For some time now, one of the evil characters [the wife of Ertugrul’s
brother] has been complaining, if the subtitles are to be believed, about “that
ominous girl” [Halime, Erturgrul’s beloved and, historically, the mother of the
first ruler of the Ottoman Empire]. This
has mystified me, because that simply isn’t an adjective one would use in
English to describe a person. So,
learning from my wise and faithful commentators, I first asked Google for the
Turkish translation of “ominous.” Back came “ugursuz” [never mind the diacritical marks.] Then I asked Google what the English is for “ugursuz”
and up popped “sinister,” which makes perfectly good sense. [All of this reminds me of Mark Twain’s
delightful essay, “The Awful German Language,” which I read as a boy.] Now, of course, “sinister” is from the Latin
for “left,” the opposite of “righteous” or “filled with rectitude,” so I guess
a Turkish translation of an English newspaper story about the sinister acts of
Donald Trump might make him out to be left-handed.
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