desperately need help about "Girl" of O.Henry

[Efe]

Hello all,

First of all , i am new to this website so i would like to say hi to all of you and especially the admins who keep such a good site like this which is really useful and nice.

Now to tell the truth , i have understood most of the "Girl" except one part which i can't really understand what's going on and what they really mean. The reason that i have the understand the whole story and every word is that i have to translate this story in to Turkish as my exam project.

here is the part which i mostly don't understand :

Robbins, fifty, something of an overweight beau, and addicted to first nights and hotel palm-rooms, pretended to be envious of his partner's commuter's joys.
"Going to be something doing in the humidity line to-night," he said. "You out-of-town chaps will be the people, with your katydids and moonlight and long drinks and things out on the front porch."

So if anybody could help me , i would really appreciate it...

Thanks very very much in advance :)

[Efe]

There's nobody who can help ?=/

[Jester]

hi, welcome to the forum, sorry I don't understand it either.... I'd go with looking up the words that are slang like moonlight and kattydids and then replace those words in the paragraph and it might be clear... it seems like slang

[Scheherazade]

Robbins, fifty, something of an overweight beau, and addicted to first nights and hotel palm-rooms, pretended to be envious of his partner's commuter's joys.
"Going to be something doing in the humidity line to-night," he said. "You out-of-town chaps will be the people, with your katydids and moonlight and long drinks and things out on the front porch."



Hi Efe,

I read this story in my own time about a few weeks ago. I am not very sure either but my personal understanding is as follows:

Robbins, although speaks highly of suburbs, actually prefers the city life. He might even be contemptuous a little but is trying to mask it by praising the so-called advantages of suburbian life style. He is someone who prefers to be fashionable and hip to subdued family life and domestic bliss maybe.

Good luck with the assignment.

Scher

[den]

Welcome to the forums Efe... hope you stick around.

Ok, I'll take a stab at some of it, though I haven't read this book and don't know the context that this paragraph is taken from, which is very important I would think in regards to a literal translation.

First of all, `beau' means `dandy' or `fop', roughly meaning a man of impeccable taste and elegance in his clothing and external grooming and appearance.

The fact that Robbins is fifty and overweight, possibly suggests he's a little past his prime, there's some sardonic irony there on the authors' part.

`First nights', I have no idea what this means. Again it would probably be suggested or implied by what context this is taken from in the book, the year this book was written about, era in history etc. what country/city etc.

The fact that he is `addicted' to them by implication may mean again he's a little past his youth, still clinging to it, moping around `palm-rooms' which may be the part of a hotel, inside near the lobby area, where people sit with a drink and wait for others to join them before going on to somewhere else, or waiting for a lover, being semi-discrete peering between the leaves.

`Humidity line' - hmm, again I have no clue what this suggests.

`Katydids' are insects that seem to mostly come out at night and make that high-pitched whining noise on hot humid summer nights.

Again, it's really hard to understand the meaning of this without having read the entire book. I wish you luck in translating!

[Scheherazade]

I took 'first nights' as galas or opening nights...
'humidity line' - My understanding of this expression is that the line division between inner city and suburbs. It will be hot and unbearable for the city folks but they can enjoy themselves in the suburbs.

"You out-of-town chaps will be the people, with your katydids and moonlight and long drinks and things out on the front porch."
Listening to crickets, moonlight and having a drink on the porch are the things which make life in suburbans attractive but Robbins doesn't think so actually. Maybe finds it boring?

[amuse]

den, i figured out how to read your posts! the quote button helps a lot. :)

[den]

Huh? Is this a comment again on my not using the default font?


den, i figured out how to read your posts! the quote button helps a lot. :)

[amuse]

no, it's only that the thicker (bold) type made it harder for me to read. i'm getting old or something.

[caspian]

Hi Efe! I guess you’re turkish! My English isn’t so fine, but anyway another comment won't do any harm. O.Henry is my favorite ad I've read this story.

Robbins who is fifty and quite fat one actually addicted to city life. But he pretended that he envy people who live in the country.

In turkish it will sound like that:
50 yashinda , bir kadar shishman Robbins daha chok takdimat gecelerine ve palmalarla suslenmish otel odalarina vurgun (ve ya alishik) oldugu halda kendini ish ortaginin sheher dishi hayatini kiskanir kibi gosterdi:

“bu geceki kibi burkulu bir gecede yalniz Sizin kibi sheher dishi hayati yashayan insanlar evin onundeki balkonda achiq sema altinda, mehtab ishiginda, circiramalrin sharkisini dinleyerek icki ichib bir sheyler yaparak hayatdan zovk almag olur.

[Efe]

Thanks all for the replies =) and yep caspian, i am a Turc.

and if a teacher in my school got it right, it's gonna be something around of what Caspian have said.

the teacher said beau means rascal, vagabond and rowdy, something like that, and then the meaning is actually in the sentence, It's gonna be so humid and hot that the people living at the country won't have problem because the nights are cool there....

[amuse]

"palmalarla" what a pretty word