Subject
Query: rozy / beryozy
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At the end of ADA, Part I, chapter 38 Van offers his translation of a quatrain"
Lights in the rooms were going out.
Breathed fragrantly the rozy.
We sat together in the shade
Of a wide-branched beryozy
Ada remarks that "birch" (beryorzy) is what leaves the translator in "the lurch" -- referring to Van's inability to find a good English translation for beryozy (birches) that rhymes with "roses." Something is funny since 'the" would have worked as well as "a." (Rozy / beryozy is a hack rhyme in Russian.)
What puzzles me is the indefinite article "a" in the last line. Beryozy is plural, not singlular.
Any ideas what's going on here? A lapse in proof reading?
Also, does any one know whether Konstantin Romanov wrote the quatrain in question?
Lights in the rooms were going out.
Breathed fragrantly the rozy.
We sat together in the shade
Of a wide-branched beryozy
Ada remarks that "birch" (beryorzy) is what leaves the translator in "the lurch" -- referring to Van's inability to find a good English translation for beryozy (birches) that rhymes with "roses." Something is funny since 'the" would have worked as well as "a." (Rozy / beryozy is a hack rhyme in Russian.)
What puzzles me is the indefinite article "a" in the last line. Beryozy is plural, not singlular.
Any ideas what's going on here? A lapse in proof reading?
Also, does any one know whether Konstantin Romanov wrote the quatrain in question?