I've been interested in Biology since my birth, insomuch as there was a short period of my life when I wanted to become a biologist. Later,my interest was lost really somewhen in secondary school and turned towards the humanity. Now, many decades later, reading this article a question came up from the past: if my teachers of biology have been more informed in literature would I be a semi educated biology fan today?
Article Mi köze van a Harmonia axyridis katicabogárnak az Isteni szí...
Dear András, thank you for your article and comment as well.
This is the evidence of that we as authors never know how our writings can effect on the readers or what feelings we cause with our sentences.
Thanks again for this reading experinece.
Ágnes
I think you will really enjoy "The intelligence of flowers" by Maurice Maeterlinck. It is a descrption of mechanisms and adaptations of several kind of flowers, but it is also written in such a poetic style. It's a smart and beautiful book.
I think you are still a biology fan. Otherwise you won't be asking this question. I was interested in this subject because my biology teacher was the most iconic person at that time compared to my other subjects. My biology teacher made me see that biology is relevant inside and outside.
I might be asking the same question with the subject history, I hate history before, but now I found it more and more relevant. Perhaps my teachers wasn't successful enough to entice me.
Maybe its because as we get older, we understand better, and everything make sense why we had to learn this and that before.
Dear Carlos, thatk you so much for your advice am going to search that book and will read it, thanks again.
Dear Fatimah, todays observation of mine is that when our biology studies started to be expanded to animals' anatomy and we had to do dissection I think I lost my interest. You know, I felt sorry about animals to become victims of the science in a secondary school. I suppose, this was the point to turn away from biology because I recognised that there is only a small chance to study this science but only partially.
Dear Ágnes,
In this special case not literary value was important but the original meaning of the word Harlequin (Alichino). I have found that the etymology of both words is the same.
The main sense of my paper is that the word Harlequin has practically no Hungarian meaning and so harlekin katica (= Harlequin ladybird) has no way in naming Harmonia axyridis.
However, I have discovered an interesting thing: Almost each translator used the original names of Dante’s demons! Except German and Hungarian translators:
Dante: Divina Commedia
Canto XXI. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8800/8800-h/8800-h.htm
The original Italian version
«Tra'ti avante, Alichino, e Calcabrina»,
cominciò elli a dire, «e tu, Cagnazzo;
e Barbariccia guidi la decina.
English version
“Step forward, Alichino and Calcabrina,"
Began he to cry out,"and thou, Cagnazzo;
And Barbariccia, do thou guide the ten.
Translation by Henry W. Longfellow (1861)
German version
„Auf, ihr Gesellen“, jetzt, euch frisch zu rühren;
Eistreter, Senkflug, Bluthund, kommt heran,
Du, Sträubebart, sollst alle zehen führen.
Translation by Karl Streckfuß
Hungarian versions
"Hejh Szárnyas! Hejh Rugós! Előre - nyugton!
s te Mérges!" - kezdett rendelkezni gonddal -
"s Szemigszakáll lesz káplártok az úton!
Translation by Babits Mihály (1912)
„Lépjetek elő, Űző és Jégtörő,“
Kezdte kurjantani, „és te Kutyafülű;
S vezesse tízetek fürgén Csupaszőr!
Translation by Bozsik András (2010)
The German translator used for Alichino Senkflug which means flying down, Babits must have known this and he employed Szárnyas = winged and I regarding the original myths on Harlequin the word Űző = hunter or pursuer.
Of course the love to Belles-lettres was indispensable.
Dear András, thank you for your article and comment as well.
This is the evidence of that we as authors never know how our writings can effect on the readers or what feelings we cause with our sentences.
Thanks again for this reading experinece.
Ágnes
A lot depends on the teacher. My first undergraduate course in biology was actually two courses: lecture section and laboratory section. The lecture section was a nightmare because I found that I had to memorise most of what was in a hefty biology book and become skilful in drawing all of the parts of animals. By contrast, the biology section was like running water, smooth and very interesting. The lab instructor was J. Tomlinson, who became quite well-known for his work on hermaphoditism and parthenogenesis. See, for example,
J. Tomlinson, The advantages of hermephroditisim and parthenogenesis, J. Theoret. Biology 11 (1), 1966, 54-58.
Only many years later did I follow up on what I started learning about in Dr. Tomlinson's laboratory. I started collecting specimens and checking them with a good microscope (making many drawings, labelling them, too). Only then did I begin to appreciate what was in that first biology course.
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