Please, somebody, tell me I didn't read that, it was just a bad dream ...

There are only two French phrases or expressions that are still stumping me in my translation of a sonnet written by the Comte de St.-Germain (see old thread for reason why this is somewhat DS-related).

The first term is quite simple and straight-forward:

"mis contre".  "Contre" means "against," but I haven't been able to figure out "mis contre."  If it means something like "up against" that doesn't quite make sense, so I feel it may be an idiomatic expression.  Could it have something to do with comparing one thing with another?

The other phrase still puzzling me are these two words the poet uses in describing himself:

"curieux scrutateur."  According to my reference sources, both of these words are adjectives, the first meaning something like "curious, inquisitive," etc., and the second meaning "searching."  However, a computer-based machine translation gave me "curious teller."  This is quite interesting and would also work with the way the next stanza begins, but a dictionary I consulted gives the meaning "teller" in the specific context of a political poll (maybe something comparable to a bank teller). Obviously that term could be laughably out of place in the context of this poem.

My French is elementary, but I've been able to recognize the form of the verbs, etc., so with the help of a dictionary I have been able to produce a literal translation of the rest of it -- one that I can make sense of.

To transform this literal translation into equivalent poetical language in English, while retaining accuracy, will be another matter altogether.

Thank you if anyone can shed any light on these few remaining French phrases.

-Vlad

Wasn't there a discussion of his nose the last time we all went through 1897?

I don't remember that.

It appears, though, that I'm not the only one who has noticed something very odd about Thayer David's nose in his current role as Petofi.

I suspect the most significant factor in all of this is Nancy Barrett's refusal to EVER play a character one dimensionally.  I don't know if she badgered the writers or ignored them, but she got more out of her roles than seemed to be there in the first place.

Absolutely, Nancy Barrett mined everything she could from these roles and played this scene beautifully -- but the writers also deserve credit for writing the lines that I mentioned, which added depth to the character.

Am I the last person to realize that Petofi's nose is prosthetic?!? I just noticed that on a closeup as I was randomly inserting cassettes into my VCR, not sure which ones where which.

The prosthetic nose works much better in Thayer David's case, IMO, than the much-ballyhoo'd prothesis used by Nicole Kidman in "The Hours" (if I can go by the various clips I've seen of the movie). It obviously changes her appearance, but it certainly doesn't make Ms. Kidman look remotely like the cool, regal/Bohemian genius Virginia Woolf.

And then there's always Michael Jackson's ... If Vanity Fair is to be believed, the guy only has two nostrils and no nose ... 

Quentin to Pansy Faye?

Quentin to Amanda Harris?

Quentin to ... ?

I'm trying to recall what Quentin's room looked like in the 1841 Parallel Time storyline, and I think we see another room to the suite then, to the right of where the roll top desk is now located. I think there's also a secret panel from that room going down to a hidden sepulcher or something.

Thanks for the interesting info on what the exterior of the rectory might have looked like (not how I would picture it at all).

Thanks for the refresher on Petofi's threat; comments on furnishings in Quentin's room, etc. Actually I'm not sure if Luciaphil was referring to furniture in Quentin's room or at the Rectory; I've never heard of Eastlake style.

SheilaMarch was interested in the DS sets and figured out what parts of earlier sets were used, and I think she said that the Rectory interior was mostly made up of Dr. Lang's place. Interesting that CassandraBlair would make such an intuitive connection by bringing up the gothic exterior of Lang's home. That's something of how I would picture the exterior of the Rectory too.

Like CassB., I wondered if Quentin's current room is the one he and Jenny lived in, but I rather think that he returned to his original room, not the rooms he shared with Jenny.

I hope we'll see more of that antechamber to Quentin's room that we saw briefly last week. That was really lovely.

I'm assuming now that the sculptures I mentioned are bronze. I don't know too much about metals, because I would think of bronze as looking somewhat like brass only darker or smokier, but the more I think of it, it seems that bronze is very dark.

Was this ever completed?

I had saved through Chapter 14 and had read to about Chapter 12 ... I would be surprised if the novel had finished two chapters later.