Day 4: Anonymous, I Take It
On the landing of an old tenement in Toruń, retired history professor Zbigniew (A) checks on his neighbour Ewa (B), a historian, who has just received an anonymous review of her article.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Polish word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Polish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Pani Ewo, przez ścianę słychać, jak pani rzuca książkami. Mam wezwać pomoc czy wystarczy melisa?
Ewa, I can hear you throwing books about from next door. Shall I call for help, or will some lemon balm tea do?
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B
Melisa, panie profesorze, i to podwójna. Recenzent rozniósł w pył mój artykuł o toruńskich piernikarzach.
Lemon balm, Professor, and make it a double. A reviewer has torn my article on Toruń's gingerbread makers to shreds.
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A
Anonimowo, jak rozumiem. Czego się czepia ten nieszczęsny recenzent?
Anonymously, I take it. What's this wretched reviewer picking on?
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B
Recenzja ma półtorej strony, z czego dwie trzecie to literatura, którą rzekomo pominęłam. Na czele z jakąś monografią z osiemdziesiątego siódmego.
The review is a page and a half long, and two-thirds of it is literature I've supposedly overlooked. Headed by some monograph from 1987.
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A
„Cech piernikarzy toruńskich w epoce nowożytnej”? Znakomita pozycja, choć, przyznaję, nakład był skromny.
'The Toruń Gingerbread Guild in the Early Modern Period'? An excellent book, though I admit the print run was modest.
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B
Skąd pan zna tytuł, skoro go jeszcze nie podałam? I skąd pan wie, jaki był nakład?
How do you know the title, when I haven't told you it yet? And how do you know what the print run was?
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A
Recenzje są anonimowe, pani Ewo. Powiem tylko, że tę monografię przeczytały trzy osoby, w tym autor i jego żona.
Reviews are anonymous, Ewa. I'll only say that three people have read that monograph, including the author and his wife.
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B
Czyli pół roku częstowałam pana piernikami i opowiadałam o badaniach, a pan w tym czasie...
So for six months I kept treating you to gingerbread and telling you about my research, and all that time you...
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A
A ja pół roku gryzłem się w język. Po uzupełnieniu bibliografii artykuł będzie bez zarzutu, a pierniki proszę przynosić dalej.
And for six months I bit my tongue. Once the bibliography has been completed, the article will be beyond reproach. And do keep the gingerbread coming.
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