[Vwoolf] "What a lark! What a plunge!" (Could Woolf have had the bird in mind?)

[Iolanda Plescia]

Hello! 
The OED considers it possible that the verb ’to lark’ and the connected noun might have originated in a (now dead) metaphor relating precisely to the rapid, vertical ascension movement of the bird: "On the other hand, it is quite as likely that the word may have originated in some allusion to lark n.1 <https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/105876#eid39739718>; compare the similar use of skylark verb, which is found a few years earlier (1809)."

Our foremost translator of Woolf in Italian, Nadia Fusini, who is also a literary critic and writer in her own right, has always said she was inspired by the bird in her translation, which she changed a few times before settling on a bold, and quite independent, solution: ‘Che gioia, che terrore’ (lit. What joy, what terror). Fusini has said she felt the need to express the swift upward and downwards plunge which represents, in her interpretation, the movement between comedy and tragedy in life which is one of the main themes of the novel. Another metaphor she uses to explain her choice is the idea of upbeat and downbeat rhythms in music which she feels is reproduced throughout the novel in both language and form. 

All the best to everyone from Rome, 
Iolanda

> On 29 Jun 2020, at 10:09, Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:
> 
> I agree that the dominant meaning of "lark" here is "a bit of fun." Etymologically this is unconnected to lark=bird; "laiking" is Yorkshire and Lancashire dialect for playing (as opposed to working), and "lark" both as verb and noun is related to modern Norwegian "å leke": to play (Woolf would not have known this but Joyce might!). Partridge relates the word to ON leika and OE lācan. (Insert joke here about Lacan and the play of the signifier.)
> 
> But I have often wondered whether there might also be a hint at the bird, which is characterized by rapid ascending and descending vertical movements, hence plunging. Bird and cognates appear 20 times in the novel, and Scrope Purvis thinks that there is a touch of the bird about Clarissa - although he goes on to mention not a lark but a jay, a very different bird.
> 
> Jeremy H
> 
> 
> On 29.06.2020 06:32, Regina Marler via Vwoolf wrote:
>> Not the bird, I think. A lark, as in a bit of fun. A plunge, as in the moment one dares something: plunging into adventure.
>> 
>> All best,
>> 
>> Regina
> 
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