Messages: 26
Language: English
J_Marc (User's profile) January 30, 2013, 7:39:08 AM
jkph00:Perhaps the phrase "ne la plej feliĉa semo en la frago" would work as an Esperanto metaphor simply because a person would immediately realize happiness cannot apply to a strawberry and thus must apply to someone or -thing else?I am quite sure that the use of the word 'strawberry' (not to mention the alliteration of the s) is intended not just to draw attention to the unhappiness, but to raise the spirits of the 'unhappiest seed', and/or others nearby whose moods are being affected by that same unhappiest seed. This works because the image of a strawberry is sweet, joyful, innocent, harmless. The mere mention of it is a mood elevator.
To demonstrate this by using the contrast of something that is not joyful or sweet, one would never say 'not the happiest bullet in the gun' for this same situation, or 'not the happiest file in the briefcase'.
The Esperanto translation of this phrase must therefore include this mood-raising and cute/funny subtext.
sudanglo (User's profile) January 30, 2013, 12:01:51 PM
"Ne la plej feliĉa floro en la bukedo"I like it.
But perhaps this comparison would work even better for a disparaging comment on someone's looks Ŝi ne estas la plej bela floro en la bukedo
jkph00 (User's profile) January 30, 2013, 10:46:30 PM
sudanglo:And with such considerate good manners, too!"Ne la plej feliĉa floro en la bukedo"I like it.
But perhaps this comparison would work even better for a disparaging comment on someone's looks Ŝi ne estas la plej bela floro en la bukedo
Here in the South we're a bit more direct, I fear: "ugly as a mud fence" (tiel malbela kiel ŝlimbarilo?).
jkph00 (User's profile) January 30, 2013, 10:50:15 PM
erinja:Maybe "Ne la plej feliĉa floro en la bukedo" (not the happiest flower in the bouquet) works. I think of flowers as being an unreservedly "happy" thing. You can also imagine a wilted flower drooping, mimicing an unhappy person.That's certainly a pleasing metaphor and I would certainly understand it immediately. Thank you!
erinja (User's profile) January 31, 2013, 3:20:34 AM
(I'm not a southerner but I confess that I've been tempted to use this euphemism in Esperanto once or twice - Benu lian/ŝian koron!)
jkph00 (User's profile) February 3, 2013, 2:23:41 PM
erinja:No, in the South, if you want to call someone ugly or stupid or incompetent or whatever, you just say "Bless his/her heart". And it's understood!That's true, Erinja. If I hear someone say, "He's ugly as a mud fence, bless his heart," I know they're sympathetic. It's not his fault. If, on the other hand, they preface it with, "They must have spit that baby. He's ugly as a mud fence," it's clear there's no sympathy there.
I used to hear my relatives say of me, "He's so skinny he has to run around in the shower to get wet, bless his heart."