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11th ProZ.com translation contest: "Contemporary society" » English to Swahili » Entry by Aloyce Joseph


Source text in English

Translation by Aloyce Joseph (#13679)

We're accustomed to glamour in London SE26: Kelly Brook and Jason Statham used to live above the dentist. But when Anouska Hempel's heels hit the cracked cement of the parking space outside my flat, it's hard not to think of those Picture Post photographs of royalty visiting bombed-out families during the second world war. Her mission in my modest tract of suburbia is, however, about more than offering sympathy. Hempel—the woman who invented the boutique hotel before it bore any such proprietary name—has come to give me information for which, judging by the spreads in interiors magazines and anxious postings on online DIY forums, half the property-owners in the Western world seem desperate: how to give an ordinary home the look and the vibe of a five-star, £750-a-night hotel suite. To Hem­pelise, in this case, a modest conversion flat formed from the middle slice of a three-storey Victorian semi.

"You could do it," she says, casting an eye around my kitchen. "Anyone could do it. Absolutely no reason why not. But there has to be continuity between the rooms. A single idea must be followed through." She looks out wistfully over the fire escape. "And you'd have to buy the house next door, of course." That's a joke. I think.

...

It's worth pausing, though, to consider the oddness of this impulse. The hotel room is an amnesiac space. We would be troubled if it bore any sign of a previous occupant, particularly as many of us go to hotels in order to do things we would not do at home. We expect a hotel room to be cleaned as thoroughly as if a corpse had just been hauled from the bed. (In some cases, this will actually have happened.) The domestic interior embodies the opposite idea: it is a repository of memories. The story of its inhabitants ought to be there in the photos on the mantelpiece, the pictures on the wall, the books on the shelves. If hotel rooms were people, they would be smiling lobotomy patients or plausible psychopaths.
Tumezoea uzuri na mvuto londoni SE26, Kelly brook na statham walikuwa wakiishi juu ya daktari wa meno. Lakini siku visigino vya Anouska Hempel’s vilipo gusa sakafu iliyokwisha weka nyufa katika ua wa nyumba yangu, si rahisi tusifikirie kuhusu picha zile zilizotundikwa za malkia akitembelea nyumba zilizobomolewa kwa mabomu kipindi cha vita ya pili vya dunia. Malengo yake kwa mtazamo wangu kwa kufuata wazo la suburbia ni zaidi ya kuonesha masikitiko yake kwa ujumla. Hempel mwanamke aliye anzisha hotel ya boutique kabla hata haijajipatia jina hilo alikuja kunipa habari ambazo kwa mujibu wa maelezo yaliyoko katika magazeti ya ndani na maingizo katika katika mtandao wa DIY. Nusu ya wamiliki wa mali hizo walioko magharibi mwa dunia walikuwa wamejawa na hofu. Utawezaje kubadili mwonekano wa kawaida wa nyumbani kuwa wa nyota tano., iwe na thamani ya paundi 750 hotel . ni kuiweka kama atakavyo hempel, katika maongezi haya tunamaanisha nyumba ya kadiri yenye ghorofa tatu .

'Unaweza kufanya hivyo, ' anasema,huku akipitisha macho kuzunguka jiko langu. 'Mtu yeyote anaweza kufanya hivyo kabisa hakuna sababu kwa nini tusifanye hayo. Lakini inabidi kuwe na mwendelezo katika vyumba. wazo moja lazima lizingatiwe wakati wote. 'alitazama nje kwa tafakari kupitia mlango wa dharura ya moto, unapaswa kununua nyumba iliyoko jirani yako . bila shaka ilikuwa ni mzaha ninadhani.

Kuna thamani kutulizana, ingawa, kwa kuzingatia hali halisi ya msukumo huu. chumba hoteli ni nafasi kutulizana na kupumzika. Itakuwa ni tatizo kama kutakuwepo na mabaki ya insahara za mkazi aliyetangulia. Sababu wengi wetu huwa tunakwenda hotelini kufanya vitu ambavyo hatuwezi kufanya tukiwa nyumbani. Tunatarajia chumba cha hoteli kuwa safi kabisa. (hii imetokea kweli katika baadhi ya matukio) Mambo ya ndani nyumbani yanaleta wazo tofauti, ni hazina ya kumbukumbu. hadithi ya wakazi wake inapaswa iwakilishwe kwa picha zilizoko katika fremu, ukutani na vitabu vilivyoko katika rafu. Kama vyumba vya hotel vingekuwa ni watu basi wangekuwa wanatabasamia wagonjwa wafanyakazi wa maabara lobotomy au psychopaths plausible.


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