|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Date: Fri Aug 20 00:02:00 EDT 1999
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Job's comforter
Job's comforter (johbz KUM-fuhr-tuhr) noun
One who is discouraging or saddening while seemingly offering
sympathy or comfort.
[After Job, whose friends pretended to comfort but actually found
fault with him.]
"Napoleon was but a Job's-comforter, when he told his wounded staff
officer, twice unhorsed by cannon-balls, and with half his limbs
blown to pieces: `Vous vous ecoutez trop!'"
Carlyle, Thomas, Characteristics: Part II, Great Works of Literature,
1 Jan 1992.
Now I've got to find translation of that French sentence!
"You listen to yourself too much" just seems to miss something implied in Napoleon's words.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 12
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 12 |
Does "ecoutez" have an accent mark over any of the letters?
I know vous = you and trop = too, but ecoutez has stumped me.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
doesn't ecoutez=listen? therefore he's saying something like"well, you give good orders, but you shouldn't have listened to yourself this time..."
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
The use of diacriticals in French words on internet is
quite variable. The original did not have the accent aigu.I suppose écoutez was meant.
To me it sounds as though Napoléon were saying: "Cut your
bellyaching!"
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
"You listen to yourself too much" just seems to miss something implied in Napoleon's words.
Literal translations can be misleading. Perhaps it was meant to imply that he should have listened to others a little more.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Remember Carlyle cited it as an example of cruel treatment of a sufferer. Napoléon could not afford to be tender -
he had to be tough. War was,is, and always will be hell.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230 |
Is this a nickname for someone who buys a Mac?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Is Job's dunghill where Macs are made?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
Is this a nickname for someone who buys a Mac?
That'd be Jobs's comforter, wouldn't it?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230 |
>That'd be Jobs's comforter, wouldn't it? Yep, I knew it was pretty feeble to start with. 
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,577
Members9,187
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
148
guests, and
2
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
