Rainy days and Tuesdays always get me!

Absolutely pouring down today. Drenching. Still, it doesn't put Jasper the Loony Spaniel off his stride. I have no idea why he was limping on Sunday, probably just being mardy. By Monday he was ready for a walk so we went up to the park, over the hill and down into Glossop and then home along Dinting Road. About 90 minutes and very enjoyable, except the bit coming down Ashes Lane which must be close to 40 degrees, and on Monday it was quite icy. Still, we survived.

Today we just went a shortish walk again, along the Transpenine Trail to Padfield and back through the village, probably no more than 2 or three miles. I managed to fall over quite dramatically though. At one point on the trail there was a rainwater puddle across the entire track. I stepped into the puddle only to discover that the bottom of the puddle was a sheet of ice, and down I went. My leg just isn't strong enough to stop me from falling in a situation like that. Still, I was already wet from the rain so I just got up and carried on. The walking probably kept my knee from going daft.

Jasper and I very nearly came to blows though. There is a very big field on the walk and in better weather the farmer keeps his sheep or cows and sometimes both in this field. Today, though, there was nothing, or so I thought. So I let jasper have a run because I thought we were far enough away from the main road. What I hadn't noticed, though, was a flock of Canada Geese roosting on the ground a couple of hundred yards away. Jasper had spotted them and played dumb. So when I let him off he ran after the geese as fast as his little legs would carry him. No way was he catching the geese, but he would not come back to me either. He is a stubborn little devil at times. At one point I thought that he had run away, but he was only way off in the distance having found a puddle of mud to jump in. When he eventually came back he was not a brown and white Spaniel, but a solid brown one. I have learned my lesson, he won't be running loose in that field again for a good long time.

I heard one of my favourite songs on the radio the other morning. Piaf singing Aznavour's song "Plus bleu de le bleu de tes yeux". One of these days I will tell how I came to fall in love with Piaf's singing, but not today. I really love songs because they are a poetry all of their own and, certainly with many songs, the words are not too difficult. I was looking at the lyrics of "Plus bleu" on an internet site and comparing what I thought it meant with what Google Translate threw up. As usual Google Translate is okay for giving you a general feeling for what something is about but naff all good at all for telling you a good translation.

Then I found a translation of the song done by Monique Adriaansen & Mel Priddle. Now, the words are not a straight translation but I actually like the way that they have put the song / poem together. I mean, if you take the first two verses of the original song, ...

Plus bleu que le bleu de tes yeux
Je ne vois rien de mieux
Même le bleu des cieux
Plus blond que tes cheveux dorés
Ne peut s'imaginer
Même le blond des blés

You get, I think, something like this: ......

More blue than the blue of your eyes
I see nothing better
Even the blue of the skies
Fairer than your golden hair
Cannot be imagined
Even the golden corn

 That, by the way is me and my French / English Dictionary trying to work it out, but it just doesn't work in English.

Now here, is the transliteration done by Adriaansen & Priddle, and even though they have taken the words a bit of a way away from the original, I think it preserves the feeling of the original song. Well, that's what I think anyway, and you can disagree with me all you like, this is my blog after all.

A BLUE LIKE THE BLUE OF YOUR EYES

A blue like the blue of your eyes
When they're full of surprise
Isn't found in the skies
A cornfield in clear open air
Couldn't hope to compare
With the gold of your hair

A softening wind in July
Would be foolish to try
To compare with your sigh
The strength of a storm on the sea
Couldn't possibly be
Like the strength of my love

A blue like the blue of your eyes
Isn't found in the skies
Or the glow up above

If one day you decide to go your merry way
My life would become filled with dismay
Filled with dismay

A sky full of rain wouldn't say
It was nearly as grey
As the grey of the day
The darkest of nights wouldn't dare to claim
It could compare
With my aching despair

You laugh at me when I'm like this
Then you softly dismiss
All my fears with a kiss
My fool of a heart then takes flight
Almost mad with delight
Like a skylark above

The blue that I see in the skies
Can't compare with your eyes
When their shining with love

I will happily admit that there are bits of the transliterated song that I think are weaker, but on the whole, I think that it is a good attempt, and I like it. Kind of reminds me of "When we walked in fields of gold", but that is probably only the reference to wheat that slips in there. It doesn't have quite the rhythm and cadence of the original French, but it's not bad. Not bad at all.

I went to my evening class on digital imaging, by the way. There were four students and the teacher, and I really enjoyed it. Nothing much to tell for the moment, but as we go along, I'll let you share some of the things that come out of this class. No pictures today, it was too wet and miserable to be bothered taking my camera out of my pocket, but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Till we meet again

Faites des beau reves.