I’m helping a friend translate The Rocking Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence. We’re stuck on the passage:
How can you smirk self-consciously? Does Lawrence actually intend self-concious to imply proud, rather than embarrassed? The story can be read here
It’d help to know what language you’re translating to…
Would it? Why? I’m just asking for some thoughts on the exact meaning. We’re translating to Vietnamese.
I ask because if it were in Chinese, I might be able to hunt down an idiom or two. Otherwise, I don’t think I can help you.
As far as the “self-consciously” goes, I think it’s supposed to mean “embarrassed”, and the usage of “smirk” clashes with that to set the mood. Or, it could be a wordplay thing. shrugs