I enjoyed reading a couple of snippets on amusing uses of language in Column 8 of yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald. One contributor wrote:
All Column 8ers who know their French translations will tell you that a coup de grace is a French lawnmower; pas de deux, the father of twins; esprit de corps, embalming fluid; and, finally, hors de combat, a cavalry charge.
Another contributor commented on a form of speech known as chiastic alliteration, examples of which include:
If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
Ask now what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
A somewhat different style of chiastic alliteration is found at Ecclesiastes 7:1 which is clear in the Hebrew but disguised in English translations: tob shem misshemen tob. The standard English rendering is something like “a good name (reputation) is better than good perfume.” The pattern is clearly chiastic: A B C B A. But as the Hebrew indicates there is a play on the sound of the word shem, which appears to be impossible to capture in English, unless there is a word for ointment or perfume which forms a homonym for a word for name or reputation.
Posted December 22, 2010
www.facetofaceintercultural.com.au
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