Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
drama was not yet of his making
English answer:
it was not yet time for the drama he had set in place
Added to glossary by
Yvonne Gallagher
Aug 18, 2013 11:49
11 yrs ago
1 viewer *
English term
21 books translated
Native in: Russian 
Works in: English to Russian, Russian to English, Spanish to Russian, and 1 more.
drama was not yet of his making
English
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
Доброго времени суток
Avoiding the sun’s reflection on the lenses of his field-glasses, the observer raised himself to inspect more fully the camp across the plain. He felt the dry flesh shrink on his face and the skin burn red on the points of his cheek-bones, under a ragged beard. The water-bottle beside him had been dry since the previous dusk, but he opened it from time to time and sucked at the cooler air of its interior, a substitute for water itself.
Then, stiff and ungainly, he stood up. It mattered nothing if they saw him now. With dawn and daylight, the time for suspicion was past. Twenty yards away, the dappled mare arched her neck and got slowly to her feet from the flattened grass. Everything was in place for the event that must follow, though the ***drama was not yet of his making***. The period of his allotted patrol as a Natal Volunteer was not quite over, but he could move freely until the time came for his withdrawal through the camp itself. He had an hour in hand as he led the mare in an eastern semicircle to the near side of the ravine. There was silence now on all sides. By night, the perimeter guards were alert for a footfall or the brushing of grass. In the safety of daylight, no one below would pay him the least attention.
Does "... the drama was not yet of his making" mean "but he still was not the cause of the drama"?
Thank you.
Avoiding the sun’s reflection on the lenses of his field-glasses, the observer raised himself to inspect more fully the camp across the plain. He felt the dry flesh shrink on his face and the skin burn red on the points of his cheek-bones, under a ragged beard. The water-bottle beside him had been dry since the previous dusk, but he opened it from time to time and sucked at the cooler air of its interior, a substitute for water itself.
Then, stiff and ungainly, he stood up. It mattered nothing if they saw him now. With dawn and daylight, the time for suspicion was past. Twenty yards away, the dappled mare arched her neck and got slowly to her feet from the flattened grass. Everything was in place for the event that must follow, though the ***drama was not yet of his making***. The period of his allotted patrol as a Natal Volunteer was not quite over, but he could move freely until the time came for his withdrawal through the camp itself. He had an hour in hand as he led the mare in an eastern semicircle to the near side of the ravine. There was silence now on all sides. By night, the perimeter guards were alert for a footfall or the brushing of grass. In the safety of daylight, no one below would pay him the least attention.
Does "... the drama was not yet of his making" mean "but he still was not the cause of the drama"?
Thank you.
Change log
Aug 20, 2013 08:50: Yvonne Gallagher Created KOG entry
Responses
+3
13 hrs
Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Ireland
Native in English
&
English
Specializes in field
Ireland
right word, right place. everytime
Native in: English (Variants: Irish, UK, US, Canadian) 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English, and 1 more.
Related KudoZ points
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321
Selected
it was not yet time for the drama he had set in place
well, I quickly scanned the story to find out what happened. The hunter/rider on the pale horse, Moran, was held responsible for the suicide of a woman he had seduced and her husband had him branded with the mark of the beast 666 at an unofficial court martial. (page 28) and he swore revenge
"By God, my turn shall come! I’ll be revenged upon the whole pack of you—you and all your kind!”
so, this attack by the Zulus that is soon (but not "yet") to take place has been orchestrated by him
p. 11 "A retreat by British artillery in the face of the tribes was a reverse, but it was not yet the rout that the hunter had envisaged. "
or p 14
...The colonel handed his field glasses to the young officer beside him and gestured at the hillside.
When they had inflicted their injury upon him, it was the mark of hellfire. Now he gave them back text for text, speaking as Pulleine’s field-glasses swept across the rocky slope once more. The grey mare pricked her ears up at her rider’s voice.
“And I looked, and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death. And Hell followed with him!”
or
p 15
...The hunter’s reconnaissance centred on the wagon-park and the guard tent of Colonel Pulleine. Only a far greater prize would compel a man to explore the rest of the charnel-house the camp had become. In the wagon-park it was not necessary to replace every one of the useless ammunition turn-screws with the originals which he had removed during the previous night. Just enough of those originals must be found there to obscure the criminal cause of the catastrophe for the time being.
Pulleine’s tent was the final scene of the hunter’s revenge. A scattering of glass fragments on the carpet; a smell of gin...
Before mounting his horse, he drew a plain card from his pocket. He wrote five words upon it, as though it had been a carte de visite, and tossed it into the ruined canvas structure. It did not even matter if the words were never found, so long as they had been uttered. The author had set a title to his masterpiece of devastation. Death on a Pale Horse. Let the gods of battle decide whether it should ever be read—and what the world would make of it..."
there is more on him later on esp. when Sherlock Holmes gets involved in the story...
