Proverbs, songs and stories
Jul. 23rd, 2005 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mniSo... As you know, I've written a couple of songs based on Irish proverbs. I like basing songs on proverbs, because they're pithy, often ironic sayings (the irony's important, imnsho), about usually common experiences. And they give me something to write about without falling into the "Oh, poor me!" whiny trap.
Anyway, the proverb I've decided to tackle now is: "Whoever will bring you one story, will take away two," which I found online, here.
One of the main reasons I want to write this song is to answer the compilers of the proverb archive, and tell them they arewrong not entirely right in their interpretation. They wrote:
Note: This is more an Irish protocol than a proverb. If someone tells you a story, then you are expected to tell two in return. It is similar to the Irish greeting protocol; if someone greets you with a blessing, "Dia duit" (God to you) then you are expected to return a greater blessing, "Dia's Muire duit" (God and the Blessed Virgin Mary to you). Another interpretation suggests that the two stories taken from you are the one you told and the one the story-teller told. In any case, you are expected to give at least as good as you got.
This may be Irish protocol, but it's not more protocol than proverb. I get a good strong whiff of that old proverbial irony, and warning about the twists in life. Because even if you don't open your mouth to utter one word, the person who brings you one story will take two away -- the first, the story he (or she) brought, and the second, the story he (or she) will tell to the next person -- the story about meeting you. So you better be on your best behavior when you have a visitor, because you can either be a hero or a villian in the next story (and, you know, knowing humans, you're liable to be talked about, for good or ill, when you're not in the room).
And speaking of Irish manners, here's a story about how's it's good manners to always have a story to tell, just in case. And if you're too shy to tell a story? Don't let the door hit you on the way out!
The problem I'm having (I think it's a problem, it may not be) is that in today's literate society, you get stories from books. Books are things you read alone, and they're things you write alone (never mind the fact that even modern writers are compulsive eavesdroppers). The idea of stories having legs, and of traveling storytellers telling everyone he or she meets all about you, is rather foreign.
I may write the song as a ballad, and tell a story like the one above, about a traveling storyteller, and the people he meets (maybe a chain song, like "The old woman who swallowed a fly")...
Whatcha think?
Anyway, the proverb I've decided to tackle now is: "Whoever will bring you one story, will take away two," which I found online, here.
One of the main reasons I want to write this song is to answer the compilers of the proverb archive, and tell them they are
Note: This is more an Irish protocol than a proverb. If someone tells you a story, then you are expected to tell two in return. It is similar to the Irish greeting protocol; if someone greets you with a blessing, "Dia duit" (God to you) then you are expected to return a greater blessing, "Dia's Muire duit" (God and the Blessed Virgin Mary to you). Another interpretation suggests that the two stories taken from you are the one you told and the one the story-teller told. In any case, you are expected to give at least as good as you got.
This may be Irish protocol, but it's not more protocol than proverb. I get a good strong whiff of that old proverbial irony, and warning about the twists in life. Because even if you don't open your mouth to utter one word, the person who brings you one story will take two away -- the first, the story he (or she) brought, and the second, the story he (or she) will tell to the next person -- the story about meeting you. So you better be on your best behavior when you have a visitor, because you can either be a hero or a villian in the next story (and, you know, knowing humans, you're liable to be talked about, for good or ill, when you're not in the room).
And speaking of Irish manners, here's a story about how's it's good manners to always have a story to tell, just in case. And if you're too shy to tell a story? Don't let the door hit you on the way out!
The problem I'm having (I think it's a problem, it may not be) is that in today's literate society, you get stories from books. Books are things you read alone, and they're things you write alone (never mind the fact that even modern writers are compulsive eavesdroppers). The idea of stories having legs, and of traveling storytellers telling everyone he or she meets all about you, is rather foreign.
I may write the song as a ballad, and tell a story like the one above, about a traveling storyteller, and the people he meets (maybe a chain song, like "The old woman who swallowed a fly")...
Whatcha think?
