Conference thebay::joyoflex

    "Eins, zwei, drei, fumf"  he said, "fier"lessly!
    
    Also, Nigel, did you know that *preservatives* are now legal in
    France?  I was walking with a few french friends (whose English
    isn't perfect) a while ago and tried to contribute to their 
    discussion about this change in law by saying I thought that the
    law prohibiting preservatives was essential to their food quality.
    Needless to say, it was confusing for a while!    

    MP

Hans, Gretel and their mother were walking along a mountain trail which
followed the top of a cliff.  Hans, not watching where he was going,
stumbled and fell off the cliff.  Whereupon, Gretel said:

"Look, Ma, no Hans!"
    

re: .1

	I always thought it was, "One man's FISH is another's poisson."

-- Sam

    Many years ago there was a cartoon series called "Fractured French"
    that appeared regularly in a weekly magazine - Collier's, I think.
    The idea was to show the French terms for common English phrases.
    It was quite good.  Unfortunately, I can remember only two of them.
    
    The first was "Your hat is on fire."  It was accompanied by a
    delightful cartoon showing one man whose hat was indeed on fire
    and who seemed oblivious to that fact.  A second man, with a startled
    look, was pointing to the hat and said to the victim: "Chateaubriand!"
    
    The second was "The bathroom light is out."  I don't remember what
    the cartoon was like, but I do recall that the proper way to say
    it in French is "Jeanne d'Arc!"
    
    Bernie
    

    Not quite the same as bilingual puns, but here are some
    mistranslations:

    Deutschland �ber Alles -- Alice got run over by a Volkswagen.

    Sic Transit Gloria Monday -- Gloria got sick on the bus Monday.

    In Hoc Signo Vinces -- I own a lot of money to Sen�r Vincent.

      Okay, you asked for it.
      
      Earlier this year, before people were afraid to travel in Europe,
      there were these two groups of tourists from Boston traveling
      the continent on different itineraries.  One day, though, both
      groups were in Paris, on the Champs Elysee; in fact they met at 
      the base of the Eiffel Tower.
      
      The tour guides knew that they would be shouting things to their
      groups, and so, to avoid confusion, the guides agreed to call
      their groups simply Tour A and Tour B.
      
      So group A went up the elevator first and group B was to follow
      a  few minutes later.   [You see it coming, right?]
      
      When the second group ascended in the elevator and arrived
      at the observation platform (I think that's what they call
      it), it was so crowded, that, pushed to the very edge of the
      platform...

      
      Tour Eiffel.
      
      
      Dave C.

When in London, I always order two eggs for breakfast, but in Paris, I only
order one.  Why? 

Because one egg is un oeuf.

    In German the words _fahre_ _fahren_ and _fahrt_ are the forms of
    the verb "I drive" "you drive" "he drives".  This leads to such
    usage as _einfahrt_ and _ausfahrt_, the on and off ramps for the
    Autobahn.  An old cartoon shows several of these type of signs 
    and an American Jeep which has gone off the highway and crashed
    into a tree.
    
    The caption:
    
    The poor guy didn't know which way to fahrt!
     

(re .1) One mans' Mede is another man's Persian.

    Re: .8 - I always heard it as "Why is there only one egg in a french
    omelette?"
    
    Re: .1, .4 - My Hawaiian papa always said "One man's meat is another
    man's poi, son."
    
    Mark Twain said he'd rather decline two drinks than one German verb,
    but I rather like a language in which you can order a dry martini,
    and they bring you three of them. (Yes, 'drei' humor...)
    
    Q. What did one dehydrated frenchman say to the other?
    A. "What do we do now, Pierre?"
    
    Those who can get by Ogden Nash's reputation will find occasional
    flashes of talent, and some multilingual humor, in 'The Old Dog Barks
    Backwards'. I remember something about the serendipity of an American
    who got lost, and asked (with his high school German) to find the
    autobahn. Another concerns a fracas in a french restaurant which so
    upset one patron that he leapt up and instead of shouting 
    
          ..."Ma foi!" (Which means "My faith")
          He said "Mon foie!" (Which means "my liver")
          Then out of shame he jumped into a river.

    Don't hold me to the quote. (I try not to make a Nash of myself.)

