Krótkie, dosadne i niesłuszne

[muckefuck]

The maples are in full leaf these days, scattering their dappled light up and down the length of Arthur. The other night I found myself wondering about an appropriate German nickname for the street. (I knew der Ahorn, but not how to correctly pluralise it.) It's too bad that Unter den Ahornen doesn't carry within it the same poetry of its more famous cousin in Berlin.

This morning, I realised that I could also render this in Polish if only I knew the Polish name for the maple. Pod "under", like many Polish prepositions, takes the instrumental case, which to my surprise was the first non-nominative case taught in my textbook. Part of the reason for this is undoubtedly the straightforwardness of its formation (e.g. all plurals take the same ending, -ami). So given klon "maple", the result is pod klonami.

Makes the German sound positively lyrical by comparison.

Comments

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Or like the Sanatorium Pod Klepsydrą of Bruno Schulz?

My old apartment was surrounded by honey locusts. Co to będzie po polsku, "Nad Igliczniami"?

[caprinus.livejournal.com]

Mmmm Schulz, yes!

Neither I not my dictionary know of such a beast as a "honey locust" or "iglicznia", sorry! (I am sure it's technically correct, just not a word a non-scientist is likely to recognize). "Nad Szarańczą", on the other hand, sounds creepily cool and Old-Testamenty.