Throwing time after time...

The author of the material I'm translating is a great champion of teaching children to write by having the classroom teacher write out—word for word—things children say. There isn't enough room here (nor do I have the time) to set forth his arguments here, but this technique of writing what children say is a key point in his approach to teaching children how to write.

In amplifying what he means, the author underscores the importance of the teacher not limiting himself or herself to conventional writing surfaces or tools.

Chalk on a blackboard, wall, floor, or school desk; a twig in the snow; a finger on a frosted window pane; or a marker on the arm.

Then comes an interesting sentence:

Можно даже вилами по воде – этакая виртуально-неуловимая письменность…

A literal translation might read:

You can even pass pitchforks through water, with this virtual, intangible writing...

The part about "pitchforks through water" ("вилами по воде") makes no sense in English, of course, and will require a bit of research.

Consulting Multitran gives me "to limn water" or "to limn on water". Which doesn't make things much clearer. I've never heard the expression, to my knowledge, nor do I have any idea what it means. I fire up my OED application (the one that works, on my Windows 7 machine) and find, under the entry for the verb "limn," which generally has the meaning of "to illuminate (in the sense of old manuscripts), paint, adorn, depict," the following:

4. Prov. to limn the water, limn (something) on water. said of something transient or futile.

This is of some help, but not much. Trying to paint water makes about as much sense as moving water with a pitchfork, if that's what's meant. Is the author saying that virtual writing is a dead end? If so, why include it with methods that do work (chalk, etc.)?

Oops! Silly translator! I momentarily forget it's not my job to make sure the document makes sense, etc.; only to make sure the document's Russian meaning is reflected in the English translation.

Back to Google, looking at the Russian. On the Russian version of Wiktionary, I find an entry for the expression "вилами по воде," and its meaning is given as "the likelihood of what is described is very doubtful" (my translation). A German translation is suggested on the Wiktionary page—"Es steht noch in den Sternen," which Google Translate helpfully suggests means "It is written in the stars," which after a moment, I decide is one of those red herrings that are bound to cross the researcher's path from time to time.

The time I have left to pursue this is, so to speak, circling the drain, since I have more than a full day's work left just to translate the 5,000 words of footnotes in this article, and now that my juices are flowing, a decision must be made. Here we go...

You can even proceed with what I think is the very doubtful method of virtual, intangible writing.

It'll have to do until something better shows up, or you can move water with a pitchfork.