That's what happened to The Double Duchess and Zenobia. The results are hilarious -- an entirely new language that must be called 'Babelish' -- and a joy to share with my more honest readers.
First, the Babelish (via The Jewerly Shop, as they spell it), which is italicized for its sins, followed by my original text:
Jewerly Babelish:
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Zenobia Babel:
On Monday 21 June, a public thanksgiving marked 60 years of Queen Victoria's rule. And, for the first time since the death of the Prince Consort in 1861, at the state banquet that evening, the queen set aside her widow's weeds and wore "a dress of which the whole front was embroidered in gold, which had been especially worked in India."
Jewerly Babelish:
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The skirt of gold tissue was embroidered all over in a star-like design in emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, and other jewels outlined with gold, the corners where it opened in front being elaborately wrought in the same jewels and gold to represent peacocks outspread tails. This opened to show an underdress of cream crepe de chine, delicately embroidered in silver, gold, and pearls and sprinkled all over with diamonds.
The train, which was attached to the shoulders by two slender points and was fastened at the waist with a large diamond ornament, was a green velvet of a lovely shade, and was superbly embroidered in Oriental designs introducing the lotus flower in rubies, sapphires, amethysts, emeralds, and diamonds, with four borderings on contrasting grounds, separated with gold cord. The trains was lined with turquoise satin.
The bodice was composed of gold tissue to match the skirt, and the front was of crepe de chine hidden with a stomacher of real diamonds, rubies and emeralds.
An Englishman in Paris
Jewerly Babelish:
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Zenobia Babel:
Charles Frederick Worth, who opened his shop on the Rue de la Paix in 1858. Lincolnshire born, Worth had worked as a clerk for two London textile merchants, gaining a thorough knowledge of fabrics and learning the business of supplying dressmakers. Unusually ambitious, he visited the National Gallery to study historic portraits. Elements of the sitters' dresses in these paintings would later provide inspiration for Worth's own designs for both fashionable ensembles and masquerade costumes.
Jewerly Babelish:
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Zenobia Babel:
It was his genius to use 'live mannequins', our models of today (selected in Worth’s case not for their beauty but for their resemblances to his best customers) to show off the clothes -- so that his clients would see how the garments look when worn. The House of Worth was also the first to present seasonal collections, four each year, and thus invented fashion shows, as we still know them.
Jewerly Babelish:
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Zenobia Babel:
High-society women flocked to his plush, very private salon; a letter of introduction was usually required. Charles Dickens, in 1863, reported back in astonishment to his compatriots across the Channel that a bearded man with his “solid fingers” was allowed to take “the exact dimensions of the highest titled women in Paris — robe them, unrobe them, and make them turn backward and forward.”
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“and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”
(Gen 11:6)
Sounds like Malcolm McDowell in "Clockwork Orange"!!
ReplyDeleteJudith,
ReplyDeleteThis has happened to my posts more than once. What happens is that someone in China uses stolen posts to promote their business. This is problem that many bloggers face. If you write to the company that hosts the blog, the company may close the blog.
Claude Mariottini
I've come across this business of "tissue" translated as "pile" before, from Dutch into English. Maybe the culprit is not ever-available China.
ReplyDelete