Word: braying
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...great was this God's Admiration for the Half-headed Mortal who could bray twice-shrill as an Ass, that he disrobed, exposing a great Fault to the Membership. And circled his flimsy Petition around the Standard. Listed thereon were nine-hundred and eighty-six Demands to be immediately Met by the Wise Teachers, before the Scribbler's Club would Permit re-landscaping of the Lawn, or removal of the dead Flarbs...
Such native stylistic ploys, like poetry, suffer dreadfully even in the best of translations, and this one, by Barbara Bray, is much too stiff-lipped, too unbendingly British. Ultimately, what does Le Clézio in, is his decision to mirror his Life-is-shapeless-and-meaningless view in its own terms. All arbitrary mood and no movement can't help making for a dull book. "Nothing is necessary any more," concludes the non-hero cryptically as he is being buried. "But neither is anything unnecessary." That phlegmatic formulation ought to come as some sort of wan, stoical triumph...
...AMANTE ANGLAISE by Marguerite Duras, translated by Barbara Bray. 122 pages. Grove Press...
...ALBERTA BRAY...
...stuffed with care. Material for coats is selected to simulate real fur. In sewing on eyes and mouths, skilled workers take pains to ensure that each animal wears a distinctive expression. Some animals are equipped with voice boxes that enable lions to roar, bears to growl and donkeys to bray; many have movable heads and limbs. The continuing purpose is to make them lovable as well as lifelike. "We never model them after the full-grown animal," explains Hans-Otto Steiff, "but always after the young, slightly ungraceful ones...