Analytical reading-Part 19

Preface to “Pygmalion”

By George Bernard Shaw

O

f the later generations of phoneticians I know little. Among them towered Robert Bridges, to whom perhaps Higgins may owe his Miltonic sympathies, though here again I must disclaim all portraiture. But if the play makes the public aware that there are such people as phoneticians, and that they are among the most important people in England at present, it will serve its turn.

                I wish to boast that “Pygmalion” has been an extremely successful play, both on stage and screen, all over Europe and North America as well as at home. It is so intensely and deliberately didactic, and its subject is esteemed so dry, that I delight in throwing it at the heads of the wiseacres who repeat the parrot cry that art should never be didactic. It goes to prove my contention that great art can never be anything else.

                Finally, and for the encouragement of people troubled with accents that cut them off from all high employment, I may add that the change wrought by Professor Higgins in that flower girl is neither impossible nor uncommon. The modern concierge’s daughter who fulfilled her ambition by playing the Queen of Spain at the Theatre Francais is only one of many thousands of men and women who have sloughed off their native dialects and acquired a new tongue. Our West End shop assistants and domestic servants are bilingual. But the thing has to be done scientifically, or the last state of the aspirant may be worse than the first. An honest slum dialect is more tolerable than the attempts of phonetically untaught persons to imitate the plutocracy. Ambitious flower girls who read this play must not imagine that they can pass themselves off as fine ladies by untutored imitation. They must learn their alphabet over again, and differently, from a phonetic expert. Imitation will only make them ridiculous.

Notes and comments:

to tower among—издигам се, извишавам се (above, над) (и прен.)

to stand out among—изпъквам

to rise above—(прен.) издигам се над

to soar high among—(прен.) извисявам се

His ambitions soar high.—Той хвърчи нависоко.

to overshadow—(прен.) засенчвам

to overtop—(прен.) стоя над някого, превъзхождам

to surpass—надминавам, превъзхождам

to cap—надминавам (някого)

to steal the show—получавам повече внимание (обграден съм с повече възхищение) в компания, отколкото лицето, от което се очаква да е обградено с такова внимание

to be aware of/that—зная, съзнавам, ясно ми е, имам представа, осведомен съм

to make somebody aware of—карам някого да разбере

to be taken/caught unawares—изненадват ме

to have claims to something (fame, ancestry, etc.)—имам права над (нещо)

to claim something-изисквам нещо

to claim damages-предявявам иск за вреди и загуби

to claim one’s rights-предявявам правата си

a gold-miner’s claim-заявка на златотърсач

to disclaim-официално се отричам от

to proclaim-обявявам

to acclaim-аплодирам

to declaim-хуля, ругая, злословя по адрес на

a claimant-1) претендент; 2) юр. ищец

to screen somebody-прикривам някого

a screen version-сценарий на екранизирано произведение

a screen show-екранизация

to have a backstage look at things-to have a glimpse behind the scenes = имам поглед върху кухнята на нещата

dramatic critic-театровед

theatre fan-театрал, голям почитател на театъра

stage-struck(mad)-силно увлечен по театъра

theatregoer-любител на театъра

to stage out-инсценирам

to stage a protest-излизам на протестна акция

to stage a rally-организирам митинг

to stage an exhibition-откривам изложба

in the last stage of-в последния стадий на

to esteem somebody highly = to put somebody highly = to have a high esteem for somebody = to hold somebody high in one’s esteem

to estimate-to calculate, to figure out = оценявам, преценявам, пресмятам, определям, изчислявам приблизително, измервам на око

preestimates-preliminary calculations = предварителни изчисления

wrong estimation-inaccurate assessment, miscalculation = погрешна оценка/преценка

concierge (Fr.)-a door-keeper = портиер

a playwright-драматург

a shipwright-корабостроител

wrought iron-ковано желязо

slough 1) [slau] блато (bog, mire, fen, swamp, morass, quagmire); 2) snake’s skin—стара кожа на змия

Ex. to slough off (a bad habit)-to get rid of = отказвам се от (лош навик)