Ostiant or Chalenduin

I just found out the hard way how difficult it is to post something on Dreamwidth via an Android phone. I wanted to insert an image, and the floating box kept jumping around. I was not amused. I suppose next time I will have to try and do it via the http://www.dreamwidth.org/mobile/ interface.

So there was talk some time ago about posting more in our native language on Dreamwidth, and I was all set to do just that, when we had to start renovation on our apartment. I had promised whatistigerbalm  to post some translations of Mak Dizdar's poetry, mostly translated by a friend and former professor of mine, Colleen B. London.

I'm going to post one poem today, The Deep Blue River along with its translation into English. I'll try to do it so it's side by side, so let me know if it turns out wonky for whatever reason. A few more poems will (hopefully) be posted in the next couple of days.

Modra rijeka         (Mak Dizdar) Nitko ne zna gdje je ona Malo znamo al’ je znano Iza gora iza dola Iza sedam iza osam I još huđe, I još luđe Preko mornih, preko gorkih Preko gloga, preko drače Preko žege, preko stege Preko slutnje, preko sumnje Iza devet, iza deset I još dublje i još jače Iza šutnje, iza tmače Gdje pjetlovi ne pjevaju Gdje se ne zna za glas roga I još huđe i još luđe iza uma iza Boga Ima jedna modra rijeka široka je duboka jest. Sto godina široka je Tisuć ljet duboka je. O duljini i ne sanjaj Tma i tmuša neprebolna. Ima jedna modra rijeka Ima jedna modra rijeka. Valja nama preko rijeke.

The Deep Blue River (translation by Colleen B. London) There is no-one who knows where this place is We know only there is this place where Behind the mountains, beyond the valleys After seven or more than eight Even worse and even harder Tougher, steeper, even farther Thru the hawthorns, thru the brambles Thru the drought and thru the torture Past suspicion, past hesitation After nine or more than ten Then still deeper and even stronger Beyond the silence, beyond the darkness Where there is no song of rooster Where there is no sound of horn And even worse, and even farther Beyond the mind and God the Father There exists a deep blue river It is wide and it is deep. A hundred years it is in width And a thousand in its depth. For its length you can’t imagine – Gloom and darkness agonizing. There exists a deep blue river There exists a deep blue river. We shall have to cross the river.

There's a great comm on Dreamwidth called dw_nifty, where users post advice on how to achieve an effect on Dreamwidth. For example, it is now possible to uncut an entry without using any addons (such as for example LiveJournalAddons) because the uncut code is now a part of Dreamwidth style. Someone just posted css code for styling cuttag-open by applying borders and/or background, margins etc. I love it!

In other news, I just made myself a barcode icon for Dreamwidth which I will be using when crossposting to LJ. The code for the generator I also found on dw_nifty: pne's Dreamwidth barcode maker.

Just to let you know that although it's already into it's second week, I'll be creating some manips for Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, so if you want to see them, you can do that over there (same user name). Once the fest is up, I'll crosspost them here, so if you don't feel like checking Dreamwidth out, wait a couple of weeks and they'll appear here as well. I've already got three made! :iz happy:

While I don't indent to move, I would like to actually start using Dreamwidth, and this seems like the perfect opportunity.