Fragment of a Greek Tragedy reconsidered

[flemmings]

          In speculation
          I would not willingly acquire a name
                For ill-digested thought;
                But after pondering much
          To this conclusion I at last have come:
                PEOPLE ARE STUPID.
                This truth I have written deep
                In my reflective midriff
                On tablets not of wax,
          Nor with a pen did I inscribe it there,
          For many reasons:  PEOPLE, I say, ARE NOT
                STRANGERS TO STUPIDITY.
          Not from the flight of omen-yelling fowls
                This fact did I discover,
          Nor did the Delphine tripod bark it out,
                Nor yet Dodona.
          Its native ingenuity sufficed
                My self-taught diaphragm.

Housman's original is here. It's much funnier if you've read Aeschylus in Greek: about the only funny thing to reading Aeschylus in Greek, come to that.

I return to my newest discovered love (c.10 am this morning):  Singlish

This partly because when you spell Hokkien words out in romaji and say what they mean, their relation to Japanese on-yomi hits you between the eyes. This doesn't happen with mandarin. Stupid Manchu.

Comments

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

"our newly joined staff" is neither formal anglais nor Singlish.

No, but it's something a NAmerican would write, and doubtless has.

[mauvecloud.livejournal.com]

I got off my ass and googled. OMG, two too many returns, one from California, and one from, guesss, LRD ^^;;
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22our+newly+joined+staff%22&sourceid=mozilla&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

ehehehe! Now why doesn't that surprise me at all!? *wipes tear from eye* ^_~...

now what i would like to know is the origins of the word 'kaypo' It sounds like a (Chinese) dialect but no one can tell me and indeed one of my Chinese friends thinks its a Malay word! eh??!

[mauvecloud.livejournal.com]

Look, and dictionary will enlighten!

http://singlishdictionary.com/singlish_K.htm#kaypoh

Above 60 -> retiree/empty nest -> too much time on hands -> busybody

(your ignorant chinese friends... see the self-righteous mauvecloud's previous comment about being n-lingual)

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

Aaah! See I knew it was Chinese. Funny that my friend thought it was Malay though!

Well I keep telling hubby..you know *Sikit-sikit jadi bukit

*Sikit = contraction of sedikit = A little
jadi = makes or becomes
bukit = a hill

^_^

Thank you

[mauvecloud.livejournal.com]

Oh, bukit!

Anjing menyalak bukit, bukit tak runtuh pun!

(The dog barks at the hill; still the hill does not crumble)

Any time you need help with Singlish, or dialect (or Malay for that matter).

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

Sure thing. Thanks...and don't be surprised if I take you up on that offer.

One of the reasons I appealed to the girl's school to allow her to take up Mandarin instead of Malay is because my Malay is rubbish. I fumble through it at weddings and funerals with the 'olds' (although I may be of this generation already! Heh! ^_~)as it is, never mind being able to teach her.

At least with Mandarin there's a legitimate reason for giving her extra tuition.