Translate into Romanian; comment i on the underlined items from a lexicologist’s point of view:
IN THE LAST YEARS of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the· London coffeehouses one rangy, gangling flitch (1) called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor (2) over, and so rather than applying himself to the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang (3) with jarring rhymes, and stringtaut with similes stretched to the snapping-point. As poet, this Ebenezer was not better nor worse than his fellows, none of whom left behind him anything nobler than his own posterity; but four things marked him off from them. The first was his appearance: pale-haired and pale-eyed, raw-boned and gaunt-cheeked, he stood - nay, angled (4) - nineteen hands high. His clothes were good stuff, well-tailored, but they hung on his frame like luffed sails on long spars. Heron of a man, lean-limbed and long-billed, he walked and sat with loose-jointed (5) poise; his every stance was angular surprise, his each gesture half flail. Moreover there was a discomposure about his face, as though his features got on ill together: heron's beak, wolf-hound's forehead, pointed chin, lantern jaw, wash-blue eyes, and bony blond brows had minds of their own, went their own ways, and took up odd postures, which often as not had no relation to what one took as his mood of the moment. And these configurations were short-lived, for like restless mallards the features of his face no sooner were settled than ha! they'd be flushed, and hi! how they'd flutter, and no man could say what lay behind them. The second was his age: whereas most of his accomplices were scarce turned twenty, Ebenezer at the time of this chapter was more nearly thirty, yet not a whit (6) more wise than they, and with six or seven years' less excuse. The third was his origin: Ebenezer was born American, though he'd not seen his birthplace since earliest childhood. His father, Andrew Cooke 2nd, of the Parish of St. Giles in the Fields, County of Middlesex - a red-faced, white-chopped, stout-
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În ultimii ani ai secolului al XVII-lea se găsea printre prăpăstiții și neghiobii cafenelelor din Londra unul dintr-o bucată, sprinten și agitat (1), numit Ebenezer Cooke, mai ambițios decât talentat, dar mai talentat decât prudent, ai cărui prieteni, toți care trebuiau să fie educați la Oxford sau Cambridge, au găsit sunetul mamei engleze mai distractiv de manipulat decât să munceascp din greu cu sensul ei (2), și așa, mai degrabă decât să treacă prin chinurile unei burse , a învățat trucul versificației, și umplea testele de hârtie cu distihuri după cum era moda vremii, încântat de Zeus și Jupiter, antrenat de rime vibrante și încordat cu comparații întinse până când aproape plesneau. Ca poet, acest Ebenezer nu era mai bun și nici mai rău față de semenii săi, dintre care nici unul nu a lăsat în urma lui ceva mai prețios decât proprii urmași; dar patru lucruri îl deosebeau de ei. Primul lucru era înfățișarea lui: cu părul blond și cu ochi goi, costeliv și cu obraji scofâlciți, stătea în picioare, înclinat (4) - înalt de nouăzeci de palme. Hainele lui erau din acelea bune, bine croite, dar atârnau pe el ca niște pânze lungi fluturând în vantul oceanului, atârnate de catarg. Un om ca un cocostârc, cu membre subțiri și cioc lung, avea o postură mladioasă când mergea sau se aseza; fiecare poziție de -a lui era o surpriză stângace, fiecare gest era pe jumătate un zbucium. Mai mult decât atât, se citea disconfort p e chipul lui, ca și când trăsăturile sale nu se potriveau una cu alta: ciocul de cocostârc, fruntea ca de lup, bărbia ascuțită, falca lăsată, ochii de un albastru spălăcit ș i sprâncenele blonde și osoase aveau gânduri de-ale lor, și au preluat poziții ciudate, care adesea nu aveau nici o legătură cu ceea ce simțea la momentul respectiv . Și aceste configurații erau de scurtă durată, căci, ca niște rațe sălbatice neobosite, nici nu i se așezau bine trăsăturile feței că ha! și dispăreau și hi! își luau zborul și nimeni nu putea să spună ce rămânea în urmă. Al doilea factor era vârsta lui: pe când marea majoritate a complicilor săi abia făcuseră și ei 20 de ani, Ebenezer la acea vreme din capitolul său era mai spre 30 de ani, și totuși, nu cu mult mai înțelept decât ei, cu tot cu scuza diferenței de 6-7 ani. Al treilea era ori ginea lui: Ebenezer se născuse american, deși nu-și văzuse locul nașterii din cele mai timpurii vremuri ale copilăriei sale. Tatăl lui,
