poacher with violin to hoganscout and all available readers: Sorry, dear sirs, please forgive me for falling asleep right in the middle of conversation. I am not so young anymore. Well. Concerning the modern words. Lucifer, as played by Mr. Mortensen, is a troll. Elegant, sophisticated troll. All of them are trolls and proper bastards, those Angels in the movie. I recon, the angels from "Supernatural" are what they are because the makers got knocked on the head by "The Prophecy" in their early twenties. With Christopher Walken as a lead. The movie at that point had almost produced a fandom, it is logical to consider "Supernatural" as one of its spin-offs.
Anyway... both Angels and Lucifer in there are showing off like Hell with their differences from the Mortals. Not only that. They wrongly consider mortals in their essence as evil, greedy and double-faced creatures, and mirror precisely that with irony and grotesque. Yes, they speak dirty, not eat but devour, kill left and right. But look funny because of that fundamental mistake. They look funny, but strangely vulnerable and somehow... beautiful.
Anyway... the first movie is beautiful, watch just that one, no need to continue, there is a risk to spoil the impression.
hoganscout (with facepalm) : thank you for this thorough explanation! One ought to listen to his pals and do what they say...
Reader 5: At first I started to wonder about strange behavior of Sharpe. Than came back to square one, checking time and place of proceedings. Called myself an idiot and started again, with new eyes.
Those eyes have witnessed a strange story of a man, who had a visitation from the high Power. The Power came to claim his soul - and could not. Than the Power tried to grasp exactly - why? - and failed. Why indeed this moron, talking monkey, cannot be taken?
Clear-cut phrases and typical soldier talk together with scene setting talk about decay. Can one recognize Richard Sharpe there - very young and wild and not yet committed to the Army? I could not also answer the Demon's question "WHY". I can see directness, honesty and recklessness of more mature Sharpe, though not very clear. That is correct. He is just a step ahead from his orphan years and killing of two men. One is left to wait and hope that his soul will gradually turn from graphite to diamond.
I would say, this story is not trivial and clear-cut, but it leaves the reader with strong aftertaste. It gets to you and catches you. It is well translated, tough I also found you translation of a "bastard" a bit off.
hoganscout: Thank you! Translator indeed plans to go through the text again before publishing it on AO3. And check all those words again, including "bastard". But here is a little problem. For a modern Russian speaker, the word "bastard" sounds softer, than when we hear it from an officer from the ranks, who did not know his father until this Power of the high order have told him a thing or two. Here the word is used in its early, offensive sense "unlegitimate kid, born out of wedlock". It could cause even punch in the face. Translator was looking for a Russian equivalent, that might provoke such a punch turning quarrel on a dark street into a fight. But he intends to check it one more time. Thank you once again!
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Date: 2015-03-28 08:30 pm (UTC)Sorry, dear sirs, please forgive me for falling asleep right in the middle of conversation. I am not so young anymore. Well. Concerning the modern words. Lucifer, as played by Mr. Mortensen, is a troll. Elegant, sophisticated troll. All of them are trolls and proper bastards, those Angels in the movie. I recon, the angels from "Supernatural" are what they are because the makers got knocked on the head by "The Prophecy" in their early twenties. With Christopher Walken as a lead. The movie at that point had almost produced a fandom, it is logical to consider "Supernatural" as one of its spin-offs.
Anyway... both Angels and Lucifer in there are showing off like Hell with their differences from the Mortals. Not only that. They wrongly consider mortals in their essence as evil, greedy and double-faced creatures, and mirror precisely that with irony and grotesque. Yes, they speak dirty, not eat but devour, kill left and right. But look funny because of that fundamental mistake. They look funny, but strangely vulnerable and somehow... beautiful.
Anyway... the first movie is beautiful, watch just that one, no need to continue, there is a risk to spoil the impression.
hoganscout (with facepalm) :
thank you for this thorough explanation! One ought to listen to his pals and do what they say...
Reader 5:
At first I started to wonder about strange behavior of Sharpe. Than came back to square one, checking time and place of proceedings. Called myself an idiot and started again, with new eyes.
Those eyes have witnessed a strange story of a man, who had a visitation from the high Power. The Power came to claim his soul - and could not. Than the Power tried to grasp exactly - why? - and failed. Why indeed this moron, talking monkey, cannot be taken?
Clear-cut phrases and typical soldier talk together with scene setting talk about decay. Can one recognize Richard Sharpe there - very young and wild and not yet committed to the Army? I could not also answer the Demon's question "WHY". I can see directness, honesty and recklessness of more mature Sharpe, though not very clear. That is correct. He is just a step ahead from his orphan years and killing of two men. One is left to wait and hope that his soul will gradually turn from graphite to diamond.
I would say, this story is not trivial and clear-cut, but it leaves the reader with strong aftertaste. It gets to you and catches you. It is well translated, tough I also found you translation of a "bastard" a bit off.
hoganscout:
Thank you! Translator indeed plans to go through the text again before publishing it on AO3. And check all those words again, including "bastard". But here is a little problem. For a modern Russian speaker, the word "bastard" sounds softer, than when we hear it from an officer from the ranks, who did not know his father until this Power of the high order have told him a thing or two. Here the word is used in its early, offensive sense "unlegitimate kid, born out of wedlock". It could cause even punch in the face. Translator was looking for a Russian equivalent, that might provoke such a punch turning quarrel on a dark street into a fight. But he intends to check it one more time. Thank you once again!