[SlovLit] vec o tigru

[Tom Lozar]

Upam, da je anglescina dovoljena v nasem forumu. I'm grateful for Matjaz
Babic's interpretation of the original. Slovenscina ni moje podrocje. I did
try several variations of the title. English articles are things of such
beauty and complexity, however, that all their glory cannot fit into
e-mails.  Take this scene, for instance.  You have a cat, whose name is
Benjamin.  It is a very definite cat, but you cannot find it in the
apartment, and you and a child are playfully looking for Benjamin.  At a
certain point, you see just a tail go by.  You turn to the child and say,
"There was a cat here just a moment ago."  The cat is very definite, it is
Benjamin, but it is being addressed momentarily as an anonymous cat. To call
it "the cat" would, indeed, be impolite or unfriendly. Strnisa's poem is a
"child's poem" the way Gulliver's Travels is a child's book. In other words,
"a" can be "the," depending on the voicing.  To put this differently again,
when I try "The tiger was here," it doesn't work rhythmically. Besides, one
of the words--which one?--would have to be italicized. Kot ze receno nekje,
pesem je tako lepa, da ne bom nikoli zadovoljen s prevodom. Pri naslednjem
poskusu, bom se enkrat premislil o nasvetu g. Babica. Lep pozdrav, Tom Lozar