I imagine that’s talking about bracket fungi (polypores), some of which are edible.
My guess is that it’s a type of dish made up by zailors to make gruel more appetizing? While the Haunted Doctor mentions that ‘the gruel is a bit too rich for my taste’ I think it more of him being a terrible liar and wanting to get away from the table than indicating that there may be something like spices or fish added.
It’s possible that it signifies something like brackish/brack gruel, which means slightly salty water. As gruel is typically made using water (milk is used for more luxurious gruel), it’s possible that it incorporates some zee water or water from around London (brackish water is typically water from where salt and freshwater collide).
Finally, it’s possible that it’s supposed to mean bracket. Brackets are typically used to support weight, and this may refer to this gruel being the bare bones, designed to literally keep a zailor up throughout the day, like a staple food or emergency ration. It could also refer to a method of cooking it, like a cooking pot attached to a bracket.
However, none of these really come to my mind when I read bracket-gruel, so you should probably just translate the word bracket literally in whatever way works.
Thanks! Some food for thought (hopefully not this gruel)
Bracket fungi seems the most plausible, as most of the Neath’s diet is mushroom-based. I didn’t find that meaning in my search, but they have appeared in the game befoire with a different name: shelf fungi, so I may use that (“hongo de repisa”), or “Políporo” so it’s just one word.
I think the Doctor excusing himself from eating more has more to do with him making excuses to avoid talking too much about his past endevours, which is a recurring thing with him, than the actual taste of the gruel.
During the whole game, the inhabitants of the Chelonate are called themselves Chelonates, but in this particular event and only there, they are referred to as Chelonians. Now I’m wondering whether I should reflect this difference in the translation, or assume it’s a discrepancy due to different writers and faulty revision (which is a common enough occurrence) and use the same standarized name I’ve been using for the Chelonates all along. What do you fine folks think?
edited by Cpt. Eructus on 6/19/2021
Is the difference that they are calling themselves Chelonates, but a Londoner would could them (with disdain) Chelonians?
Not really. They are always called Chelonate regardless of point of view, except for this particular event which uses Chelonians several times and never uses the standard Chelonates (that’s why my guess is that perhaps it was written by a guest writer less familiar with the gane world and escaped revision). And in this one, it’s just the narrator speaking, not any character.
edited by Cpt. Eructus on 6/21/2021
What does "braiding pokers" mean? Is it some idiom I don’t know? Literally twisting fire pokers around each other? What’s the sense in that? i’m very much lost with this sentence.
edited by Cpt. Eructus on 6/27/2021
Braiding pokers is literally something impossible to do unless you’re a blacksmith and the pokers are red hot (maybe appealing on a cold winter’s night, though). A bit like going to sea in a sieve.
Braiding, plaiting or weaving is what you only do with hair, yarn or something equally flexible, but not very strong.
A poker is the very opposite: strong in itself, but not at all flexible.
It’s a great image, though.
So do you think it has the meaning of trying to achieve something impossible or very difficult, like squaring the circle, but kind of low stakes, like when you and your mates start fixing the world’s problems one beer at a time, just for the pleasure of it?
Most of the similes I can think of for those kinds of impossible tasks carry a sense of something desperate and hopeless rather than pleasant. “Building castles in the clouds” is the closest I cna think of, but to my mind it has a very different connotation
Taking the quotation as a whole, so revising my off the cuff remark:
Clearly there is something to do with fire or furnaces or a blacksmith’s hearth going on – hence the mention of hot brick and ashes. The use of chime is poetic and unusual, because ashes make virtually no sound, certainly not that of a bell. Similarly, the combination of braided and pokers is unusual, because the first thought at the mention of poker is "cold iron bar".
But in the round, I’d assume this does relate to the work of a smith, so the pokers would be hot, malleable bars of iron. Wrought iron (iron which is shaped, e.g. braided) is used to make, e.g. gates or fences – and pokers.
If you look up iron poker in a search engine and go for the images, you’ll see that a lot of pokers have a decorative feature of some kind. So this may just be a way of not using the common term "wrought".
If I were translating this, I’d just go for the straightforward version.
Yes, the more I get into the Acolyte’s story, the more she looks like a person who does metal-related work (although with bodies), so it seems the more literal option was probably closer to the mark
First, it’s pretty clear to me that there’s a deliberate contrast in temperature:
Hot brick, the chime of ash (after a fire); on a winter night. Thus, it’s likely that the pokers are heated as to be malleable.
