# "τόσο που η ίδια αποόμεινε έτσι"



## OssianX

This combination of phrases is eluding me.  The whole sentence is: "Λίγα λέπια έλαμπαν στα μαλλιά της και στο στήθος, τόσο που η ίδια απόμεινε έτσι να χαμογελάει με χρυσές κηλίδες."  (The previous sentence is about "'Αννα.")

Maybe it's the use of "η ίδια" here that I'm not understanding.  With "απόμεινε" does it mean "she remained the same," or does "η ίδια" simply mean "she" here?  Or (always a possibility!) am I missing the whole point?


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## Δημήτρης

Just remove "η ίδια" and "έτσι" and I think the meaning will be clear.


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## OssianX

Thanks.  Yes, I have found that "έτσι" just doesn't want to be translated at all.  But I'm still not clear about how "η ίδια" fits.  "A few scales gleamed in her hair and on her breast, so that she remained the same[,] smiling with gold glints."--??

If I've simply gotten to the place I usually get to, where the difficulties are poetry difficulties rather than language ones, so be it.  But I want to make sure I'm not missing something that would be plain to a native reader.


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## orthophron

Well, "η ίδια" is used as a pronoun (to avoid Μαρία being repeated). 
"τόσο που..." means "so much that..." (gleamed so much that...). "so that..." can also fit here; no big difference.
"έτσι" is usually translated "like this" (she remained like this)
As far as "λίγα" is concerned I also think it acts as "a few" rather than "few".


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## Δημήτρης

η ιδια means "herself", or, more natural in this context, "she". But as I said before, these to words are there just as fillers, no deep meaning besides the "poetic value" or whatever is called. "She remained smiling with gold glints".


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## ireney

I'd say that the use of "η ίδια" here can be only be considered poetic license.
In general it's used as "she herself", a way to emphasize the difference in action between person A and person(s) B.

Μας έλεγε να μην καπνίζουμε ενώ ο ίδιος κάπνιζε σαν φουγάρο.
Όλοι (οι άλλοι) πήγαν για ένα ποτό. Η ίδια κάθισε σπίτι να διαβάσει.

The part in question would be translated, as I see it, as "[...] so much so* that she herself remained so, smiling [...]"

*"at such a degree" or anything similar


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## OssianX

Many, many thanks to all.  I think I can feel how the meaning goes now.  (Interesting how different that is from just knowing what the words mean!)  And as always, it's especially helpful to me--translating poems--to know what seems odd to me just because I'm not fluent in Greek, and what seems odd to native speakers.


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