Of Cabbages and Kings A phrase that I saw here on italki got me thinking: "cabbages and kings". It means "gossip" and is an expression you bump into occasionally. It originates from the narrative poem

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Miriam

Of Cabbages and Kings

A phrase that I saw here on italki got me thinking: "cabbages and kings". It means "gossip" and is an expression you bump into occasionally. It originates from the narrative poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter" (1871) by Lewis Caroll (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walrus_and_the_Carpenter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walrus_and_the_Carpenter</a>;) that appears in his book "Through the looking glass". The generation that grew up with Alice in Wonderland might also know it from the 1950s Disney movie: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00WCEbKM_SE" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00WCEbKM_SE</a>;. Starting from 1:27 the following part of the poem is depicted.

The time has come,' the Walrus said,

To talk of many things:

Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —

Of cabbages — and kings —

And why the sea is boiling hot —

And whether pigs have wings.'

O. Henry named his novel from 1904 "Cabbages and kings" and coined the term "banana republic" in this book: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbages_and_Kings_(novel)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbages_and_Kings_(novel)</a>.

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is also famous in Germany (well, among my generation), "Through the Looking-Glass" is lesser known. I don't think that the average German is familiar with the above mentioned poem. For those interested in German, here's a translation of the verse:

„Nun plaudern wir", das Walroß sprach,

und schaut' sich freundlich um,

„Von Schuhen — Schiffen — Siegellack —

von Kraut und Königtum,

und ob ein Wildschwein Flügel hat,

und wenn's sie hat, warum?"

I'd like to know how commonly used the expression "cabbages and kings" is. Does it depend on region or generation or is every native English speaker familiar with it?

Did you read the works of Lewis Caroll? (Let's talk about the Jabberwocky next... ;))

9 Thg 11 2019 20:06

Bình luận · 18

THE POBBLE WHO HAS NO TOES.

The Pobble who has no toes

Had once as many as we;

When they said, "Some day you may lose them all;"

He replied, "Fish fiddle de-dee!"

And his Aunt Jobiska made him drink

Lavender water tinged with pink;

For she said, "The World in general knows

There's nothing so good for a Pobble's toes!"

II.

The Pobble who has no toes,

Swam across the Bristol Channel;

But before he set out he wrapped his nose

In a piece of scarlet flannel.

For his Aunt Jobiska said, "No harm

Can come to his toes if his nose is warm;

And it's perfectly known that a Pobble's toes

Are safe—provided he minds his nose."

III.

The Pobble swam fast and well,

And when boats or ships came near him,

He tinkledy-binkledy-winkled a bell

So that all the world could hear him.

And all the Sailors and Admirals cried,

When they saw him nearing the further side,—

"He has gone to fish, for his Aunt Jobiska's

Runcible Cat with crimson whiskers!"

IV.

But before he touched the shore,—

The shore of the Bristol Channel,

A sea-green Porpoise carried away

His wrapper of scarlet flannel.

And when he came to observe his feet,

Formerly garnished with toes so neat,

His face at once became forlorn

On perceiving that all his toes were gone!

And nobody ever knew,

From that dark day to the present,

Whoso had taken the Pobble's toes,

In a manner so far from pleasant.

Whether the shrimps or crawfish gray,

Or crafty Mermaids stole them away,

Nobody knew; and nobody knows

How the Pobble was robbed of his twice five toes!

VI.

The Pobble who has no toes

Was placed in a friendly Bark,

And they rowed him back, and carried him up

To his Aunt Jobiska's Park.

And she made him a feast, at his earnest wish,

Of eggs and buttercups fried with fish;

And she said, "It's a fact the whole world knows,

That Pobbles are happier without their toes."

--Edward Lear

16 tháng 11 năm 2019

@David

Oh, yes! Ringelnatz is another great German poet!

I found these translations:

<a href="http://www.beilharz.com/poetas/ringelnatz/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.beilharz.com/poetas/ringelnatz/</a>;

The Postage Stamp

A postage stamp, male, was elated

With joy, before he was dated.

A princess licked him, by Jove!

Which did awaken his love.

He wanted to kiss her back

But had to go on a trek.

His love was thus unavailing

So sad is often life's failing.

<a href="https://www.stonefencereviewmag.com/spring-2019-poetry/2019/5/23/translated-poetry-by-ethan-weinstein" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.stonefencereviewmag.com/spring-2019-poetry/2019/5/23/translated-poetry-by-ethan-weinstein</a>;

Reason

The night was cold, crisp, the air,

There drifted in the sea

A Swahili moustache hair. -

The next ship‘s clock showed three.

I find in me a question brewing.

You ask, if you have reason,

What’s a Swahili moustache hair doing

At 3 am during fishing season?

18 tháng 11 năm 2019

@ Miriam

Thanks for the Christian Morgenstern links and the translations. Much appreciated.

