The Whispering Land

concertina -a musical instrument with hollows, resembling a small accordion morale – the mental state or condition of a body of men, especially of an army; the word is generally used in the meaning of 'high morale', i.e. courageous, determined conduct despite danger and privations gargantuan – enormous, gigantic (from the name of Gargantua, a giant in Rabelais^’ book Gargantua and Pantagruel)

the final straw – the last straw, the final circumstance that makes the situation unbearable (the allusion is to the proverb ^("lt is the last straw that breaks the camel's back")

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maggots – the larvae of a cheese-fly (or cheese-mite), a small mite infesting cheese twilit, a. - dimly illuminated, as by twilight

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to rev up – to cause the engine to run quickly when first starting (the word was first used as a colloquial abbreviation of revolve)

Jujuy [d3u:'d3ai] – the northernmost province of Argentina, with a capital of the same name

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Sophie – the author's secretary to minister unto (or to) – to give aid or service; to look after to make tracks for a certain place (colloq.) - to go directly towards it precious (colloq.) - very (cf. pretty in a similar use)

lassoo ['laesu:] – variant of lasso, a long noosed rope of un-tanned hide for catching cattle, etc.

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pernicious anaemia – lack of blood, unhealthy paleness. This introduction of a medical term into an elaborate paraphrase describing the faint electric light is highly typical of Durrell’s verbal humour: he likes to spice his descriptions with scientific-sounding words.

buenas noches (Sp.) - good evening she twitched and mumbled her way into sleep – she twitched and mumbled until she fell asleep; she fell asleep twitching and mumbling

all twenty stone of her – the whole of her enormous person (the author estimates the woman's weight at about 20 stone, or 127 kg: see also note to p. 19)

Here we find an interplay of the two meanings of the verb crown: the hat actually crowned the woman's head, and the expression to crown this means 'to give a finishing touch to the whole'.

this breath-taking horticultural achievement – a reference to the woman's hat decorated with an abundance of artificial fruits and flowers at a saucy angle – at an angle that gave her a smart, stylish and slightly impertinent look a lavaflow of chins – a great number of chins resembling a stream of lava flowing from a volcano

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buenos dias (Sp.) - good day, good morning to hoick out – to lift or hoist, especially rapidly or with a jerk to let her sex down – to fail in upholding the glory of her sex to qualify – here to modify a statement, to make it less absolute (the word is generally used when speaking about a severe or unpleasant remark)

short of jumping out of the window – except jumping out of the window terrific (colloq.) - most wonderful, thrilling

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magnum ['maegnam] – a bottle containing two quarts of wine (2.25 liters)

tarmac – here a part of airfield covered with tarmac (short for tar-macadam, a layer of broken stone mixed with tar, used as road-surface)

old world – old-fashioned hydrangea – a bush with large clusters of white, blue and pink flowers praying mantis – an insect of a kind that holds its forelegs in a position suggesting hands folded in prayer

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a coffee = a cup of coffee

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medialunas (Sp.) - small cakes of half-moon shape mudguard – a metal cover for the wheel of a motor-car, to stop mud as it flies up

media hora (Sp.) - literally, the middle hour, i.e. a break for rest in the middle of the day molar – a molar tooth, a double tooth with a wide surface Herculean task – a task requiring the strength of Hercules, like one of the Twelve Tasks (or Twelve Labors) of the famous hero of Greek mythology on the last leg – in the final stage by and large – on the whole

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Durrell compares the country covered with cacti (pi. of cactus) to a typical surrealist landscape (e. g. one by Salvador Dali, Spanish painter, leader of surrealist school), where you can see all sorts of strange, distorted plants, gigantic cacti among them.

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largesse (archaic) - a generous gift bestowed by a great person foyer ['foiei] – here hall protégée (Fr.) - a woman who is under the care of another person

en route (Fr.) - on the way; here during the trip

to look somebody up (colloq.) - to pay an informal visit to somebody, to call on somebody

The author means that the woman, her son and the rest of the family were all so stout that, standing side by side, they looked like the front of a huge building made of fat.

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that lay cupped in a half-moon of mountains – that lay surrounded by a semi-circular range of mountains, as if in a cup

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viridescence – greenishness, the adjective viridescent being a bookish synonym for green