Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Jan 21, 2023 6:15 pm

01-14-23 to
French
Passe moi les jumelles, “L’Ange gardien,” 26:10 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTQgmKOBLIM

Read and listen:
Le temps retrouvé
Audible 23, 22:27, Text 456
Audible 24, 17:13, Text 457
Audible 25, 13:06, Text 458
Audible 26, 23:31, Text 459 ** The famous madelaine episode, in which Proust discovers the secret of the universe can be found dipping a madeleine (the cookie, not the restaurant) in a cup of tea.

Les Films de Saint Amant, “Le chemin de fer fond 16 9,” 26 min,
Planète RAW, “Désaccord préhistorique chez les Scientifiques,” 8 min,

Steve McQueen & Ali MacGraw - Légendes du Cinéma, 23:53, Don’t watch this, it’s a complete and total waste of time,
Inner French, “#123 L’intelligence artificielle va-t-elle nous remplacer?” 29:29 minutes, https://innerfrench.com/123-lintelligen ... remplacer/
Inner French, “#95 La Commune: une guerre civile francaise,” 48:10 minutes,
https://innerfrench.com/95-la-commune-u ... francaise/

Spanish
Read and listen using the app El Libro Total:
José Eustasio Rivera, El Voragine, 1-53, about 50 minutes, something of a dud
Miguel de Unamuno, “Las Tijeras,” 12 minutes

Nomadas [RTVE] “Brisbane, una ciudad río en el oriente australiano,” https://www.rtve.es/play/audios/nomadas/brisbane-ciudad-rio-australlia/6724035/,%2050%20minutes

Memorias de un tumbor, “35. Hispania romana,” 23:15 minutes so far,
Historias perdidas con Leon Krauze, “Vida y muerte de Napoléon,” 12:41, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdP9fmrXbRI&t=633s

DW Documentaries, “¿Cómo surgió el ser humano?” 42:25 minutes
DW Documentaries, “¿Cómo nos manipulan?” 42:26 minutes

Galdós, Fortunata y Jacinta, Tape 1, Book 1, Chapter 1

Ancient Greek

Aeschylus, Agamemnon, ll 1-159.
10 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Jan 28, 2023 5:35 pm

01-21-23 to 01-28-23

French

Read and listen: (I stopped reading and listening. One was interfering with the other and the sense of the passage was not coming through, so now just reading.)

Le temps retrouvé
Audible 27, 18:18 min, Text 460
Text 461
Text 462
Text 463 (in 8/14 of LWT) Theory of art
Text 464 (in 8/14 of LWT) Function of art in memory [as in these plaintive questions: un livre est un grand cimetière où sur la plupart des tombes on ne peut plus lire les noms effacés. Parfois, au contraire, on se souvient très bien du nom, mais sans savoir si quelque chose de l'être qui le porta survit dans ces pages. Cette jeune fille aux prunelles profondément enfoncées, à la voix traînante, est-elle ici ? Et si elle y repose en effet, dans quelle partie, on ne sait plus, et comment trouver sous les fleurs ?] from https://alarecherchedutempsperdu.org/marcelproust/464

InnerFrench, #86 Les effets psychologiques du confinement, 33:04 minutes, https://innerfrench.com/86-effets-psychologiques-confinement/
InnerFrench, #88 Pourquoi les Français sont-ils anti-vaccins?, 42:10 minutes
InnerFrench, #113 Le français belge, 55:24 minutes. I understood too little of this interview with Élisabeth Castado, professor of French at the University of Mons, about French as spoken in Belgium.
InnerFrench, #77 Pourquoi la France protège-t-elle Polanski?, 42:43

Les Trains de France, “Kiruna, le train du grand Nord,” 42:58

Spanish
"Los mitos de la Conquista" | Dr. Antonio Rubial García, 1:11:12, . I fell asleep once or twice and did not understand any of his jokes.
Neteando con Kate del Castillo y Jessica Maldonado, 15:28, Introductory Episode (5 years ago)
DW Documental, “Salir del Reino Unido,” 28:25. This is about Scotland.
Curso Virtual: Leonardo da Vinci. Una nueva vision del artista y sus obras. Sesión 1 for 39:17. Unable to resume this podcast. The site is down, I suppose.

Read and listen:

Juan Rulfo, “¿No oyes ladrar a los perros?,” 10 páginas, El Libro Total

Vicente Blasco Ibañez, Flor de Mayo, chapter 1, 40:48 minutes. The audio for this comes from , which was downloaded as an mp4 and converted to mp3 with Audacity. (VLC no longer succeeds making conversions on my Linux). The text comes from Gutenberg.org. There are a few minor differences in wording between the Gutenberg text and the Youtube audio.

