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Troubling night...
Jan. 27th, 2004 07:05 amI had what I call one of those "madeleine" moments yesterday, which proceeded to hijack the rest of the evening and most disturbingly, the night. In my dreams.
What I call a "madeleine" moment differs from "déjà vu" in that instead of experiencing a feeling that you've been somewhere before, something in your environment causes a flood of memories to be unleashed.
Right now I have only a few minutes, as my assignment is due in just those few minutes, and I have not completed my review of the translation, but my experience was most compelling, and I must write of it.
In going through my books the other day, I ran across a number of items in Spanish, including the new edition of Robert Heinlein's Forastero en tierra estraña. Moreover, I found a number of phrase books, ranging from a good one (Langenscheidt) I bought during our most recent trip to Spain in... 1998(?), to one called Vest Pocket Spanish that advertises a free LP language lesson in exchange for the postcard bound into the back of the book, to the fairly lightweight Grosset Spanish Phrase Book and Dictionary.
It was this last item that brought back a flood of memories once I cracked it open and saw my name, rank, and service number written on the inside front cover.
You see, in those heady Marine days, I was in love. With a girl whose marvelous qualities included fluency in Spanish. I was going to learn Spanish back then, and do many other things as well, but before anyone could stick around to see what the result of that and other resolutions might have been, the relationship ended, and so with it, any urgent desire to learn the language.
All of that was hammered home when I saw a single word - novio - written on the inside back cover in my characteristic scrawl. It's probably not the right word for fianceé, and definitely the wrong gender (if it's applicable, it should be novia), but it was a word very much on my mind at the time.
No time to muse. Got to get cracking. Murphy's a knockin' at the door.
Cheers...
What I call a "madeleine" moment differs from "déjà vu" in that instead of experiencing a feeling that you've been somewhere before, something in your environment causes a flood of memories to be unleashed.
Right now I have only a few minutes, as my assignment is due in just those few minutes, and I have not completed my review of the translation, but my experience was most compelling, and I must write of it.
In going through my books the other day, I ran across a number of items in Spanish, including the new edition of Robert Heinlein's Forastero en tierra estraña. Moreover, I found a number of phrase books, ranging from a good one (Langenscheidt) I bought during our most recent trip to Spain in... 1998(?), to one called Vest Pocket Spanish that advertises a free LP language lesson in exchange for the postcard bound into the back of the book, to the fairly lightweight Grosset Spanish Phrase Book and Dictionary.
It was this last item that brought back a flood of memories once I cracked it open and saw my name, rank, and service number written on the inside front cover.
You see, in those heady Marine days, I was in love. With a girl whose marvelous qualities included fluency in Spanish. I was going to learn Spanish back then, and do many other things as well, but before anyone could stick around to see what the result of that and other resolutions might have been, the relationship ended, and so with it, any urgent desire to learn the language.
All of that was hammered home when I saw a single word - novio - written on the inside back cover in my characteristic scrawl. It's probably not the right word for fianceé, and definitely the wrong gender (if it's applicable, it should be novia), but it was a word very much on my mind at the time.
No time to muse. Got to get cracking. Murphy's a knockin' at the door.
Cheers...
