nothing unusual to him, or startling, or stirring...
English translation: given that or compare to, with an ambiguity of meaning, see below
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06:45 Sep 26, 2010
English to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting / literature
English term or phrase:nothing unusual to him, or startling, or stirring...
The whole sentece like this:" She thought that nothing could seem unuausl to him, or startling, or stirring, measured against the fact, the blur, whatever it was--the breathless shock of his being here."
I just wonder the literal lnterpretation.
Thank you!
Explanation: She thought that nothing could seem unusual (to the author, or perhaps also) to him, or startling, or stirring (again both tot the author and/or to him), measured against the fact (the fact which appeared almost as a ) blur, whatever it was (a fact, or a blur) --the breathless shock of his being here."
She is shocked that he is there. She has trouble dealing with his presence, so she calls his prescene a fact or a blur. With this type of fiction the use of illusion and ambiguity is very strong. the text is written so as to attribute the shock, or startling shock, or "stirring" to either him or her or both of them. It is deliberately ambiguous.
Stirring is being used in the sense of "this stirred my soul."
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 5 hrs (2010-09-26 12:36:00 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
this from a dictionary on stir may help:
STIR
transitive verb
1b : to disturb the quiet of : agitate
5a : to rouse to activity : evoke strong feelings in <music that stirs the emotions
b : to call forth (as a memory) : evoke
Now that I’ve read chapters 1 through 7, I’d say that ‘calm’ is exactly the word to describe him. Other adjectives that come to mind are: ‘unperturbed’, ‘placid’, ‘childlike’, ‘timeless’ - - by which I mean he seems to have no conception of history, a bit 'otherworldly' even. They are practically strangers, met under very odd circumstances and now they’re in the bathroom and it seems they’re having sex, which she initiates. But there’s no response or surprise from him. It’s her who experiences a ‘shock’ (breathless no doubt from the love-making) because she realises the strangeness of their situation, whereas he gives no sign that he understands anything.
Here's an earlier section about him, which leads me to say that that we are not talking about usual here: "But when they got there she left him strapped in his seatbelt and locked in the car while she went to the electronics store and supermarket and shoe outlet. She bought him a pair of shoes and some socks. She bought blank tapes for the voice recorder, unavailable in town, and came back to the car with bags of groceries in a gleaming cart and found him sitting in (urine) and (excrement)." I changed the words from the original which are the more vernacular for urine and excrement. Otherwise I will add that this is a difficult novel full of ambiguity and unusual uses of language and allusion.
I have to leave now, but this is not describing a calm person - in the context of the novel. It would be easier for us if the questioner gave us the context, but the context in this case is very easy to find.
What am I missing? 'She thought that nothing could seem unuausl [sic] to him, or startling, or stirring' makes perfect sense to me. And larger context ought to be provided by the asker, no?
that he's just a very very calm or laid-back guy. He's not easily surprised by anything as nothing seems 'unusual' to him. 'Stirring' and 'startling' are simply alternative descriptions for 'unusual'.
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هیچ چیز نمی توانست برایش غیر عادی ، عجیب و یا تکان دهنده به نظر بیاید
Explanation: .
Komeil Zamani Babgohari Iran Local time: 00:18 Works in field Native speaker of: Farsi (Persian), Persian (Farsi)
given that or compare to, with an ambiguity of meaning, see below
Explanation: She thought that nothing could seem unusual (to the author, or perhaps also) to him, or startling, or stirring (again both tot the author and/or to him), measured against the fact (the fact which appeared almost as a ) blur, whatever it was (a fact, or a blur) --the breathless shock of his being here."
She is shocked that he is there. She has trouble dealing with his presence, so she calls his prescene a fact or a blur. With this type of fiction the use of illusion and ambiguity is very strong. the text is written so as to attribute the shock, or startling shock, or "stirring" to either him or her or both of them. It is deliberately ambiguous.
Stirring is being used in the sense of "this stirred my soul."
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 5 hrs (2010-09-26 12:36:00 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
this from a dictionary on stir may help:
STIR
transitive verb
1b : to disturb the quiet of : agitate
5a : to rouse to activity : evoke strong feelings in <music that stirs the emotions
b : to call forth (as a memory) : evoke
Explanation: "startling" - when person is startled, he is frightened, has a mild shock, or simply very agiteted, that results in a jerky involuntary movement; "stirring" - "stirring emotions" - arousing emotions.
Alexandra Taggart Russian Federation Local time: 23:48 Works in field Native speaker of: English, Russian PRO pts in category: 4
The translation workplace 
