines than usual. Or a finer ale, like Chimay, which caused Dr. B to question my Okieness. I even get uppity with regular old beer: Make it a Michelob, please.

Eating? Pot roast for supper last night. The classic: beef, potatoes, onions, carrots, brown gravy.

Music? Ah, well. B, prepare to strip me of all pretense of Okieness. Rem, here, take my R.

The past few days to and from work in my truck I’ve been reaquainting myself with the only opera I can tolerate: Tchaikovsky's “Mazeppa.”

The music is great: at turns dark and foreboding, then bombastic with hints of militaristic bravado -- in short, it’s just so RUSSIAN.

Plus, it’s an intriguing story. And it’s a form of mental exercise to try to follow the story just by listening to the music, both instrumental and vocal.

The singing, of course, is in Russian, and I don’t speak or understand Russian.

At one point, Mazeppa himself, I think, starts a segment by singing what sounds to me like: “Moo!” Later, he belts out what sounds like: “Mouse ears! Mouse ears!”

Any of y’all know Russian, please translate. At both junctures my R comes crashin’ headlong into my E. Talk about a buzz buster and a tone violation!

END

Comments:
I ran this by the Russian desk in room 108. They came back with, "The composer, ment in this part of the story for the heroine, Clarabellena to be praise by her suitor, Masapan, in a chorus depicting their liason. Moo Moo is actually Ukranian for slower slower. The mouse ears! mouse ears! is very simple they said there is no corresponding words in Ukranian or Russian into which such a combination of words could be translated, so in the segment where Clarabellena and Mickowski go to the theme park in Paris he has to ask to buy the peculiar headwear in a corrupt form of English.
 
I like "A Christmas Carol", also. I know some Russian words but I don't know those. I don't think. I once considered taking a course in Russian, but as usual, I never got around to it. I also considered taking a course in Gaelic, too, but alas, it too, never came to fruition.

(sigh)
 
A redneck kinfolk of mine told me one time:

"ER, I'm-a thankin' 'bout larnin' a secent language: Cherokee mebbe."

Of course, I, bein' a smart-ass, said, "Don't you think you should get one language down pat first?"

:-)
 
So ER, what does, "I'm your Huckleberry," mean when Doc spouts it off to the bad guy?
 
Paradoxically, I think being able to only stand one opera--and a Russian Romantic at that--might mean you can hang onto your "R" by your fingernails.
 
К сожалению, я пока не говорю по-русски, so I cannot help you, ER...

I am not an opera fan, not even occaisionally, so I am in firm possession of MY "R"...

I do have a set of Mouse Ears that I could loan you, if you need them, however...
 
Drlobo, I figured Doc meant something like "Bring it on," and he did, but I had to look it up to get the etymology of "huckleberry." Damn fine story behind it right here: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~knuthco1/Itemsofinterest1/huckleberrysource.htm
 
Trying again.

Put this together in your browser thingy:
http://www.home.earthlink.net/
~knuthco1/Itemsofinterest1
/huckleberrysource.htm
 
This is curious, E. (Notice I dropped the R.) I've always figured you were more redneck than me, but now I hear you enjoy opera. And fine wine. I think this means I should start drinking Geo. Dickel and chewing tobacco. The whole world is going mad.
 
Wiat a minute. I said I could "tolerate" one opera.

And do you know my "finer wine" ain't Mogan David as opposed to Mad Dog 20/20 ??
:-)
 
Neat site.
I had heard it two ways. One as, he is their man, as in "lackey". The other as, I'm the man who can do it. So I always translated Doc's statement sort of like you did, i. e.,"I'm the man who can take care of you." or maybe even "I'm in".
 
Been away a few days. Been pretty dang cold. I get back only to find that you like opera. Not just opera, but commie opera. Dude . . .
 
It wadn't "commie" opera in the dang 1600s-1700s!
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?