Chapter 2

Ancient Greek

Aeschylus, Agamemnon, lines 160-913

This jewel of a poem invites several re-readings for sense and for appreciation of the light-dark/true-false imagery.
10 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Feb 05, 2023 6:05 pm

01-21-23 to 02-04-2023

French

Read:
Le temps retrouvé
Text 465-469 (LWT 9/14)
Text 470 (LWT 9/14-10/14)
Video
Europe1:"La Russie va s'occuper de la France à un moment donné" : Michel Onfray sur la guerre en Ukraine, 2:33 min
Investigations et Enquêtes, “Katrina, chronique d'une catastrophe annoncée - FRANCE 3 THALASSA,” 32:11 minutes
Inside this report about what greed and incompetence can accomplish lies a couple of bits of Louisiana French, which WAs not hard to understand.
Nota Bene, “Qui étaient vraiment les barbares qui ont détruit Rome ? Entretien avec l'Historien Bruno Dumézil,” 11:00 / 1:45:36, too hard for me to understand

Spanish
Videos
Kosmo ES, ¿Qué se encuentra entre Marte y Júpiter? Cinturón de asteróides,” 15:50 minutes
Cienciaes.com. “Oyentes en el Cosmos,” 21:42
Embajador en la Alemania de Hitler | DW Documental
1985-Argentina-Juicio a las Juntas: la primera condena al terrorismo de Estado-1 de 8, 1:17:35,

Gut-wrenching testimony from TV broadcasts of the trials of the junta who staged a coup-d'état in Argentina in the 80s.

Ancient Greek

Aeschylus, Agamemnon, lines 914-1673 and finished first pass.
This has been a run-through of the play in LWT, shoring up definitions and explanations.
I want to do a second reading to make more sense of the whole thing. Looking at the definitions in LWT showed me that I read this play once before, seeing notes from Page (https://www.amazon.in/Agamemnon-Clarend ... 212&sr=1-9) and from Sidgwick (Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 3rd ed, rev, 1887)
8 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Feb 12, 2023 12:27 am

A light week for language studies. I watched a video in French on World War 2, but mostly I concentrated on The Agamemnon.
I found a few helpful secondary sources:
Introduction to Greek Meter, William S. Annis, Aoidoi.org∗January 2006
http://www.aoidoi.org/articles/meter/intro.pdf
and
A post by mwh in Textkit, Let’s Read: AJAX, Meter in Greek Drama
Some day I will “get” ancient Greek meter. Until that happens, I need this kind of guidance.

Representing Greek Meter by James Romm
https://classicalstudies.org/representing-greek-meter
Romm notes that translated lines become shorter and shorter in modern translations, distorting, he believes, the impact of the verse.

The Structure of Greek Tragedy: An Overview
https://kosmossociety.chs.harvard.edu/the-structure-of-greek-tragedy-an-overview/
Self explanatory.
Parode and Related Terms in Ancient Greek Tragedy and Comedy by N.S. Gill
https://www.thoughtco.com/parode-ancient-greek-tragedy-comedy-111952
A refresher on the terms of Greek Tragedy helps sort things out.

Aeschylus Agamemnon Summary By N.S. Gill
https://www.thoughtco.com/plot-summary-of-agamemnon-by-aeschylus-116743
An overview of what I am reading helps me keep events straight in my mind. Gill’s overview fills the bill nicely.
11 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Mon Feb 27, 2023 4:24 pm

02-11-23 to 02-27-23

French

La Seconde Guerre Mondial, 1939-1945, 77%. Combat is bad enough, but the treatment by Germans of Russian civilians and prisoners-of-war, by Russians of German prisoners-of-war, and by Japanese of non-Japanese civilians and prisoners-of-war made for disturbing reading.

Spanish
What is on my agenda for Spanish is a couple of works by Isabel Allende, but life has been hectic.

