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Mon 4 Feb, 2013 05:13 am
“Tell them thank you, but we’re fine for now,” John told me, when we discussed the frequent food drops.
“You say it,” I grumped. “I can barely talk.”
The frustration culminated in a melt-down. Of course I have them. My mind is untouched by ALS. I get furious sometimes.
Like when we didn't have the proper wine bags to put the damn gift wines in.
John stopped chasing Gracie at that one and looked at me. “Did you miss your medication?”
At my first appointment with the neurologist, I had asked for an anti-depressant. I was prescribed 10 mg of Lexapro a day, the smallest amount. After my diagnosis, the doctor doubled the dosage to 20 mg. We called it my "happy pill."
In the sentence "The frustration culminated in a melt-down. Of course I have them. My mind is untouched by ALS. I get furious sometimes.", what does "melt-down" mean? Fury? Or no fury? It seems that the sentence makes no sense. If the author's mind is all right, why does she get furious sometimes?
meltdown: an emotional or physical breakdown, or inability to continue activities. crying, depression, etc. .
@Justin Xu,
Justin Xu wrote:
If the author's mind is all right, why does she get furious sometimes?
Have you read anything about ALS? I'd recommend that before you go any further with your translation.
@ehBeth,
I've never read about ALS, but it has not hindered my translation, since the author has explained this disease very well at the beginning of the book. It's just a problem with the word "melt-down" and the logic of the last sentence. Now I know from other's explanation that “melt-down” has the following meaning: an emotional or physical breakdown, or inability to continue activities. crying, depression, etc. . So I see that frustration leads to anger and depression etc.. That's what the author means. At first, I just felt strange about this word. If we say the snow melts down, it feels that the snow disappears. So frustration culminated in a melt-down seems to me a little ambiguous (mainly because I don't know the above-mentioned meaning of "meltdown"). As for the last part, I know ALS won't affect the intelligence of the author (just like what happened to Hawking), but does this sentence mean that, since her mind is ok, so she has feelings and emotions, and therefore she can get furious at times? Is this the logic?
@Justin Xu,
It means that while ALS prohibits normal psychomotor activities it doesn’t prohibit normal cognitive activities. So it leaves her free to feel frustrated.
In terms of your snow analogy…the meltdown is the disappearance of normal emotional controls letting emotions take over just like meltdown makes the snow disappear.
@Justin Xu,
Justin Xu wrote:
If the author's mind is all right, why does she get furious sometimes?
the author is frustrated/made furious by the discrepancy between the ability of her mind to think and the inability of her body to perform as she wants it to.
That is the "why".
@ehBeth,
It seems that Zarathustra' answer is closer to the author's meaning. She feels frustrated/gets furious by the discrepancy for sure. But here I think she means that her cognitive thinking has not been affected and therefore she CAN of course feel frustrated/get furious. Your explanation is reasonable, but add too much to that sentence. It makes it hard to translate then.
@Justin Xu,
Justin Xu wrote: Your explanation is reasonable, but add too much to that sentence. It makes it hard to translate then.
it is a complicated concept - and you need to make sure that you're not doing a simple literal translation. that is not fair to the original author.
@Justin Xu,
look at the context
the author is having difficulty speaking, not difficulty thinking
the frustration in regard to the difficulty in expressing him/herself is the source of the melt-down
Justin Xu wrote:
“You say it,” I grumped. “I can barely talk.”
The frustration culminated in a melt-down.
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