Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

2202124  Introduction to Translation

Expressive Text (English-Thai) Discussion

จงแปลเรื่องแต่งต่อไปนี้เป็นภาษาไทย

“You don’t have to get excited,” Abe told the cat as he opened the cabinet. “You won’t starve.”

Normally, Abe never liked cats, but this one was different. It didn’t fuss over a person, arching its back and begging for scraps, and was so independent it didn’t even have a name. Hey, you, Abe called when he wanted to get the cat’s attention. Over here, buddy, he’d say when he reached for one of those cans of overpriced cat food he used to say only an idiot would spend good money on.

Surely, this cat had a history, for one of its eyes was missing. Whether this was the result of surgery or a scar from some long-ago battle was impossible to tell. This injury was not the cat’s only unattractive feature; its black fur was tangled, and its shrill meow brought to mind the call of a crow rather than the purr of its own kind. The one remaining eye was yellow and cloudy and could be extremely scary when it fixed upon someone. If the truth be told, Abe wasn’t unhappy that the cat had taken up residence. There was only one troublesome sign: Abe had started to talk to the thing. Worse still, he had begun to value its opinion.

Discussion

• cat – Note that in Alice Hoffman's original text the word used is the more specific "tom," a male cat, which lends itself nicely to the vagrancy and independent feel of the animal. In an interview, Hoffman mentions that it is a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe: "I pay homage to his The Black Cat with a wandering feline of my own in The River King. Black, of course, with only one eye, but a very good judge of character all the same."
• extremely scary
• น่ากลัวเหลือประมาณ
• อ
• If the truth be told
• ว่ากันจริงๆ แล้ว
• อันที่จริงแล้ว
• Worse still
• ที่หนักยิ่งไปกว่านั้น
• หนักยิ่งกว่านั้น

Vocabulary

•  Abe – male name; often short for Abraham; in this case short for Abel Gray, a detective in the story
• matted –

Reference

Hoffman, Alice. The River King. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2000. Print.

Source

The River King

Abe went into the kitchen, started some coffee, and gulped down three Tylenol. It was early and the sky was perfectly blue. The big tomcat who had adopted Abe was pacing back and forth, demanding breakfast. All in all, an extraordinary day, a morning when other men might turn to thinking about fishing or love, rather than the vagaries of an unexplained death.

"You don't have to get hysterical," Abe told the tom as he opened a cabinet. "You wont' starve."

As a rule, Abe had never liked cats, but this one was different. It didn't fawn over a person, arching its back and begging for scraps, and was so independent it didn't even have a name. Hey, you, Abe called when he wanted to get the cat's attention. Over here, buddy, he'd say when he reached for one of those cans of overpriced cat food he used to say only an idiot would spend good money on.

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Last updated March 11, 2012