BUT basically, he (Moran/the hunter) has set up the disaster that is about to happen to the army,
"Everything was in place for the event that must follow,"
the "drama" that is soon to happen but not yet...
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 hrs (2013-08-19 09:09:15 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
the construction is unusual as Victoria says. Normally, as Tony has pointed out, it is used as
'it was not of your making', so means you didn't cause it, or it was not your fault.
here the ***drama was not yet of his making" could have been rephrased as I did above or
Here, "the making" of the drama to follow WAS caused by him ( he is the "criminal cause of the catastrophe")
so could have been rephrased as I did above or
the drama of his making that was about to unfold, but not just yet...
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 hrs (2013-08-19 09:10:36 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
sorry, meant to delete third line of 21 hrs note "here the...or"
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 hrs (2013-08-19 09:19:34 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
The other thing to note is that this is written a bit like a detective story (with Sherlock Holmes and Watson involved in solving the mystery later) so you are only getting some clues here and there and will probably have to read the entire story to make sense of it
"By God, my turn shall come! I’ll be revenged upon the whole pack of you—you and all your kind!”
so, this attack by the Zulus that is soon (but not "yet") to take place has been orchestrated by him
p. 11 "A retreat by British artillery in the face of the tribes was a reverse, but it was not yet the rout that the hunter had envisaged. "
or p 14
...The colonel handed his field glasses to the young officer beside him and gestured at the hillside.
When they had inflicted their injury upon him, it was the mark of hellfire. Now he gave them back text for text, speaking as Pulleine’s field-glasses swept across the rocky slope once more. The grey mare pricked her ears up at her rider’s voice.
“And I looked, and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death. And Hell followed with him!”
or
p 15
...The hunter’s reconnaissance centred on the wagon-park and the guard tent of Colonel Pulleine. Only a far greater prize would compel a man to explore the rest of the charnel-house the camp had become. In the wagon-park it was not necessary to replace every one of the useless ammunition turn-screws with the originals which he had removed during the previous night. Just enough of those originals must be found there to obscure the criminal cause of the catastrophe for the time being.
Pulleine’s tent was the final scene of the hunter’s revenge. A scattering of glass fragments on the carpet; a smell of gin...
Before mounting his horse, he drew a plain card from his pocket. He wrote five words upon it, as though it had been a carte de visite, and tossed it into the ruined canvas structure. It did not even matter if the words were never found, so long as they had been uttered. The author had set a title to his masterpiece of devastation. Death on a Pale Horse. Let the gods of battle decide whether it should ever be read—and what the world would make of it..."
there is more on him later on esp. when Sherlock Holmes gets involved in the story...
BUT basically, he (Moran/the hunter) has set up the disaster that is about to happen to the army,
"Everything was in place for the event that must follow,"
the "drama" that is soon to happen but not yet...
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 hrs (2013-08-19 09:09:15 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
the construction is unusual as Victoria says. Normally, as Tony has pointed out, it is used as
'it was not of your making', so means you didn't cause it, or it was not your fault.
here the ***drama was not yet of his making" could have been rephrased as I did above or
Here, "the making" of the drama to follow WAS caused by him ( he is the "criminal cause of the catastrophe")
so could have been rephrased as I did above or
the drama of his making that was about to unfold, but not just yet...
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 hrs (2013-08-19 09:10:36 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
sorry, meant to delete third line of 21 hrs note "here the...or"
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 hrs (2013-08-19 09:19:34 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
The other thing to note is that this is written a bit like a detective story (with Sherlock Holmes and Watson involved in solving the mystery later) so you are only getting some clues here and there and will probably have to read the entire story to make sense of it
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Victoria Britten
: Given the context, though it's an odd construction which I hadn't interpreted this way without the background
4 hrs
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Thanks Victoria, yes, it is an unusual construction...which made me curious to read more!
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| agree |
David Moore (X)
6 hrs
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Thanks David!
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| agree |
Phong Le
6 hrs
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Thanks Phong!
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Many thanks to everyone.
Thank you, gallagy2."
15 mins
English term (edited):
the drama was not yet of his making
at this point, it was not he who would start the drama off
That's the way I understand it; when something is 'not of your making', it means you didn't cause it, or it was not your fault.
The 'yet' there seems odd, but I suppose it means that it might be he who starts it later on, but not just yet...
The 'yet' there seems odd, but I suppose it means that it might be he who starts it later on, but not just yet...
Peer comment(s):
| neutral |
David Moore (X)
: It seems likelier to me that your second take is more on the the right track.
1 hr
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Thanks, David! I'd feel happier if we knew more about the wider context, and what does eventually happen...
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Discussion