Ancient Greek

I started working with mindmaps to study the themes, imagery, symbols and vocabulary of The Agamemnon by Aeschylus. Unsure of where or how to start, I searched online for guidance and examples. At first I did not find a LOT of help, but did turn up the following sites. NB: All or nearly all of these sites are selling something, and some of them make some questionable claims. One such questionable claim, IMHO, is that mind mapping represents the way the brain works.
Mind Maps and Learning a Language
How to Use Mind Maps to Learn a Foreign Language - Edraw
https://www.edrawsoft.com/mindmap-language-learning.html

Learning Language Mind Map | Mind Map - EdrawMind https://www.edrawmind.com/mind-maps/272 ... e-mind-map
The Power of Mind Mapping in Language Learning (And Life!) | Language Mastery
https://languagemastery.com/blog/mind-mapping/

Using Mind Maps to Learn a Foreign Language | World Language Classroom
[url]https://wlclassroom.com/2013/02/07/using-mind-maps-to-learn-a-foreign-language/
[/url]
Mind Mapping Technique in Language Learning - ScienceDirect
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042815051435

Using Mind Maps to motivate the digital generation of students to learn foreign languagesUsing Mind Maps to motivate the digital generation of students to learn foreign languages - 37571209c91ae439f7360c8926d61cf6fa9b.pdf
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7c60/37571209c91ae439f7360c8926d61cf6fa9b.pdf

(PDF) Using a Mind Map to Learn English Vocabulary
[url]https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328861268_Using_a_Mind_Map_to_Learn_English_Vocabulary
[/url]
Enhance Student Study Activities with Mind Mapping | Quality Matters
https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/resource-center/articles-resources/mind-maps

Microsoft Word - mindmaps.doc - mindmaps.pdf
https://wlclassroom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/mindmaps.pdf

Mind Mapping: How To Enhance Your Learning Ability Using Mind Maps
https://talentnook.com/blog/mind-mapping-using-mind-maps-to-enhance-student-learning

Naturally enough, some of these sites have more value for me than others. in How to Use Mind Maps to Learn a Foreign Language - Edraw , the chart showing the differences between Past Simple and Past Continuous in English can be adapted IMHO to show the differences between the aorist and the imperfect in Ancient Greek.

For now my focus is on vocabulary, and I’ve done just a little mindmap on a word Aeschylus uses in line 17, ἀντίμολπον:
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7 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

User avatar
MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:27 pm

French
77% of La Seconde Guerre mondiale, 1939-1945, on the Kindle, into the post-war problems.

Spanish
The local library came up with a copy in Spanish of Largo Pétalo de Mar by Isabel Allende. Read first 42 pages so far. Her usual masterful story-telling style.

Ancient Greek
Progress with mind-mapping the first 54 lines of The Agamemnon by Aeschylus.
Perhaps the mere act of slowing down to fill in the map helps me remember the meanings of the words. So far I like the process. And the play.
I would give an image here of the map so far, but it takes up too much screen real estate.
10 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

jeffers
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Location: UK
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Hindi (A2-B1)

Learning: The above, plus French (A2-B1), German (A1), Ancient Greek (?), Sanskrit (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19785
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby jeffers » Sun Mar 05, 2023 9:59 am

MorkTheFiddle wrote:I would give an image here of the map so far, but it takes up too much screen real estate.

On Windows (10 and 11) the app simply called "Photos" has a resize image option (example below). Change to 30 or 40% and your're good.

Screenshot 2023-03-05 095025 smm.png
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3 x
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (roughly, the perfect is the enemy of the good)

French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
French SC Films: 0 / 9000 (0/9000 mins)

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Mar 05, 2023 6:28 pm

Thanks for the tip, Jeffers. The key for me was knowing how much to reduce the size of the image.
I reduced it to 40%, but also increased the font size from 10 to 18 to be more readable.
But using Pinta Image Editor for Linux instead of "Photos."
Here is the partial display of Freeplane for lines 22-33 of The Agamemnon.
Freeplane allows for displaying the play line by line, annotating unknown words, and even annotating the annotations.
It accommodates images, too, which I have used to help me remember words or phrases that are especially unfamiliar.
Most important, I can now read and understand these lines without looking at this mindmap.
Finally, I can note words that occur frequently enough in Ancient Greek that I OUGHT to remember them, but do not (though there are not any examples of such in this sample).
I don't find this form of taking notes very tedious, though there are another 1633 lines to go. :D
A16-1940%.png
.
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6 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

User avatar
MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Mar 11, 2023 4:29 pm

Mar 4 – Mar 11, 2023

Spanish
Read Largo pétalo de mar by Isabel Allende to page 106. Describes among other things the grim conditions for refugees fleeing the combat areas.
“Zinochka,” a short story gem, as usual, from Anton Chekhov, or Antón Pávlovich Chejov, in Spanish translation.

