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onsdag den 25. januar 2023

Onsdagsord ~~ Words for Wednesday ~~ 25 januar

For snart længe siden skrev jeg en fortsat historie om en underlig test i Transformation på Enhjørningegården. Det var en lang, indviklet fortælling, og jeg blev aldrig rigtig tilfreds med det afsnit af min historie. Dagens ord blev til en lille knast på den lange fortælling.

Ordene til denne spøg kommer i dag for sidste gang fra Sandi, men udgives på Elephant's Childs blog.

Ordene er:
Cyrillic
Rogue
Perish
Paris
Parish
      And/or
A foolish waste of time
Overcome
Reading secret messages
New orders

Her er hvad jeg fik ud af dem - som sædvanlig har jeg taget den ekstra udfordring op, der ligger i at bruge ordene i den rækkefølge, de blev givet:
Kyrillisk
Slyngel
Forgå
Paris
Sogn
      Og/eller
Et tåbeligt spild af tid
Overvind
Læsning af hemmelige meddelelser
Nye ordrer
og et stykke musik: Mission Impossible, som jeg ikke kan stille noget op med - og så må man heldigvis springe over.

     "Susan, kan du læse kyrilliske bogstaver?" Det var My der spurgte. "Du er vores sidste håb. Ledetrådene til vores næste spor er skrevet med kyrilliske bogstaver, og det ser ud til, at Mál sameinast kun virker på talte sprog, og alle bøgerne om fremmede alfabeter er blevet fjernet fra biblioteket, og ..."
      "Ja," sagde Susan, og My kiggede overrasket på hende. "Ja," gentog Susan, "jeg kan læse kyrilliske bogstaver. Jeg lærte mig selv at læse og skrive dem sidste år efter at have set Dr. Zhivago. Jeg forstår ikke meget af det jeg læser, for jeg kan ikke forstå russisk. Men det burde Mál sameinast så kunne hjælpe os med."
      "Du er en skat!" sagde My og rakte hende en seddel med sært udseende bogstaver. Susan brugte en hel del tid på at læse bogstavernes lyde et ad gangen, så læste hun langsomt højt, og fortryllelsen oversatte virkelig hendes tøvende russiske til et nogenlunde forståeligt dansk: "Gå hen til stalden og led efter en slyngel. Gå derefter i retning af fortabt ... nej det ord skal være Paris, nej sognekirken," afbrød Susan sig selv. "Under en stor sten finder du den næste ledetråd."
      "Prøv at læse de første ord en gang til," spurgte My. "Jeg har ikke stor lyst til at lede efter slyngler ude i stalden."
     "Men en slyngel behøver ikke nødvendigvis at være en tyvagtig person, det kan også betyde et ensomt dyr der holdes væk fra flokken, ofte et dyr med et vanskeligt temperament." Det var selvfølgelig den alvidende Hilde, der havde en forklaring parat. "Jeg formoder, at der er en ensom ko eller hest på en afsidesliggende græsmark, som man kan se fra stalden."
      Susan smilede opmuntrende til My. "Af sted med dig, vi skal arbejde på vores egne spor," sagde Susan. "Du ved ikke tilfældigvis noget om pungdyr?"
      "Kun at en kænguru er et pungdyr, og at de kun findes i Australien, men det er indlysende, og det hjælper vel ikke meget." Susan rystede på hovedet, og My takkede hende endnu en gang, inden hun løb væk.
     "Det er tåbeligt spild af tid at gætte den her slags gåder," sagde Kalle. "Jeg ville hellere studere islandsk, eller transformation eller endda krypto-zoologi."
       "Men det gør du jo," protesterede Hilde. "Bare fordi det ikke hedder sådan, og vi ikke har skemalagte timer, men vi studerer skam! Du skal bare overvinde din fordom om, at indlæring altid foregår som i skolen. Vi er på Enhjørningegården. Der kan ske alt muligt her, og det gør der for det meste!"
      "At læse hemmelige beskeder er måske din opfattelse af sjov og læring," sagde Kalle surt. "Men det er ikke min."
      "Men Kalle altså," afbrød Susan, "Vidste du, før My kom ind med det stykke papir, at vores sprogfortryllelse ikke virker på ord, skrevet i et alfabet, du ikke kender? For det er helt nyt for mig. Vi har læst tyske, islandske og finske bøger på biblioteket - jeg har endda læst noget på ungarsk. Så hvis du havde spurgt mig i morges, ville jeg have sagt, at russisk også ville blive "oversat" af Mál sameinast. Men sådan er det ikke!"
     Kalle kiggede på Susan. "Du har ret. Det vidste jeg ikke. Jeg tror, at min hjerne har brug for nye ordrer. Lad os gå en tur for at få renset tankerne."