A writer of a similar genre whose poems always make me smile is Joachim Ringelnatz. I’m sure you know him, but others reading here might not. I’m not aware of any translations.

Here are three examples:

(1) Ein männlicher Briefmark erlebte

Ein männlicher Briefmark erlebte

Was Schönes, bevor er klebte.

Er war von einer Prinzessin beleckt.

Da war die Liebe in ihm erweckt.

Er wollte sie wiederküssen,

Da hat er verreisen müssen.

So liebte er sie vergebens.

Das ist die Tragik des Lebens!

(2) Logik

Die Nacht war kalt und sternenklar,

da trieb im Meer bei Norderney

ein Suahelischnurrbarthaar -

die nächste Schiffsuhr wies auf drei.

Mir scheint da mancherlei nicht klar:

man fragt doch, wenn man Logik hat,

Was sucht ein Suahelihaar

denn nachts um drei am Kattegatt?

(3) Es waren einmal zwei Gummischuh

Es waren einmal zwei Gummischuh,

Die waren stehen gelassen.

Ihr Herr, der suchte sie immerzu

Und konnte sie nirgend fassen.

Er suchte sie nah und suchte sie fern,

Er suchte sie vorn und hinten,

Und die Gummischuhe suchten den Herrn

Und konnten ihn nirgend finden.

Der Herr durchsuchte die ganze Welt;

Die Gummischuhe desgleichen,

Und wenn die Sache so weiter geht,

So werden sie nie sich erreichen.

17 tháng 11 năm 2019

I'm no real poet but I also do like to rhyme from time to time. These are two funny poems I once posted as notebook entries:

A poem about a blobfish

Bob, the blob

lives deep in the sea.

He has no shape,

no leg and no knee.

He’s ever so ugly.

The skin pale and gray

His face looks so smugly

Better keep him at bay

The eyes are so tiny

The nose huge and flat

His element’s the briny

And his friend is the sprat.

“How dare you say

that I have no shape?

You hairy big monster

who looks like an

ape?

The sea is my realm

I’m elegant and smooth

I do overwhelm

With my beauty and youth

My flesh is like jelly

And helps me to float

Being dragged up is deadly

And will make me bloat.“

See Bob the blob here: <a href="https://www.italki.com/notebook/2918439/entry/950700" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.italki.com/notebook/2918439/entry/950700</a>;

Nebula, the defunct skunk

Down in Indiana

There is a famous pet

It likes to eat banana

And doesn't wet its bed

A lovely little skunk

Nebula is its name

A white albino punk

Snuggly, cute and tame

The thing it loves the most

is sitting on a shoulder

taking up its post

and cuddling with its holder

A skunk, a pet, how can that be?

A dangerous creature that might pee

The minute that I stroke its head

Its stinking liquid as a threat!

Relax, sit back, and pet it well

No danger of a nasty smell

It doesn't spray, that little bugger

It's a defunct skunk, the little hugger

This poem was based on a radio report I heard. I misheard "defunked" as "defunct". Read more about the background of this poem here: <a href="https://www.italki.com/notebook/2918439/entry/947920" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.italki.com/notebook/2918439/entry/947920</a>;

17 tháng 11 năm 2019

Oh, well, yes, if we're just free-associating here: a big yes to David and yes to Tom Lehrer, one of the most brilliant satirical lyricists... ever. He is still alive but stopped writing songs around the 1970s. That was a tragic loss, and more or less unexplained. It is as if Mozart or George Gershwin had lived to age 90 but quit writing music in their forties.

Something reminds me of a Lehrer song practically every week or so. Perhaps a little more often lately :) .

Two non-satirical songs, that every English language listener should listen to, are

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91BQqdNOUxs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Silent E</a> and

They're not only didactic, they're good songs. Annoying earworms, in fact, you'll be singing them all day.

It is hard to pick out a favorite. The quality of his output was incredible. But certainly one of my favorites is:

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaHDBL7dVgs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smut</a>.

It's also an interesting example of the "Harvard accent." Notice the rolled R on the word "ribald."

The general reference is to a series of court cases in the 1960s, the time of the "sexual revolution," that more or less struck down any bans on "adult" material.

I hope it's not too much of a spoiler to say that I think the following lines are among the most clever bits of song lyric ever penned in the English language. Lehrer incorporated the actual words of a key legal ruling into the song and made them rhyme and fit the meter, with an internal rhyme on a musical beat.

As the judge remarked the day that he

Acquitted my Aunt Hortense:

"To be smut it must be utterly

Without redeeming social importance."

I am quite sure that this song is untranslatable, in the sense that not only would it be hard to duplicate the rhymes, but also that the words of the legal ruling would be unfamiliar to a non-US audience. (And to younger US audiences). You wouldn't experience the incongruity and surprise of hearing these words, set to music and rhyming.

17 tháng 11 năm 2019

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Miriam

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