French
Video about large catfish, https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1852&p=224114#p224114 recommended by Carmody, a curious piece about the spread of large catfish in western Europe.
Finished La Seconde Guerre mondial, 1939-1945. The final phase covers the Allied occupation of Germany and Japan, war crimes trials of German and Japanese military and political officials, and the establishment of democratic governments in each country.

Ancient Greek
Made separate mind maps of Agamemnon by Aeschylus for lines 40-54, 55-71, 72-87 and added some details for the mind map for lines 1-39.
FreePlane accommodates background images, so I included this clever image by Kliest of King Agamemnon, the tough, brutish warrior, and behind him his small wife, Queen Clytemnestra, who will kill him like a netted animal. (There is some small chance, I suppose, that the woman is meant to be the slave Cassandra.)

kliest-king-agamemnon-and-c-1-a2a9922f-gahb-small.jpg


I will have no updates for the foreseeable future because of a private matter.
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8 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

User avatar
MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Fri May 19, 2023 1:30 pm

Spanish
A while ago I think I threatened to post about a song in Spanish that I liked and that I listened to various versions of it several times. I forget which song I was thinking about, but today I'll use as an example a Mexican tune that we in English would call an 'old standard': "Cucurucucu Paloma." Perversely perhaps, but in keeping with the interlingual flavor of this forum, I cite here a version by Petre Geambasu Show Band, not a Spanish but rather a Romanian group. First the song, then some comments:



The pleasant sound of the duet shows off their decent enough Spanish accents and the especially fine voice of the male (Geambasu, I'm assuming). The lady's name has escaped me.

Here are the Spanish lyrics, though from a slightly different version as sung by Lola Beltran.
Cucurrucucu Paloma Lyrics
Dicen que por las noches
No más se le iba en puro llorar
Dicen que no comía
No más se le iba en puro tomar
Juran que el mismo cielo
Se estremecía al oír su llanto
Como sufrió por ella
Que hasta en su muerte la fue llamando

Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, cantaba
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, gemía
Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, cantaba
De pasión mortal, moría

Que una paloma triste
Muy de mañana le va a cantar
A la casita sola
Con sus puertitas de par en par
Juran que esa paloma
No es otra cosa más que su alma
Que todavía la espera
A que regrese la desdichada

Cucurrucucu, paloma
Cucurrucucu, no llores
Las piedras jamas, paloma
¡Que van a saber de amores!
Cucurrucucu, cucurrucucu
Cucurrucucu, paloma, ya no llores.

And a DeepL translation into English:

Cucurrucucu Paloma Lyrics
They say that at night
He would just cry his eyes out
They say that he didn't eat
No more would he go on just drinking
They swear that the sky itself
Trembled to hear her cry
How he suffered for her
That even in his death he was calling for her

Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, he sang
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, she moaned
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, he sang
Of mortal passion, she died

That a sad dove
Very early in the morning it will sing
To the little house alone
With its little doors wide open
They swear that that dove
Is nothing more than her soul
That still waits for her
For the wretched one to return

Cucurrucucu, dove
Cucurrucucucu, don't you cry
The stones never, dove
What will they know of love!
Cucurrucucucu, cucurucucucu, cucurucucucu
Cucurrucucucu, dove, no more crying

Because this is an old standard, several artists from Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries have sung interpretations of it, and their songs can be found on YouTube: Lola Beltran, Pedro Infante, Julio Iglesias, Lila Downs, Rocío Dúrcal, Ana Bárbara, Nora Murillo, Natalia Lafourcade, and Natalia Jiménez with Yuri. There are a couple more recordings by Jiménez alone, but poor quality of recording has betrayed her extraordinary voice.

Listening over and over to songs I like, and especially when several artists have versions of it, is a very pleasant way to learn and retain vocabulary.

French
Done something of the same with the French song "Parley-moi de lui." My favorite interpretaton was recorded several years ago by the late Dalida, but the board chokes on the Youtube address, so I give it here naked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRcE2Hb ... Hb3Se4&t=0
and show you a good version by Françoise Hardy:

For an English translation of the lyrics listen to Dalida's version on Youtube. Other versions are by Nicole Croiselle, the Avalon Jazz Band, Chimene Badi, Sequoia Sinclair, Renée Martel, Genevieve LeClerc, Ghada zarour and Ginette Reno.

Besides listening over and over to tunes, I heard one video cast on Europe 1, Les origines du pole dance avec David Castello-Lopes remonte - YouTube:

Pole dancing seems to have become an art form.

Ancient Greek
Just some unproductive attempts to use ChatGPT to study the language, and in particular, the Agamemnon.
8 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson


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