-- XXX -- XXX -- XXX -- XXX -- XXX -- XXX -- XXX --

Some time ago I wrote a long, meandering chapter of a strange test in Transformation at the Unicorn Farm. Today's Words turned in to a small outcropping on this story. I'm still not happy with it, and it is in need of much revision before making it into my book.
Todays Words coutesy of Sandy, are published on Elephant's Child's blog.
The Words are:
Cyrillic
Rogue
Perish
Paris
Parish
      And/or
A foolish waste of time
Overcome
Reading secret messages
New orders"
And a piece of music: Mission Impossible. I do not know how to use this, I grasp the option of treating it with ignore.

I took up my usual challenge of using the Words in the order they were given:

"Susan, do you read Cyrilic letters?" My asked. "You're our last hope. The clues for our next part is written in cyrilic letters, and it seems the Mál sameinast only works for spoken languages, and all the boks on foreign alphabets have been removed from the library, and ..."
"Yes," Susan said and My looked at her in consternation. "Yes," Susan repeated, "I do read Cyrilic letters. I taught myself last year after having seen Dr. Zhivago. I do not understand much, if any of what I'm reading, because I do not understand any Russian. But Mál sameinast should help with this."
"You're a darling!" My said and handed her a slip of paper with strangely shaped letters on it. Susan spent quite a while sounding the letters one by one, then slowly she read aloud, and the spell really did translate her faltering Russian into halvways understandable Danish: "Go to the stable and look for a rogue. Then go direction of the perish ... no this word should be Paris, no parish," Susan interrupted her reading, "Under a big stone you'll find the next clue."
"Try reading the first words once again," My asked. "I'm not much into searching for rogues."
"But a rogue needs not be a thieving person, it can also mean a lonely animal away from the herd, often of a sourly disposition," Of course Hilde knew this obscure meaning of the word.
Then Susan added: "I suppose there's a lone cow or horse in a secluded pasture that you can see from the stables. Off you go, we have to be working on our own clues," she said. "You do not happen to know anything on marsupials?"
"Only that a kangaroo is a marsupial, and that they only are found in Australia, but this is obvious, and I suppose not much help." Susan nodded and My thanked her once again before she ran off.

"This riddling is a foolish waste of time," Kalle said. I'd rater be studying Icelandic, or transformation, or even crypto-zoology."
"But you are," Hilde protested. "Only it's not called thus, and we do not have set hours, but we do study! Ypu'll just have to overcome your prejudice that learning always happens like in school. We're at Unicorn Farm. Anything might happen, and sometimes do!"
"Reading secret messages might be your idea of fun and learning," Kalle said sourly. "But it's not mine."
"Do tell me," Susan interrupted, " Did you know before My came in with this piece of paper that our language spell do not work on words written in an alphabet you do not know? Because it's totally new to me. We've been reading German, Icelandic, Finnish you name it books from the library - I even read something in Hungarian. If you had asked me this morning, I'd have said that Russian would be 'translated' by Mál sameinast as well. But it's not so!"

Kalle looked at Susan. "You're right. I did not know. I think my brain needs new orders. Let's go for a walk to clear our minds."

7 kommentarer:

  1. Definitely intriguing. It is probably just as well that magic requires that you are least recognise the script. Who knows what you could invoke in a totally foreign language...

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. Hehe, that is a danger, I did not think of, but you're perfectly right. Traps could be easily made like this!

      Slet
  2. This is a very good scene within the longer story and an excellent use of the prompts.

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. Thank you. I've got to get on with the main plotline and not write small outcroppings here or there. But I love to do so!

      Slet
  3. Another good chapter. I think my brain needs 'new orders' too sometimes, it gets stuck in a rut.

    SvarSlet
    Svar
    1. New orders for the brain should be mandatory at regular intervals, I think!

      Slet
  4. I like how you used the prompts. I really like the last comment about 'new order' for one's brain. Sometimes you can solve complicated problems by clearing your head.

    Have a lovely day

    SvarSlet

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