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Beyond the Lone Islands

http://dawntreader-island2.blogspot.com

Monday 17 August 2009

Quotation of the Week (34/09), from Winnie-the-Pooh


Loosely connected to my other blogpost today.
(Read both, and figure it out...)

They had come to a stream which twisted and tumbled between high rocky banks, and Christopher Robin saw at once how dangerous it was.
'It's just the place,' he explained, 'for an Ambush.'
'What sort of bush?' whispered Pooh to Piglet. 'A gorse-bush?'
'My dear Pooh,' said Owl in his superior way, 'don't you know what an Ambush is?'
'Owl,' said Piglet, looking round at him severely, 'Pooh's whisper was a perfectly private whisper, and there was no need-'
'An Ambush,' said Owl, 'is a sort of Surprise.'
'So is a gorse-bush sometimes,' said Pooh.
'An Ambush, as I was about to explain to Pooh,' said Piglet, 'is a sort of Surprise.'
'If people jump at you suddenly, that's an Ambush,' said Owl.
'It's an Ambush, Pooh, when people jump at you suddenly,' explained Piglet.
Pooh, who now knew what an Ambush was, said that a gorse-bush had sprung at him suddenly one day when he fell off a tree, and he had taken six days to get all the prickles out of himself.
'We are not talking about gorse-bushes,' said Owl a little crossly.
'I am,' said Pooh.


2 comments:

DawnTreader said...

By the way, the quotation above - from the chapter An Expotition to the North Pole - was excluded from the Swedish translation of Winnie-the-Pooh. Untranslatable...!

Graham Edwards said...

A brilliant piece of narrative but I can see why it was not translatable. In fact I can see why, to some, the irony would not be understandable either.

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