28 May 2024 (written on 26 May) – Dr Sophie Louisa Bennett, PhD Conservation Biology (Lincoln 2016), MA Modern and Medieval Languages – German and Swedish (KC 1987, Cantab 2020), Diploma in Translation – German into English (City University/Institute of Linguists 1998)
Friday afternoon, late May, imminent Bank Holiday. So, what do we like to do on Bank Holidays in the UK? Ah, yes… Around the time the school run starts and traffic builds up on the roads in and out of town. Dad had decided this was the right time to visit a large, nationally-known retailer of certain goods we needed, due to breakages and maintenance. Having dawdled along in the traffic, we reached our destination.
I was soon browsing the shelves of the paint section of that DIY store in town. B without Q on this occasion (few customers and self-service you see). Off Tritton Road where the first tanks were tested. The store is huge – hangar-like with plenty of headspace above unused and floorspace full of row-upon-row of fascinating supplies. Big enough to house many aircraft or tanks, but perhaps not a boat.
I had only visited – with my father – for paint and brushes and was deliberating over which shade to take – a shade of white or cream. ‘Natural’. To ward off moisture and mould. As I was minding my own business, quietly a couple approached from behind. A man and a woman evidently looking for paint supplies from the opposite shelf behind me. From where I couldn’t see. I heard however some Russian and the exclamations of “Smottree!” Familiar, second person imperative – although not said in an particularly insistent manner – for “look!”.
Yes, take a look at what’s on offer in a ‘hangar’ in a small-ish (but-much-larger-than-it-used-to-be) town in the East Midlands. The Russian-speaker said more – which I didn’t catch or understand since I have only the rudiments of Russian. He – the S.O. – was evidently non-committal. And she, deliberating and without a sensible response, said in a calmly indecisive fashion: “Yah n’yeh z’n-eye-yooh“. I didn’t look round. She didn’t know in the end what to pick – which shade of white or cream or whatever she thought she wanted – although the word ‘Magnolia’ passed her lips. If this had been Russia under the Soviets she wouldn’t have had a problem, now, would she? Nyet.
But this was England, May 2024, and there was so much choice. So much freedom… Just look. They looked, but didn’t buy and walked away. That was their prerogative. I selected my purchases, paid and left. Dad could not find everything he wanted and so visited a large independent garden centre nearby the following day.
That following day the old Spitfire crashed. I thought to myself: there goes another piece of England, my England. And this would take more than a lick of paint to restore. In fact, some of the damage would be irreparable.
Dr Sophie Louisa Bennett, O&C Russian GCE/’O’ level (1987) – Grade A (taught by the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants): Yeah, amazing how much, or how little, you remember sometimes. One of my other favourite words (apart from the one for mushrooms) is tree-nadsat (no, nothing to do with trees or woodland), also voss-cress-enya, rozh-d’yest-voh, d’yen rozh-d’yen-eeyah, voss-seem.
Chet-teary (well, Chet isn’t so much teary as craggy, I would say). Yah eee-gr’eye-yooh. Yah plaque-eye-yooh.
Full of Eastern Promise.
Into-English-Translations 