Thursday, December 15, 2005

Baa translated, cheerfulness, birds or leaves

In a review of an intriguing new book called The Meaning of Ting by Adam Jacot de Boinot, I read that the noise sheep make, "baa", in English, becomes, where Slovene sheep are concerned, "bee bee", "be he he" when the sheep are Vietnamese, "mue mue", when Portuguese, and "mieh mieh" if they are bleating in Mandarin.

Before Christmas the streets are full of cheerful people. You sense a vigour and hopefulness missing during the rest of the year.

Passing the Common I see what look likes a flock of birds circling over some trees. When I get closer I see that they are leaves that should have fallen some time go, being whirled up into the sky by a gust of wind.

1 comment:

Clare said...

In China, the cuckoo is called 'Buku'.