Could you help me understand what the author means?

[kortic]

Could you help me understand what the author means? I'm a newbie translator from English into my native language and cannot understand sense of the following sentence:
_she made her nest of rags and jewels_
What does it mean? A bird can make a nest, but a woman ....? Where is a link here?
Here is context:

She was too honest, too natural for this frightened man; too remote from his tidy laws. She was, after all, a country girl; disordered, hysterical, loving. She was muddled and mischievous as a chimney-jackdaw, she made her nest of rags and jewels, was happy in the sunlight, squawked loudly at danger, pried and was insatiably curious, forgot when to eat or ate all day, and sang when sunsets were red.

Thanks in advance

[ennison]

An extract from 'Cider With Rosie'?
'She was muddled and mischievous as a chimney-jackdaw, she made her nest of rags and jewels'
The first image is a simile comparing the woman to a bird - a jackdaw. Birds of that type have a reputation for picking up and carrying to their nests, bright shiny objects - glass, silvery paper, coins, real jewels. Their nests are untidy, not neatly plaited grass bowls. This image suggests she was an untidy woman, but in her home there were odd things of value to her (perhaps not to anyone else). Amongst the muddle of her home were odd unusual objects that perhaps had no practical value but which she thought precious. Refering to her home as her 'nest' is a metaphoric extension of the image created in the simile (she has raised her family in the security of this untidy home). The image is further extended by the sequence of phrases which follow as they have connections to the behaviour of jackdaws. Clearer? Muddier?

[F.Emerald]

Yeah...but basically it's a metaphor.

[PeterL]

I agree with Ennison and F. Emerald. She is being likened to a jackdaw who makes a nest of rags and jewels. I would take it that she was a rather confused woman who didn't have very good taste in things. I don't know where this comes from, but I suspect that she has trouble finding men who suit her, which is why she is making a nest, rather than using a nest built by a man.

[kortic]

Thank you for your great assistance. I'm really glad that there are such people who find time to help a stranger. I have some more questions if you are not against.

"This rather priggish young man, with his devout gentility, his airs and manners, his music and ambitions, his charm, bright talk, and undeniable good looks, overwhelmed her as soon as she saw him."

The author describes a man, his character. But it's unclear for me what the word "music" means here. Using "music" the author is talking about an art form consisting of sequences of sounds or maybe it's some kind of a character trait ? I checked the Collins dictionary but haven't found an answer. It's quite strange for me that the author describes a character, manners and then suddenly speaks about music. Where is the key ?
Maybe the author means music preferences ?
Could you explain me please ?

[F.Emerald]

Well, it's out of context, but I think it could either be implying that the man is a musician, ie. some one who creates 'his music', or it could be as you said, his own musical taste. Yeah?

[mtpspur]

I was thinking the term 'music' may describe the part of his character that most represents what gives him his pleasure or entertainments in life and his ambitions reflect his work ethic.

[Whifflingpin]

If that quotation is also from "Cider with Rosie," and refers to the author's parents, then the "music" is literal. The author's father played the piano. His musical taste is shown elsewhere, in that his favourite song was "Only a Rose" which is a sentimental ballad. "Only a rose, a pure white rose, plucked from a bough on high, he took from the hand that he loved so long as he bade her his last goodbye..." or thereabouts.

.

[kortic]

Yes, this is an extract from 'Cider With Rosie'. Thank you. One more question:

"And herself being comely, sensitive, and adoring, she attracted my father also. And so he married her. And so later he left her - with his children and some more of her own.

When he'd gone, she brought us to the village and waited. She waited for thirty years. I don't think she ever knew what had made him desert her, though the reasons seemed clear enough. She was too honest, too natural for this frightened man; too remote from his tidy laws. She was, after all, a country girl; disordered, hysterical, loving. She was muddled and mischievous as a chimney-jackdaw, she made her nest of rags and jewels, was happy in the sunlight, squawked loudly at danger, pried and was insatiably curious, forgot when to eat or ate all day, and sang when sunsets were red. She lived by the easy laws of the hedgerow, loved the world, and made no plans, had a quick holy eye for natural wonders and couldn't have kept a neat house for her life. What my father wished for was something quite different, something she could never give him - the protective order of an unimpeachable suburbia, which was what he got in the end.

