Mr Al-Khapoun's Christmas Quiz, 2008

1. His youthly spirit and oppulent fortune did sometimes make him doe extravagant actions, but in the country he was civil enough. He was wont to say that when he came to Brentford the Devill entred into him and never left him until he came into the Country again.

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2. In the beginning this embezzlement was a matter of individual initiative. Unbeknown to each other, a number of the bank's officers began making away with the funds. Gradually they became aware of each other's activities, and since they could scarcely expose each other, they cooperated. The enterprise eventually embraced about a dozen people, including virtually all of the prinicpal officers of the bank.

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3.             They were fair in the grace of gold, they walked with delicate feet:
               They were clothed with the cunning of old, and the smell of their garments was sweet.
   
               For the breaking of gold in their hair they halt as a man made lame:
               They are utterly naked and bare; their mouths are bitter with shame.
   
               Wilt thou judge thy people now, O king that wast found most wise?
               Wilt thou lie any more, O thou whose mouth is emptied of lies?
   
               Shall God make a pact with thee, till his hook be found in thy sides?
               Wilt thou put back the time of the sea, or the place or the season of tides?

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4. That's the same question the tax inspector asked me. I told him I retired years ago. He says to me, Why don't you fill out your income tax returns? Why don't you fill out all the forms we send you? I said, I got no income tax to declare, that's why. You're the only man in the district who won't fill out his forms, he says, you want to go to prison? Prison, I said, a man like me, a clean-living old man like me, a man who discovered Don Bradman, it's a national disgrace! Fill out your forms, he says, there'll be no trouble.

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5. In point of fact, the majority live in towns, and pretty grim a town like Siglufjordur is too. To me this is the most important fact about Iceland. The present time is a critical one. I see what was once a society and a culture of independent peasant proprietors, becoming, inevitably, urbanised and in danger of becoming - not so inevitably - proletarianised for the benefit of a few, who on account of their small number and geographical isolation, can never build up a capitalist culture of their own.

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6.                                     True (quoth Hee)
               There's now as great an itch of bravery
               And heat of taking up, but cold lay downe,
               For, put to push of pay, away they runne;
               Our only City trades of hope now are
               Bawd, Tavern-keeper, Whore and Scrivener;
               The much of Privileg'd kingsmen, and the store
               Of fresh protections make the rest all poore;
               In the first state of their Creation,
               Though many stoutly stand, yet proves not one
               A righteous pay-master.

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7.             Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa, io non credea
               Tornare ancor per uso a contemplarvi
               Sul paterno giardino scintillanti,
               E ragionar con voi dalle finestre
               Di questo albergo dove abitai fanciullo
               E delle gioie mie vidi la fine.
               Quante immagini un tempo, e quante fole
               Creommi nel pensier l'aspetto vostro
               E delle luci a voi compagne! allora
               Che, tacito, seduto in verde zolla,
               Delle sere io solea passar gran parte
               Mirando il cielo, ed ascoltando il canto
               Della rana rimota alla campagna.

   Inconstant stars of the Great Bear, I never thought that I would return to watch you shine on my father's garden as I used to do, and to address you from the windows of the house where I lived as a boy and where my joys came to an end. How many pictures of the past, and how many stories do you and your companions bring back to my mind! Of how I used to pass the evening sat silent on the green grass gazing at the skies and listening to the distant sound of the frogs in the fields.

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8. -- Ça te dérange? demanda Turandot.
   -- Quelque peu, répondit l'amiral. Ce genre de bestiau me donne des complexes.
   -- Faut voir un psittaco-analyste, dit Gridoux.

   "Does that bother you?" asked Turandot.
   "It does, a bit," said the admiral. "That kind of creature I've got a complex about."
   "Better see a psittacoanalyst," said Gridoux.

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9. Doch nun ereignete sich etwas Unvorhergesehenes. Der Fremde, der merkwürdigerweise noch immmer angestrengt auf das schon abgeraüte Schachbrett starrte, schrak auf, da er alle Blicke auf sich gerichtet und sich so begeistert angesprochen fühlte. Seine Züge verwirrten sich.

   "Auf keinen Fall, meine Herren," stammelte er sichtlich betroffen. "Das ist völlig ausgeschlossen... ich komme gar nicht in Betracht... ich habe seit zwanzig, nein fünfundzwanzig Jaren vor keinem Schachbrett gesessen...und ich siehe erst jetzt, wie ungehörig ich mich betragen habe, indem ich mich ohne Ihre Verstattung in Ihr Spiel einmengte... Bitte, entschuldigen Sie meine Vordringlichkeit... ich will gewiß nicht weiter stören." Und noch ehe wir uns von unserer Überraschung zurechtgefunden, hatte er sich bereits zurückgezogen und das Zimmer verlassen.

   But now something unexpected happened. The stranger, who was still staring at the chessboard even though the pieces had been cleared away, stepped back when he realised that everybody was looking at him and that he was being spoken to with such wonder. He moved clumsily.

   "No, definitely not, gentlemen," he stammered, clearly uncomfortable. "That's quite impossible... I couldn't... I haven't played any chess for twenty years, no, twenty-five years...and I realise now that that I really should not have interfered in your game without your permission... Please, forgive my interruption... I shan't bother you again." And before we could recover from our surprise he had turned and left the room.

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10. Posterity may be shot, like a bullet through a tube, by atmospheric pressure from Winchester to Newcastle: that is a fine result to have among our hopes; but the slow old-fashioned way of getting from one end of the country to the other is the better thing to have in the memory.

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