Thanks dadpad! Powell's didn't have either book in stock but I sent a request for them to notify me if one turned up.
Hmmm.... yes..... jlNOBODY could end up being quite a complicated name to have.... brain in a vat and all that Descartian buzz.....
I thought them Australians in Austria spoke Dutch . . . er, German . . . er, one a them incomprehensible languages . . .
Set, I noticed our Turkish-born driver talking with a New Zealander in an unrecognizable language. I asked them what they were speaking. Dutch, they said.
Well . . . there ya go . . . proof positive . . .
Ive been to Tumba bloody rumba. Its near Wagga Wagga. (kinda)
CJ dennis is a good old style poet that used the insertive vernacular
Take a sqiz at this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manning_Clark
Where a dash (---) replaces a missing word, the adjective "blessed" may be interpolated. In cases demanding great emphasis, the use of the word "blooming" is permissible. However, any other word may be used that suggests itself as suitable.
"The Sentimental Bloke" is what he is best known for but I like his kids poems.
These works date to around the first world war so dont think we still speak in this manner. We got culture now.
Bush poetry has a small cult following here thse days Ill see if I can find some.
Here's one for starters......
The Great Australian Adjective
by W.T. Goodge
The sunburnt bloody stockman stood
And, in a dismal bloody mood,
Apostrophized his bloody cuddy;
"This bloody nag's no bloody good,
He doesn't earn his bloody food.
A regular bloody brumby."
He jumped up on the bloody horse,
And cantered off, of bloody course!
The roads were bad and bloody muddy;
Said he "Well, spare me bloody days,
The bloody government's bloody ways
Are screamin' bloody funny."
He rode up hill, down bloody dale.
The wind it blew a bloody gale.
The creek was high and bloody floody.
Said he "The horse must bloody swim,
The same for bloody me as him.
It's somethin' bloody sickenin'!
He plunged into the bloody creek,
The bloody horse was bloody weak,
The stockman's face a bloody study!
And though the bloody horse was drowned
The bloody rider reached the ground.
Ejaculating "Bloody, bloody, bloody!"
bm
Gotta go.
Be back later!
Re: Despite my name, I do not speak Australian.
boomerang wrote:I've been reading several Australian writers lately and sometimes the language leaves me a little confused. ..... This is really msolga's fault. She recommended "Cloudstreet" and I found much of the language very confusing so I've back-burnered it for just a bit while I improve my Australian.
Oh, boomer, I'm sorry! It never occurred to me that it might be so difficult for a non-Ozzian to understand! But, come to think of it .......
I've just now realized that we Australians are very clever, you know: I mean, we have no trouble at all reading New Zealander, UK-sian, Canadian, US-ian (east coast, west coast & southern) & Anglo-Indian & (some) South African! How's
that for an achievement? :wink:
That IS an achievement.
Don't be sorry though. Sometimes reading should be a bit of a struggle.
I have a couple of dogeared passages from my current read that I'll have to drag up and post here!
After meeting both New Zealanders and Aussies on my recent European tour I will not hear anything bad said about either. They didn't seem to interact much with each other--can't say why- but they certainly charmed the tour members from the U.S..
boomerang wrote:I have a couple of dogeared passages from my current read that I'll have to drag up and post here!
Please
do, boomer! You'll get far more help than you would have ever dreamed of, I'm certain!
JLNobody wrote:After meeting both New Zealanders and Aussies on my recent European tour I will not hear anything bad said about either. They didn't seem to interact much with each other--can't say why- but they certainly charmed the tour members from the U.S..
Interact?
Half of New Zealand LIVES in Oz!
The bunny speaks the truth!
You can't walk out your front door in almost any place in Oz without falling over a Kiwi!
Okay then.
Here are two and ithey are more of just a.... huh.... type thing....
".... and the three of us could labour side by side sustained by nothing more than white sugar rolled in a fresh lettuce leaf....."
Sugar on a lettuce leaf? Really? It appears in a rather important retelling so it seems to maybe have some signifigance. It seemed to want to convey something major.
".... I would have been on the road to Melbourne where the dog SHAT in the tucker box nine miles from Gundagi. This is not what the FAMOUS AUSTRALIAN SONG says it makes out of the dog SAT on the tucker box. What morons. You could not make a song about sitting....."
Here I'm just curious about the song as it seems to be something the reader should know. (The capitalization is from the book, not from me.) And what is a "tucker box"?
Dog on tuckerbox
http://www.walkabout.com.au/graphics/images/CD1027.JPG
The Dog On The Tuckerbox first emerged into Australian folklore through an anonymous teamster's song of uncertain date. A version of this song appeared in the Gundagai Times in the 1880s in the form of a poem called 'Bullocky Bill' which focuses on a hardy, stoic and unlucky teamster who gets bogged at Five Mile Creek (a teamsters' meeting place five miles from Gundagai). The yoke of his bullock team breaks and, to make matters worse, 'the dog shat on the tucker-box/ Five miles from Gundagai'. Salesman and balladeer Jack Moses wrote a cleaned-up version in the 1920s in which the dog sits on and guards the tuckerbox. For unknown reasons he called it 'Nine Miles from Gundagai'. The lyric was very popular and inspired the commission of the sculpture for the 1932 'Back to Gundagai' celebrations. It was made by Frank Rusconi (see next entry) and unveiled by Prime Minister Joe Lyons.
http://www.walkabout.com.au/locations/NSWGundagai.shtml#Things%20to%20see
tucker box = food storage box
Bowyang Yorke's Poem
As I was coming down Conroy's Gap,
I heard a maiden cry;
'There goes Bill the Bullocky,
He's bound for Gundagai.
A better poor old beggar
Never earnt an honest crust,
A better poor old beggar
Never drug a whip through dust.'
His team got bogged at the nine mile creek,
Bill lashed and swore and cried;
'If Nobby don't get me out of this,
I'll tattoo his bloody hide.'
But Nobby strained and broke the yoke,
And poked out the leader's eye;
Then the dog shat on the Tucker Box
Nine miles from Gundagai.
Nine Miles from Gundagai' by Jack Moses
I've done my share of shearing sheep,
Of droving and all that;
And bogged a bullock team as well,
On a Murrumbidgee flat.
I've seen the bullock stretch and strain
And blink his bleary eye,
And the dog sit on the tuckerbox
Nine miles from Gundagai.
I've been jilted, jarred and crossed in love,
And sand-bagged in the dark,
Till if a mountain fell on me,
I'd treat it as a lark.
It's when you've got your bullocks bogged,
That's the time you flog and cry,
And the dog sits on the tuckerbox
Nine miles from Gundagai.
We've all got our little troubles,
In life's hard, thorny way.
Some strike them in a motor car
And others in a dray.
But when your dog and bullocks strike,
It ain't no apple pie,
And the dog sat on the tuckerbox
Nine miles from Gundagai.
But that's all past and dead and gone,
And I've sold the team for meat,
And perhaps, some day where I was bogged,
There'll be an asphalt street,
The dog, ah! well he got a bait,
And thought he'd like to die,
So I buried him in the tuckerbox,
Nine miles from Gundagai.
"White sugar on a lettuce leaf."
I've never heard this expression before"
Can you post more to give me an idea of what is happening around the passage.
My feeling is that the line indicates a willingness to work alongside your mates (friends) because they are your mates and need your help. You get along well, dont need much at all to maintain the bond of friendship.