Second, as to the question of impossibility or unpleasantness, the abeforementioned contrast of warmth to the cold winter night outside and the mention of "the pleasure of braiding pokers together… when there is nothing else to do" seems to raise connotations of cozy and simple contentment.
So, I also agree as to the literal translation.
It’s been a while, but I’m still hard at work.
I’ve come accross this event, when the crew tries to prevent you from handing over the Pirate-Poet to Polyhtreme. I don’t understand the last sentence.
[quote]The defiant eyes of the crew stare at you as you enter the brig. They shuffle nervously, but still stand firm between you and the Pirate-Poet’s cell. How many times have they ventured down here to hear her words of freedom and rebellion?
One has been volunteered as spokesman, his voice trembling as he fails to meet your eyes. Still, he forces out the words. “Can’t let you do this, Cap’n. We’ve heard her poems and what she says, what they can do… they’re too important. If it was for you, we’d… we’d right understand. But not for her. Not for Frocks.”[/quote]
Is Frocks a moniker of the crew for the Pirate-Poet? It’s the only thing that seems to make some sense, but nowhere else is it mentioned as such, and it doesn’t seem to fit her character at all. The only other time frocks are mentioned in relation with the Pirate-Poet is when she speaks rather disparagingly about the creations of the Modiste during their conversation (“My words have never put another in shackles. Can you say the same for your frocks?”).
The occasion of that scene is the plan to hand the Pirate Poet over to the Merciless Modiste. The Modiste is the one nicknamed "Frocks", for obvious reasons. So it means "we can’t do it for (i.e. to benefit) her=the Modiste.
Well, that’s my reading, anyway.
edited by Ragnar Degenhand on 2/20/2022
[quote=Ragnar Degenhand]The occasion of that scene is the plan to hand the Pirate Poet over to the Merciless Modiste. The Modiste is the one nicknamed "Frocks", for obvious reasons. So it means "we can’t do it for (i.e. to benefit) her=the Modiste.
Well, that’s my reading, anyway.
edited by Ragnar Degenhand on 2/20/2022[/quote]
Oooh, I didn’t think of that. I thought "her" was the Pirate-Poet herself. Makes much more snese now. Thanks!
Glad to meet you guys! I’m a greenhand of SS, and im also trying to translte this game into Chinese.But, as you can see, im not that good at English. So, maybe,could you let me look for help here?
And here is the question.“Leadbeater & Stainrod Reconditioned Frigate-Surplus Deck-Gun Mark II”,the word Reconditioned is part of the weapon’s name? Or maybe it means the weapon have been completely repaired?
I haven’t posted anything on a English forum before, wish theres nothing wrong :P
“Leadbeater & Stainrod” are the makers.
Reconditioned means it’s been refurbished
Deck-Gun Mark II is the model
Frigate-Surplus may, I suppose, be part of the model designation. It gives an idea of size (the frigate element); the surplus bit tells you it is ex-navy.
Just my tuppence.
Thank you so much dudes! But the amount of text left seems to be huge…
“King James’ edition, of course. One passage is circled in old red ink - Romans 6:9.”, it’s the description of “Trophy: a Family Bible”.There are some things I don’t quite understand.
- Whats the difference between a Family Bible and a normal Bible?
- What is “King James’ edition”? An annotated version written by King James or something? Does it imply anything special?
[quote=Midnight_Soda]
- Whats the difference between a Family Bible and a normal Bible?[/quote]
With a family bible, people wrote the dates of birth, marriage and death in the back of the book. Some bibles had special pages for the purpose.
King James the I and VI (of England and Scotland respectively, 1603-1625) commissioned a bible translation by the foremost scholars of his day. It is thought to be very good and poetic to boot. It is still in print, and the copyright belongs to the crown.
[quote=Ragnar Degenhand][quote=Midnight_Soda]
- Whats the difference between a Family Bible and a normal Bible?[/quote]
With a family bible, people wrote the dates of birth, marriage and death in the back of the book. Some bibles had special pages for the purpose.
King James the I and VI (of England and Scotland respectively, 1603-1625) commissioned a bible translation by the foremost scholars of his day. It is thought to be very good and poetic to boot. It is still in print, and the copyright belongs to the crown.[/quote]
I see. Thank you very much!