    In Canada, Bilingualism and biculturalism has long been a major
    feature. For example, the last time I stayed in a motel in Quebec,
    I turned on the shower and let the water run while I hunted for
    my shampoo. Came back, found the water too hot, turned up the tap
    marked 'C' a bit, stepped in, and was almost boiled alive. I called
    the manager to complain, and he opined that I had turned up the
    tap marked 'C' for 'Chaud'. I went and looked, then came back and
    barked that _both_ taps were marked 'C'. He said, "Ah, oui. The
    other tap is 'C' for 'Cold'. This is a bilingual province in a
    bilingual nation, monsieur."

    Rob

    

         "As someone once remarked to Schubert,
         'take me to your lieder'".
         
         			- Tom Lehrer
         
Bruce

P.S. Where does the period go in the quote?

My favorite piece of fractured French was
	"Tante pis, tante meillieur" 
which was translated as
	"Auntie feels better now"


		Nigel

>         "As someone once remarked to Schubert,
>         'take me to your lieder'".
         
>         			- Tom Lehrer
         
>Bruce

>P.S. Where does the period go in the quote?


Geez, I just hate to get into this again, but you did ask so...

The (.) goes inside BOTH sets of quotes as in,

	'take me to your lieder.'"

That according to BASIC GRAMMAR FOR WRITING by Ehrlich and Murphy

Mark

    My favorite was "Hors de combat"====="Camp Followers".

        Talking about shower taps a few notes back remined me if the
        Time when I was in Papua New Guinea, that one of the drivers
        working for me would regularly run out of petrol in the middle
        of no-where. It finally comae out that Petrol guages were Marked
        E (Enough)------ F(Finished)...
        
        q
        

    
    	
    	La belle dame sans mercie...
    
    		the beautiful lady who never says thank you.

    Pas de deux = Father of two
    

    At a tangent, but amusing I believe -
    
    There are a couple of books of poems in French knocking around which
    are English nursery rhymes transsomethinged into French. They are
    very funny, but make little sense. Here's the start of one -
    
    	Un petit d'un petit
    	S'etonne aux Halles
    
    Sorry, can't remember any more, nor the author's name. The first
    book is called Mots D'Heures, Gousses, Rames. Guess what, can't
    remember the second either!
    
    These new versions are funniest when read out by a French native
    speaker who doesn't know what they are based on. "This doesn't mean
    anything!" they say, and don't know why the audience is laughing
    at it all.
    
    Phillip

  I remember a song by Charles Aznavour that went something like this:
  
         You are the one, for me, for me, formidable!
         
         You are very, very veritable!
         
          couplet in French with English ending;
  
  	  English, You are Daisy, Daisy, desirable!
  
  	  French,
  
  	   etc.
  
  with the last word in each line coming from the opposite language. 
  Unfortunately, I can't reproduce the French here, but the song is very
  funny to listen to.
  
  
  						Terza
  
  

    There is a famous city in Bali, Indonesia, named Kintanmani.
    No Japanese can ever say that he went there.  (Even though Japanese
    make up nearly half of the tourists in Bali these days.)
    If a Japanese should try to tell another Japanese (male, anyway)
    that he went to Kintanmani, he would not be understood; the reply
    would just be "Yes, I have them."
    In Japanese -- and the word order is correct, though the omission
    of a particle makes it informal --
    "kin" = gold     "tama" = ball     "ni" = two..............

Re .19 I have a copy of the first book in front of me (good job I searched for
"petit" before posting the same rhyme, dammit). Its full title is :

	Mots d'Heures: Gousses, Rames (The d'Antin Manuscript)
	Edited and annotated by Luis d'Antin van Rooten
	Published by Angus and Robertson, 1967

Can anyone supply details of the second book ? From the first I particularly 
like :

       "Adieu, notes laiques," dit d'acteur frele
	D'horizon Hawaii canot tel
	Baux, dix anneaux en tonneau. Filou elle,
       "Adieu, notes laiques," dit d'acteur frele.

In the same vein are a number of other eclecticisms :

	Ladle Rat Rotten Hut (source mislaid for the mo')

	German and French versions of Jabberwocky ("Es brillig var ...")

martinB

re .22

>	Ladle Rat Rotten Hut (source mislaid for the mo')

See notes 208.7 and 208.9 in this conference.