winded (7) old lecher (8) with flinty eye and withered arm - had spent his youth in Maryland as agent for an English manufacturer, as had his father before him, and having a sharp eye for goods (9) and a sharper for men, had added to the Cooke estate by the time he was thirty some one thousand acres of good wood and arable land on the Choptank River. The point on which this land lay he called Cooke's Point, and the small manor-house he built there, Malden. He married late in life and conceived twin children, Ebenezer and his sister Anna, whose mother (as if such an inordinate casting had cracked the mold) died bearing them. When the twins were but four Andrew returned to England, leaving Malden in the hands of an overseer, and thenceforth employed himself as a merchant, sending his own factors (10) to the plantations. His affairs prospered, and the children were well provided for. The fourth thing that distinguished Ebenezer from his coffee-house associates was his manner: though not one of them was blessed (11) with more talent than he needed, all of Ebenezer's friends put on great airs when together, declaiming their verses, denigrating (12) all the well-known poets of their time (and any members of their own circle who happened to be not on hand), boasting of their amorous conquests and their prospects for imminent success, and otherwise behaving in a manner such that, had not every other table in the coffee-house sported a like ring of coxcombs (13), they'd have made great nuisances of themselves. But Ebenezer himself, though his appearance rendered inconspicuousness out of the question, was bent to taciturnity. He was even chilly. Except for infrequent bursts of garrulity (14) he rarely joined in the talk, but seemed content for the most part simply to watch the other birds preen their feathers. Some took this withdrawal as a sign of his contempt, and so were either intimidated or angered by it, according to the degree of their own self-confidence. Others took it for modesty; others for shyness; others for artistic or philosophical detachment. Had it been in fact symptom of any one of these, there would be no tale (15) to tell; in truth, however, this manner of our poet's grew out of something much more complicated, which warrants recounting his childhood, his adventures, and his ultimate demise. (John Barth - The SotWeed Factor )
Andrew Cooke al 2lea, al parohiei Sfântului Giles in the Fields, comitatul Middlesex - un libidinos bătrân, cu fața roșie, ochi pătrunzători și mâini bătute de vreme – și-a petrecut o mare parte din tiner ețe în Maryland pe post de intermediar pentru un meșter englez, la fel ca și tatăl lui, și având un ochi antrenat pentru bunuri și unul mai ascuțit pentru bărbați, a adăugat terenului Cooke până a făcut 30 de ani în jur de 1000 de hectare de lemn bun și pământ arabil pe râul Choptank. Punctul în care se afla terenul ăsta l-a numit Punctul Cooke, iar micul conac pe care l-a construit acolo, Malden. Mai încolo în viață s -a măritat și a conceput 2 copii, Ebenezer și sora lui, Anna, a căror mamă (de parcă o asemenea lovitură exagerată stricase tiparul) muris e la naștere. Când gemenii aveau 4 ani Andrew s-a întors în Anglia, lăsând Malden pe mâinile unui supraveghetor, și așadar a devenit negustor, trimițându -și proprii mijlocitori pe plantații. Afacerile lui au avut succes și copiii lui au fost îngrijiți cum trebuie. Al patrulea factor care îl deosebea pe Ebenzer de asociații lui din cafenele era felul lui de a fi: deși niciunul dintre ei nu fusese binecuvântat cu mai mult talent decât avea nevoie, toți prietenii lui Ebenezer își dădeau mari aere când erau înpreună, își recitau versurile, denigrând toți marii poeți ai acelor vremuri (și orice alt membru din propriul cerc dacă se întampla să nu fie de față), se lăudau cu cuceririle lor amoroase și perspectivele succesului lor inevitabil, și, de altfel, se com portau în așa fel încât ar fi fost foarte enervanți dacă nu ar fi fost la fiecare masă din cafenea câte un grup de prăpăstiți ca ei. Dar, deși înfățișarea lui Ebenezer făcea imposibil să treacă neobservat, el era mai taciturn. Era chiar oarecum rece. Pe lângă rarele momente în care avea chef de vorbă și se alătura discuției, părea mulțumit să se uite pur și simplu la păsări cum își ciuculeau penele. Pentru unii această retragere era un semn de disperț, și fie îi intimida, fie îi enerva, în funcție de cât de mare era încrederea în sine. Alții o considerau modestie; alții timiditate; alții drept detașare artistică sau filozofică. Însă n-ar mai fi existat vreun semn al celor de mai sus. Totuși, felul acesta de a fi al poetului rezulta din ceva mult mai complicat, care justifică relatările despre copilăria lui, despre aventurile lui, și în final, despre decesul lui.
