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capri0mni"Irish Proverb"!
As promised, I changed a couple of details. I took out the "Irish proverb" bit, because I don't like things with labels and arrows, and stuff, unless it's to be ironic. And I only put it there in the first place because there was too much empty space on the bottom.
There are also a couple of other proverbs along this same vein, but talking about the negative side of the equation:
"It's often a person's tongue slit his throat," and: "It's often a person's mouth broke their nose." (Scene: John comes into work with his nose all bandaged and bruised. Tom looks up and asks: "So what boneheaded thing did you say this time?"). But I prefer the positive spin.
I suppose another Irish proverb would have been even more appropriate for talking about the lingering power of language: "Is buaine focal ná toice an tsaoil" (A word is more enduring than worldly wealth)
The writer who first, in 1915, paired the word handicapped with child probably spent the pay from that piece within the month, and we're still living with the consequences of that idea nearly 200 years later.
But the English translation is so clunky in comparison with the Irish, it kind of sets my teeth on edge. If I could come up with a translation with a similiar combination of meter and alliteration, I might use that instead. Until then, have "A good word."
As promised, I changed a couple of details. I took out the "Irish proverb" bit, because I don't like things with labels and arrows, and stuff, unless it's to be ironic. And I only put it there in the first place because there was too much empty space on the bottom.
There are also a couple of other proverbs along this same vein, but talking about the negative side of the equation:
"It's often a person's tongue slit his throat," and: "It's often a person's mouth broke their nose." (Scene: John comes into work with his nose all bandaged and bruised. Tom looks up and asks: "So what boneheaded thing did you say this time?"). But I prefer the positive spin.
I suppose another Irish proverb would have been even more appropriate for talking about the lingering power of language: "Is buaine focal ná toice an tsaoil" (A word is more enduring than worldly wealth)
The writer who first, in 1915, paired the word handicapped with child probably spent the pay from that piece within the month, and we're still living with the consequences of that idea nearly 200 years later.
But the English translation is so clunky in comparison with the Irish, it kind of sets my teeth on edge. If I could come up with a translation with a similiar combination of meter and alliteration, I might use that instead. Until then, have "A good word."
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Date: 2009-03-30 02:57 am (UTC)I love this one, too.
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Date: 2009-03-30 04:05 am (UTC)Also, it's got kind of a bidirectional thing going on: some people are so reluctant to say anything positive, you'd think they were afraid the word would chip a tooth on its way out of their mouth.
When actually, no... it won't.