The three or four years Mother spent with my father she fed on for the rest of her life. Her happiness at that time was something she guarded as though it must ensure his eventual return. She would talk about it almost in awe, not that it had ceased but that it had happened at all."

Could you help me catch sense of the second part of the last sentence?
_not that it had ceased but that it had happened at all_
What does the author mean ? What does he want to say? I cannot understand a sentence structure. Could you explain sense of this sentence in plain English ?
Thank you in advance

[Whifflingpin]

"The three or four years Mother spent with my father she fed on for the rest of her life. Her happiness at that time was something she guarded as though it must ensure his eventual return. She would talk about it almost in awe, not that it had ceased but that it had happened at all."

"Her happiness of those years was like an amazing undeserved gift, the memory of which was to be treasured. The memory of that happiness was something that sustained her through her whole life. She felt that if she treasured the memory then her husband would eventually return.
She was not surprised that it had ended, she was in awe that such unexpected happiness had ever happened to her at all."

Something like that - except that Lee's version is so much better. I've used "memory," for instance, but in Lee's description, it is not merely the memory of a past happiness, but it is the continuing presence of the past happiness, and that happiness is also a guarantee for the future.

[ennison]

I think too that she really did think that he would return, that things had been so happy that he could not just disappear and leave her. If I remember right though he did.Lee was brought up in a house full of females but there were uncles as various types of role model.

[Matrim Cuathon]

Yes, this is an extract from 'Cider With Rosie'. Thank you. One more question:

"And herself being comely, sensitive, and adoring, she attracted my father also. And so he married her. And so later he left her - with his children and some more of her own.

When he'd gone, she brought us to the village and waited. She waited for thirty years. I don't think she ever knew what had made him desert her, though the reasons seemed clear enough. She was too honest, too natural for this frightened man; too remote from his tidy laws. She was, after all, a country girl; disordered, hysterical, loving. She was muddled and mischievous as a chimney-jackdaw, she made her nest of rags and jewels, was happy in the sunlight, squawked loudly at danger, pried and was insatiably curious, forgot when to eat or ate all day, and sang when sunsets were red. She lived by the easy laws of the hedgerow, loved the world, and made no plans, had a quick holy eye for natural wonders and couldn't have kept a neat house for her life. What my father wished for was something quite different, something she could never give him - the protective order of an unimpeachable suburbia, which was what he got in the end.

The three or four years Mother spent with my father she fed on for the rest of her life. Her happiness at that time was something she guarded as though it must ensure his eventual return. She would talk about it almost in awe, not that it had ceased but that it had happened at all."

Could you help me catch sense of the second part of the last sentence?
_not that it had ceased but that it had happened at all_
What does the author mean ? What does he want to say? I cannot understand a sentence structure. Could you explain sense of this sentence in plain English ?
Thank you in advance


ive never actually read the book, but i think what the author means is that she is in awe of the fact that such a great thing had happened in her life. It was a time of happiness such that "she fed on it the rest if her life." That she had experienced such bliss was one of the ways she kept afloat in life, which can often be very dull or hateful. its seems to me that it is like how some people say that it is better to have true love and lose it then to never have it. im not sure it was true love but from the context it was perhaps the most valued part of her life in that she was incredibly happy during that time.

[ennison]

'some people say that it is better to have true love and lose it then to never have it. '

I'd have to agree with the 'some people'. Sometimes though the thought fleets through my mind that what you have never had you can never miss so maybe it would be better to never have had ........... A blasphemous thought if ever there was one!!!