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#127303 04/12/04 03:33 PM
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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.



#127304 04/12/04 11:36 PM
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Does "ecoutez" have an accent mark over any of the letters?
I know vous = you and trop = too, but ecoutez has stumped me.


#127305 04/12/04 11:42 PM
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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...
#127306 04/12/04 11:44 PM
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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!"


#127307 04/13/04 10:28 AM
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"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.


#127308 04/13/04 02:04 PM
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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.


#127309 04/13/04 07:10 PM
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Is this a nickname for someone who buys a Mac?


#127310 04/13/04 07:18 PM
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Is Job's dunghill where Macs are made?


#127311 04/13/04 08:30 PM
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Is this a nickname for someone who buys a Mac?

That'd be Jobs's comforter, wouldn't it?


#127312 04/13/04 08:31 PM
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>That'd be Jobs's comforter, wouldn't it?

Yep, I knew it was pretty feeble to start with.


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