i The commentary should be
written in English.
Please, read your lectures first, do not try to replace necessary work by copying entries you may find in any dictionary (on or off the internet); apart from what the word/phrase means, there is a wealth of information that you can come up with/infer/derive if you apply your newly acquired knowledge. This is what should transpire from your commentary. Don’t borrow from your colleagues’ work, I can easily spot any such transgression and reward it accordingly (: Example of commentary: White-chopped – compound lexeme; [Adjective][Noun]+ ed ; convert (from Participle into Adjective); homonymous with the noun chop from a chop of meat (originating from the verb to chop ‘to cut’), but in fact a variant of chap ‘jaw’, a noun of unknown origin (no relation with the verb to chap ‘to split, crack’, like in chapped lips); used mainly in reference to beasts (like in the grizzled chops of the big bad wolf ); which means that it is used
metaphorically when employed in reference to men (as is the case here, in this text), to imply t hat Ebenezer’s father was vulgar and coarse; has produced the compound chap-fallen ‘dispirited, dejected’, used metaphorically (‘somebody whose jaw has dropped with dismay’, ‘long -faced’).
1. Flitch- simple lexeme; Noun; homonymous with side of bacon ; in the text, it is used metaphorically to imply that Ebenezer is just a piece of meat, with nothing special about him, at least at the first sight 2. Labor – simple lexeme; Verb; convert (from the Noun labor ) ; homonymous with work ; in the text it is used as phrasal verb: labor over , with the meaning to work hard on someone or something . 3. Aclang- compound lexeme;Adjective; a + clang ; used with the sense of clanging , coming from the verb to clang which means to make or cause to make a loud resounding noise, as metal when struck , 4. Angled – simple lexeme; Adjective converted from Participle; with the meaning to aim, turn, or position something in a direction that is not horizontal or vertical ; in the text, used with the meaning bent , implying that even when he didn’t stay straight, Ebenezer was still very tall 5. Loose-jointed - compound lexeme; Adjective formed of Adjective+Adjective converted from Participle (ed ); in the text , it is used with the meaning limber , to describe Ebenezer ’s posture, comparing it to a heron’s one 6. Not a whit – idiom, complex lexeme; made up of not+a+whit; Whit - simple lexeme, Noun; the idiom’s meaning is not at least a bit; 7. Stout-winded – compound lexeme; Adjective formed of Adjective+Adjective+ ed 8. Lecher – simple lexeme; Noun; synonym with progligate, meaning a men a person who has a large or disgusting interest in sexual activity 9. Goods – simple lexeme; Noun; plural from good; in the texts used with the meaning merchandise 10. Factors – simple lexeme; Noun; plural from factor;homonymous with factor (a circumstance, fact, or influence that contributes to a result or outcome); in the text, used with the meaning agent, a person who acts or transacts business for another 11. Blessed – simple lexem; Adjective converted from the Participle of the Verb bless; in this case, is means
favored
12. Denigating – simple lexeme; Present Participle of the Verb to denigrate; its meaning is to defame 13. Coxcombs – compound lexeme; Noun; plural from coxcomb; in the text it is used in reference to the men in the coffeehouses, describing them as vain, conceited people; dandy 14. Garrulity – simple lexeme; Noun; synonym with talkativeness, loquaciousness; 15. Tale - simple lexeme; Noun; its meaning is story, meaning the narrative of real or imaginary events
