This is a quite delightful story, and I look forward to lots of sequels – the Buffy/Mycroft pairing is most promising. I’m glad that the modern Mycroft is not corpulent like Conan Doyle's character, though.
The discussion about French translation has been very interesting, but another point caught my eye, namely Buffy’s title.
I don't know that the British honours system works the same in your universe as in the real one, but I’m assuming it does.
Firstly, Buffy must have dual nationality to hold a substantive (as opposed to honorary) title. Then there would be two ways in which she might be entitled to be Lady Elizabeth Summers: she could be the daughter of a duke, marquess or earl (unlikely, I think, though Buffy's mother has had all sorts of fanfictional partners), or she could be a Lady of the Garter (or Thistle) in her own right, which seems much more plausible.
If that is so, she would be Lady Elizabeth Summers or Lady Elizabeth in conversation, but never Lady Summers, unless someone wants to be insulting.
I’m sure that Mycroft is the sort of man who would know all that sort of thing, including whatever it was that Buffy did to be so honoured.
I wonder what it might have been?
Review By [Jazzibear] • Date [4 Mar 12] • Not Rated
I really enjoyed this! I love both series and this is just begging for another chapter! Well... Ok... I am begging for another chapter! It was really wonderful!
Ooo, me likey!!! Am I hallucinating or do I see a potential spark beteween Mycroft and Buffy? Hope to see more...
I'd also like to applaud your effort with the French. As someone that has to translate English and French every day I know how finicky online translators can be. I have learned that they are almost never good with entire sentences. For example, you had the meals properly named earlier in the chapter (“confit de canard” for preserved duck and “fricasse de poulet” for chicken in wine) but when you put the whole sentence in, it completely skewed the meaning.
I thought I'd give you a little trick: translate the parts of speech within the sentence, then put the puzzle back together.
The result is this: I will have = Je vais avoir/prendre the preserved duck = le confit de canard and = et The lady will have = la dame va avoir/prendre the chicken in wine = le fricasse de poulet with = avec A light salad = une salade légère To start = pour commencer/démarrer
Put it all together, and you get « Je vais avoir le confit de canard, et la dame va prendre le fricasse de poulet avec une salade légère pour commencer »
Or, if you want to get fancy and play with verb tenses and synonyms that are more syntaxically correct : « Je vais prendre le confit de canard, et la dame commencera avec une salade légère suivi par le fricasse de poulet. »
« Prendre » is literally translated as "take", but that is the word more commonly used when ordering food, « commencer » and « demarrer » both mean "start", but « demarrer » is more in the sense of starting an engine. « Commencera » is another way of saying « va commencer » which means "will start”and « suivi par » means "followed by".
Comments from author:
Thanks for the translation, I've fixed it in the story (well, I copied/pasted so...) :) Thank you!
Review By [lindiel] • Date [21 Feb 12] • Not Rated
monosyllabic means one--maybe you meant she did know polysyllabic words? . Next, have her meet Sherlock. And have him figure out she's some kind of killer based on body language and other clues. Could be fun. "Either an assassin or serial killer, hm..."
Review By [AllenPitt] • Date [21 Feb 12] • Not Rated
Luna