Mike Powell to Anton Shepelev:

> > And now they die (or are dying -- which is correct?) from a
> > wider variety of complications.
>
> I believe that either is actually correct.  :)

Lately I have had complictions in choosing between the Past Simple
and the Past Progressive. Desciribing the weather during the voyage
of the French cruiser Primauguet (where a mutiny is ripeining) to
the collonial Annam, Paustovsky writes:

> It was not wind but treacly sirup that came from Inidia.
> One's thoughts stuck in it like flies on viscid paper.

How do you find my translation? -- shall I have writ "was coming"?
I believe Paustovky avoided "blow" because it does not work with
"sirup".

---