Coffee Break
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- Feb 13, 2022
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Hello everyone. I encountered this expression, "lord of all ships in the catalog of ships, give us a sign, tell us, oh, boatswain, what of this night", but am struggling to understand it. Could you please let me know what it means in the following sentences:
“Look to your right,” she said, having spotted it before I did. And there it was, exactly where we’d left it earlier this morning, anchored smack in the middle of the Hudson, the Prince Oscar, our beacon, our lodestar, our emblem, our double, our namesake, our spellbound word for the things we had no words for—love of my life, my dear, dear Prince Oscar, dear, troubled ship that you are, lord of all ships in the catalog of ships, give us a sign, tell us, oh, boatswain, what of this night, tell us of this land of dreams you ferry passengers to, tell us what’s to become of us, what’s to become of me—can you hear?
- André Aciman, Eight White Nights, Third Night
This is a novel published in the United States of America in 2010. This novel is narrated by the nameless male protagonist. The protagonist meets Clara at a Christmas party in Manhattan. Two days after the party, Clara came to the protagonist's house at 8 o'clock in the morning and drove him to the house of the grandparents of Inky (her childhood friend and ex-boyfriend). During the drive, they spotted a ship named "Prince Oscar" and made a joke with it all day. After spending some hours at their house, they are now driving back to the city, which is when they spot the Prince Oscar ship again.
Here, I wonder what the underlined expression means.
(1) What would it mean that it is the lord of all ships "in the catalog of ships", as if there are some lists of boat names...?
(2) And, would it be okay to understand that "tell us" goes with "what of this night," to mean "speak about anything about this night to us"? (But this is just my guess. )
(3) Also, this is just my small question, but I wonder whether it would be okay to understand that the ship itself is being referred to as "boatswain (ship's officer in charge of equipment and the crew)".
I would very much appreciate your help.
“Look to your right,” she said, having spotted it before I did. And there it was, exactly where we’d left it earlier this morning, anchored smack in the middle of the Hudson, the Prince Oscar, our beacon, our lodestar, our emblem, our double, our namesake, our spellbound word for the things we had no words for—love of my life, my dear, dear Prince Oscar, dear, troubled ship that you are, lord of all ships in the catalog of ships, give us a sign, tell us, oh, boatswain, what of this night, tell us of this land of dreams you ferry passengers to, tell us what’s to become of us, what’s to become of me—can you hear?
- André Aciman, Eight White Nights, Third Night
This is a novel published in the United States of America in 2010. This novel is narrated by the nameless male protagonist. The protagonist meets Clara at a Christmas party in Manhattan. Two days after the party, Clara came to the protagonist's house at 8 o'clock in the morning and drove him to the house of the grandparents of Inky (her childhood friend and ex-boyfriend). During the drive, they spotted a ship named "Prince Oscar" and made a joke with it all day. After spending some hours at their house, they are now driving back to the city, which is when they spot the Prince Oscar ship again.
Here, I wonder what the underlined expression means.
(1) What would it mean that it is the lord of all ships "in the catalog of ships", as if there are some lists of boat names...?
(2) And, would it be okay to understand that "tell us" goes with "what of this night," to mean "speak about anything about this night to us"? (But this is just my guess. )
(3) Also, this is just my small question, but I wonder whether it would be okay to understand that the ship itself is being referred to as "boatswain (ship's officer in charge of equipment and the crew)".
I would very much appreciate your help.