Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Significato frasi da una tragedia

I'm trying to understand a short monologue taken from the play "Mourning 
becomes Electra".
(The character is talking to his father's dead body lying on a bier)
[...]
You were always like the statue of an eminent dead man -- sitting on a 
chair in a park or straddling a horse in a town square -- looking over 
the head of life without a sign of recognition -- cutting it dead for 
the impropriety of living!
[...]
I know the meaning of all the words but the global meaning remains 
rather obscure (or maybe it's just that I don't have an artistic mind). 
Analysing each sentence one by one:
"You were always like the statue of an eminent dead man " ->OK
"sitting on a chair in a park or straddling a horse in a town square" -> 
Boh, ma piu' o meno OK
"looking over the head of life without a sign of recognition" -> "la 
testa della vita"...? boh
"cutting it dead for the impropriety of living!" -> Arabo, mi sembra la 
frase di Virgina Woolf citata in The curious incident of the dog in the 
night-time
Opinions/suggestions?
Lorenzo

 "cutting it dead for the impropriety of living!" ->
"to cut dead" significa proprio ignorare qualcuno per manifesto 
disprezzo. In questo caso, il (fortunatamente) perento padre era cosi' 
"stuck up" - cercatelo sul dizionario - da guardare dall'alto in basso 
la vita che commetteva l'improprieta' (l'indelicatezza, la 
maleducazione, la *gaucherie*) di essere, appunto, vita.
Niente che un dizionario qualsiasi e un po' di riflessione non 
risolvessero, comunque. Al prossimo dubbio cosi' ovvio, I'll cut you 
dead looking five inches over your head.

 > rather obscure (or maybe it's just that I don't have an artistic mind).
Comunque questo NG vede la presenza attiva di un personaggio di O'Neill: 
aspetto la sua validazione.

 dead looking five inches over your head.
Oddio, ora mi fai paura se dici cosi', come potrei andare avanti...?
Grazie cmq,
Lorenzo

 "cutting it dead for the impropriety of living!" -> Arabo, mi sembra la
"To cut someone dead" means to pretend not to recognize someone, usually out
of anger or displeasure.
Joe from Massachusetts

 you can see exactly what they see, from their prospective. The "head of
perspective, not prospective.


 >
«Badgering his father's coffined corpse, he accuses the patriarch of having
always been like a statue of an eminent dead man and, in a damning phrase,
of "cutting [life] dead for the impropriety of living".»
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20031201/ai_n12728655
Joe from Massachusetts

 
mmmm, so don't you agree with the translation of the passage I gave in 
my other post?
(Sorry, I know I'm dull)
Lorenzo


No - not in this case, or any other case. He is looking over the horse's
head, and refuses to see what the horse's eyes see ("without a sign of
recognition"). He is not looking at anything or anyone.
"Guardare dall'alto in basso" is not at all the appropriate translation.
If a person is standing behind another person, by looking over that person's
shoulder  he could see what that person sees, from the same perspective. If
you are mounted on a horse, you can't very well look over the horse's
shoulders, since they are below you. You look over the horse's head, to get
the same perspective that the horse gets.
Joe from Massachusetts

 No - not in this case, or any other case. 
 >
[...]
Ok, thanks. So my previous interpretation was wrong after all.
What do you make of this re-writing "for dummies"? (this is my last shot)
You were always like the statue of an eminent dead man. I imagine a 
statue of you sitting in park or rather straddling a horse in a town 
square. In this statue you are looking over the horse's head but you are 
intentionally refusing to see what lies in front of you, which is 
"life". You are pretending not to recognize it [life] for the simple 
fact that it's vital.
Lorenzo

 wrote in message
news:eoj1j9$8v0$1...@nnrp-beta.newsland.it...

ti ritrovi per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via è smarrita
Joe from Massachusetts


all right, I give up 

 wrote in message
news:eojlfl$l3q$1...@nnrp-beta.newsland.it...

Ma non dovevi tradurla?
Sarebbe interessante vedere come l'hanno tradito i traduttori professionali.
Joe from Massachusetts