comme ci, comme ça

A discussion of the peculiarities of languages and the differences between them.
brogine
Lexiterian
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Joined: Sun Feb 11, 2007 4:41 pm

comme ci, comme ça

Postby brogine » Thu Feb 11, 2021 4:17 pm

I’ve been remembering what must be the perfect appositive epigram. I heard it years ago on Groucho Marx’s TV show You Bet Your Life. It could be German or Yiddish - I believe it would be the same in the two. A woman was responding to Groucho’s inquiry about how things were going.

Unter dem Pferd oder auf dem Pferd.
Under the horse or atop the horse.

Elegant in its simplicity - brief clauses identical but for diametrically opposite prepositions. Which only amplifies the contrast - beneath the hooves of a large (if merely herbivorous) beast, or astride one’s mount, “ . . . the master of my fate,/ . . . the captain of my soul.”

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Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
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Re: comme ci, comme ça

Postby Slava » Sat Feb 10, 2024 8:38 am

I find the internot annoying at times. Frequently, to be honest. Though the translation is given here, I decided to give the German a whirl on Wahoo! and see what it came up with. While there was a box at the top with the correct translation, every suggested link thereafter ignored most of the phrase. 'Auf dem pferd' was common, 'pferd' by itself, the declension of 'pferd', etc. Not one for the first 3 words of the phrase, though.

That's why I call it the internot.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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