The Violet, Day 19

Ilonka. You see what he did with me?

Director. I saw. He did nothing.

Ilonka. How dare you say this to me? Crying bitterly. Certainly when I came in the director immediately made me a filthy suggestion.

Director. Good heavens, this is impudence!

Ilonka crying. Didn’t he make me a filthy suggestion?

Director. I didn’t hear it.

Ilonka. Well, didn’t he say dear lady, please take a seat, what have I to thank for this good fortune?

Director. He did say that.

Ilonka. Well, from a director this is already a filthy suggestion. An honorable director doesn’t speak that way to a country chorus girl. Their custom is to say “Why throw yourself on my shoulder, give me peace, I’m not taking on anyone.” But one who says please sit down and I thank my good fortune, crying, we poor chorus girls know the meaning of that to a poor defenseless creature. Crying out in anguish. They told me he was as gruff as a drill sergeant.

About two pages today. I’m stumbling over “keservit”, which actually makes several appearances in a Google Books search, but whose meaning is not immediately obvious from even multiple contexts, at least at my current pace of deciphering. I think it might mean something like “comfort”, or maybe the opposite, but I’m not even sure if it’s a noun or a verb.

Another tricky word is “beleesik”. “bele” is just “into”, and “esik” means “drop” or “fall”, but the combination means to fall for someone, that is, fall in love. So “beleestem as igazgató” means “I fell for the director”, except that it makes no sense for the character to say that. I consulted the big dictionary, and found it could also be used with words like “snare” or “trap”, so the revised translation is “I fell into the director’s clutches”, which makes much more sense in context.

The total number of pages is not great, but considering how tricky some of it was, and how much Project Gutenberg and other stuff I did today, I’m actually okay with that.

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