My Volda correspondent just sent an SMS I’m sure she won’t mind my sharing: “Torill was brilliant in a fast-paced repartee with Stuart. Second part starting now, flowers bought for this evening.” (Actually the original says “Torill briljerte i samspill med Stuart”, which I can’t translate. The repartee may not have been “fast” but it sounds that way to me. Why doesn’t English have a verb like “Â briljere”, to brilliant, to shine, I suppose, but to brilliant is better. “Samspill” is a good word too: to play together, as in music, complementing each other. Perhaps English isn’t richer than Norwegian, just different.) Update! At 13:55:07 Hanne-Lovise sent a new SMS: Torill’s a doctor!!!!! HOORAY! Update 2! Torill sent an SMS saying it was wonderful, she’d love to do it again, she’d recommend it to anyone! Yay! She even remembered to breathe.


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3 thoughts on “to brilliant

  1. Katja

    “Scintillated”? As in, “Torill scintillated in wordplay with Stuart?” Or “sparkled”?

    Disclaimer: I know no Scandanavian languages.

  2. Esther

    ‘Outshone herself’, perhaps?

    Disclaimer: Neither do I!

  3. Anders

    I would suggest ‘sparkled’ for ‘briljerte’. If you want to translate ‘i samspill med’ in a way that keeps the musical metaphor, you might try “in ensemble with” or “in counterpoint with”, but I agree, neither is accurate.

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