Dave C.

Re: .22

Here is the Jabberwock poem in English, French and German.




		JABBERWOCK

by Lewis Carroll, et Frank Warrin, und Robert Scott


'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

	Il brilgue: les to^ves lubricilleux
	Se gyrent en vrillant dans le guave.
	Enmi^me's sont les gougebosqueux
	Et le mo^merade horsgrave.

		Es brillig war. Die schlichten Toven
		Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben;
		Und aller-mu"msige Burggoven
		Die mohmen Ra"th' ausgraben.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

	<<Garde-toi du Jaseroque, mon fils!
	La gueule qui mord; la griffe qui prend!
	Garde-toi de l'oiseau Jube, e'vite
	Le frumieux Band-a`-prend!>>

		>>Bewahre doch vor Jammerwoch!
		Die Za"hne knirschen, Krallen kratzen!
		Bewahr' vor Jubjub-Vogel, vor
		Frumio"sen Banderschna"tzchen!<<

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.

	Son glaive vorpal en main, il va-
	T-a` la recherche du fauve manscant;
	Puis arrive' a` l'arbre Te'-te',
	Il y reste, re'fle'chissant.

		Er griff sein vorpals Schwertchen zu,
		Er suchte lang das manchsam' Ding;
		Dann, stehend unterm Tumtum Baum,
		Er an-zu-denken-fing.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

	Pendant qu'il pense, tout uffuse',
	Le Jaseroque, a` l'oeil flambant,
	Vient siblant par le bois tullegeais,
	Et burbule en venant.

		Als stand er tief in Andacht auf,
		Des Jammerwochen's Augen-feuer
		Durch turgen Wald mit Wiffek kam
		Ein burbelnd Ungeheuer!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

	Un deux, un deux, par le milieu,
	Le glaive vorpal fait pat-a`-pan!
	La be^te de'faite, avec sa te^te,
	Il rentre gallomphant.

		Eins, Zwei! Eins, Zwei! Und durch und durch
		Sein vorpals Schwert zerschnifer-schnu"ck,
		Da blieb es todt! Er, Kopf in Hand,
		Gela"umfig zog zuru"ck.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

	<<As-tu tue' le Jaseroque?
	Viens a` mon coeur, fils rayonnais!
	O^ jour frabbejais! Calleau! Callai!>>
	Il cortule dans sa joie.

		>>Und schlugst Du ja den Jammerwoch?
		Umarme mich, mein Bo"hm'sches Kind!
		O Freuden-Tag! O Halloo-Schlag!<<
		Er schortelt froh-gesinnt.


'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

	Il brilgue: les to^ves lubricilleux
	Se gyrent en vrillant dans le guave.
	Enmi^me's sont les gougebosqueux
	Et le mo^merade horsgrave.

		Es brillig war. Die schlichten Toven
		Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben;
		Und aller-mu"msige Burggoven
		Die mohmen Ra"th' ausgraben.

 
    I came across the following in E. F. Benson's "As We Were" (an
    autobiographical account of the late Victorian era):
    
    	In those delicate days a certain lady more distinguished for
    	wealth than correct spelling, wrote to the Chairman of the
    	Peninsular and Oriental Company saying that she was going to India, 
    	and that she hoped he could manage to secure her a comfortable 
    	"birth". He replied that he would do his best, but that he could 
    	not guarantee her against "mal de m�re". This was considered witty 
    	but far from nice.

    -b

    [Heard years ago on the BBC Radio 4 programme `Quote Unquote']
 
    It is a little known fact that the French Navy has for many years had a
    motto, the mere mention of which excites its hot-blooded members to
    combat and conquest.
 
    In English it can be rendered "To the water; it is time".
 
    In the original French, however, it reads:  "A l'eau; c'est l'heure".

    G'day
    
    I love it!  I love it!  I love it!  I love it!  I love it!  I love it! 
     I love it!  
    
    derek

    re .26:		Bravo!

    
    
    >     There is a famous city in Bali, Indonesia, named Kintanmani.
    
    No there is not, there is a famous volcano of that name however
    and a village to go with it.
    
    Nigel