Sorry seems to be the hardest word (to translate)

I decided that as I have a lot of DVDs that have both English and German soundtracks I'd watch a couple in German, just for the practice. I am after all rather rusty and what could be a better way to brush up than watch, say, a couple of episodes of Stargate in German? Because I'm so rusty I decided that I'd also put on the subtitles. After all reading the words would overcome any difficulties in identifying the spoken dialogue AND give me some additional practice.

The first oddity was that the episode entitled "A Hundred Days" in English had mysteriously become "O'Neill und Laira" (O'Neill and Laira). It didn't take long for me to realise that watching AND reading in German was worse than useless as they appeared to be two entirely different translations.
Take this short exchange.

First, English.

O'Neill: Please. Don't suck the fun out of this.
Carter: Sorry, sir.

Pretty straightforward, isn't it.

Here's the German as in the subtitles.

O'Neill: Bitte! Das verdirbt uns den Spass.
Carter: Tut mir Leid, Sir.

That's fairly close meaning, in back translation,

O'Neill: Please! That spoils the fun for us.
Carter: I'm sorry, Sir.

On the other hand the translation on the soundtrack was the completely different. Although it doesn't make much sense it sounds as if it's

O'Neill: Wir waren noch jetzt nicht da von Anfang.
Carter: Enshuldigung, Sir.

Or, in English (something like)

O'Neill: We weren't still there from the beginning.
Carter: Pardon me, Sir.

Five minutes later I gave up on the subtitles. None of them bore any resemblance to the spoken dialogue and my head had started to ache trying to reconcile the two.

Buxom?

Quote from episode one of a new series, Railway Walks, exploring some of the disused tracks around the UK.

"Once upon a time this route was filled with buxom busy express trains."

Buxom?

Alices In Wonderland: Part 33

For those who grew up listening to seventies progressive rock bands there were two absolute giants of album cover art - Roger Dean and Rodney Matthews. Dean was responsible for all those paintings that graced albums by Yes, Matthews did work for Barclay James Harvest, Magnum and Asia among others. Of the two I always preferred Matthews so when I saw that there was an edition of Alice by him I had to get it - and it's wonderful, full of detailed double page spreads like the one shown above.

Technically I think this may actually be an illustration of the Kingdom Hearts game rather than the book but it does fit nicely in at this point of the story.

When Alice goes through the door she finds herself at last in the beautiful garden.

Autobiography

Following on from the previous poem in this autobiographical sequence, this one is about that swing in the secret, forgotten part of the neighbour's garden. I wrote it quite a long time ago and am pleased to say that I see no pressing need to edit it now.


The Child on the Swing

Eyes closed, backward, forward,
backward ,forward
Sun warmed face and hands
Hypnotic rhythm

Traffic noises turn to surf
Breaking on golden sand
Mother's washing machine
A circling aircraft

Creaking chains, the crack
Of salt stained timbers,
As quicksilver waves
Propel the boat shorewards,

Towards the land,
Where it beaches,
And he wakes,
And rubs his eyes,
And runs indoors
For lemonade.