Friday, May 28, 2010
Through the Looking Glass
The Romanian word for mirror is oglindă. For some reason, my love of musicals makes me want to call it galinda. After my first few dyslexic attempts, I finally tried to explain The Wizard of Oz to my gazda mom. This task proved to be somewhere between highly unlikely and impossible. My gazda mom’s issues with the “galinda” concept: 1) Witchcraft, in all forms is bad, and intelligent educated people do not believe in it. 2) “In Romania” there is no such thing as a good witch; therefore Glinda could not have been a good witch. 3) There is no good reason to make a film about witchcraft; therefore The Wizard of Oz must not be a good film. After assuring my gazda mom that I did not, in fact, believe in witchcraft, I dropped the subject and was content watching the Eurovision contest. (I decided it would be a really bad idea to bring up the flying monkeys).
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hahaha. this post made me laugh so hard but at the same time i completely understand trying to explain something foreign in concept and in another language. Have you explained Glee?
ReplyDeleteOh wow. I commend you for trying! Any foreign story is hard to tell in your own language especially when you have to explain the background! And YOU have to tell it in Romanian?
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