Knocking out a blog at speed versus knocking a blog out of the ball park seemed to be the chief controversy in TranslatorLand today. So I am timing myself.
Here goes the fifteen-minute flash across the cricket pitch. You see, that mixed metaphor right there (or the confusion as to which sport is being played, at the very least) is worrying. Oh well, the miniscule real estate taken up by my little toenail tells me that this is no problem, and I should just leave it to the reader’s imagination to figure it out.
Here is the thing though: a writer such as Virginia Woolf (who does bear re-reading from time to time), beckons the reader’s imagination to engage with her own many selves – as Orlando, the character in her many-splendoured time-warp of a novel, proves page after page. Randy Crawford manages to vary repeated words in ways that have you wanting to hear “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” over and over. I bet those two women did not simply dash those lines out in a bare-faced Devil-may-care attitude. Neither do I. Neither do those whom I am proud to call my colleagues. Those colleagues who consider themselves perfectionists in the very best senses of that word.
What have Randy Crawford and Virginia Woolf got in common? Quite a lot. They both knew how to pitch their voice, and the value of a well chosen word or two.
Oops. My time is up. If I had more, that comparison could well have led somewhere. Never mind. My esteemed readers do have an imagination. Over to you, then.
©2018 Allison Wright
P.S. I cheated. It took two minutes to locate this photo taken yesterday, and upload it.
[280 words]
That elusive pair of jeans 
Say something here!