Eyes made gold ...

[Johnyxxx]

Hi there,

I am not sure if I can properly understand the meaning of eyes made gold. The context is:

"In orpiment and filemot the pageant woods glowed in the luminous golden autumn afternoon. My eyes made gold by so much color, my spirit jocund itself to watch the frolic lustihood of bird and squirrel life in the trees.

Will appreciate any help.

 

[bhaisahab]

Where is this text from?

 

[Johnyxxx]

The Dark Chamber by Leonard Cline, 1927.

 

[MikeNewYork]

My guess is the gold color was reflecting off the person's cornea.

 

[Raymott]

Ouch! That is some weird writing. Only my opinion, of course.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Yes, but I like squirrels. :-D

 

[Rover_KE]

That is some weird writing.

It sure is. What surprises me is that 'eyes made gold' is the only bit that johny didn't get.

 

[Johnyxxx]

I have no problem in understanding the rest. Though I must admit I had to look up the meaning of "orpiment" and "filemont"; not commonly used words.

 

[Tdol]

It's the impact of so much gold light hitting the eyes. Is the rest of this book written in this style? If so, it looks as if it would be very hard work. :up:

 

[Johnyxxx]

It's the impact of so much gold light hitting the eyes. Is the rest of this book written in this style? If so, it looks as if it would be very hard work. :up:

Though the book is written in a distinguished style, one can understand almost everything and what seems to be baffling at first glance one can guess what it is about after re-reading it. But here and there the book contains really strange phrases like those I have mentioned here or sentences like:


"Miriam was a fell trunk whose core swirled with the coiling glow of phosphorus, but dun outside, giving no sighn of the fire, while Janet was a hill by a marsh, frantic with the flitting of will-o´-the-wisps."

"Casually in moments of leisure, on a train or tram, at the theater during a dull act he would solicit some vouchsafement out of his past."

"A girls sang a song that fell in languid portamento through green chromatic intervals."

So no wonder that a fan of this literature who is not a native speaker needs to help sometimes from someone whose intimacy with English is much broader.