January 27, 2004
A Mink Stole? A Toupee?
"Sitting beside the road, watching the wagon mount the hill toward her, Lena thinks, "I have come from Alabama: a fur piece. All the way from Alabama a-walking. A fur piece'."
A Light in August, William Faulkner
Pete and I were sitting on the sofa having cocktails this evening and recalling the events of the day. Somehow we wandered onto Faulkner's Fur Piece, and we giggled about how that phrase must sound to someone who is not a native speaker of English. Some Japanese guy or Hindu lady, sitting there reading "...a fur piece", and thinking, what is this fur piece of which she speaks? Googling "fur piece" perhaps, or even looking in an old-fashioned dictionary. Fur, a pelt or hairlike object. Piece, a part of a whole, an item. A fur-item road? Is the road somehow lined with fur, or is it metaphor? The road was so stressful that the traveler's hair falls out? What?
All night I've had this mental picture of this poor Japanese chick (my Ganguro Girl, actually), sitting on her bed, trying to make heads or tails of the fur-item road. She looks up at me with her big huge Speed-Racer eyes, snifs tearfully, and announces, bosom heaving:
"Engrish is so hard!"
Posted by kelley at January 27, 2004 9:33 PM