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December 10, 2003

Comments

my goodness. how on earth did you do that? I once made fun of my teachers in terza rima for an English assignment, but I didn't actually sound vaguely like Dante.

can you link to the original text?

Katherine,
here's the original
with some commentary.

Crap, I see Moe got there first, and I look stupid. Oh well.

"my goodness. how on earth did you do that?"

Well, I could give you a song and dance about getting into the heart and flow of the text and so forth - but the honest answer is mostly that I happen to be pretty good at doggerel. :)

"Crap, I see Moe got there first, and I look stupid. Oh well."

Hardly: I should have posted the original link in the first place.

geeky editor suggestions:
change "wonkings" to "reproofs" (not a word)

change "trackback" to "trackback links" (preserves original meter)

change "without the chutzpah" to "lack th'ability"
(more Shakespearean)


Oh, very well. Ratzenfracken editors...

;)

Moe, do I want a golf clap? I sort of think I don't want any kind of clap. - I'm confused - did you follow up my first post with your "p.s."? If so, perhaps you could in future choose "update", preferably time-stamped. - You might consider changing "sun of Dean" to "son of Gore", which is a slant rhyme of the original, and thematical to boot...

Gimme a break, it's after 2 AM.

I thought you were channeling Steinbeck, but I quickly realized it was Steinbeck who was channeling Shakespeare.

This was really funny, Moe. Nice work. My only quibble is not with you, but rather with the translation site you linked to. The problem is that this passage:

Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity.

is translated as:
Only thing I can do is think about how damn ugly I am.

When in fact it means:
The only way I can amuse myself is to piss on my own shadow out of disgust for my own deformity.

Which is both evocative and vulgar, a combination you don't see nearly enough, and such things should be celebrated.

brilliant stuff Moe...

I like my parodies with their odd awkward juts...too polished and they lose that bawdy, vaudevillian quality that makes them so irresistible. Breaking the meter on occassion for effect is not just allowable...it's preferable in my book.

Kudos and hat's off to ya.

You should send a copy to hapless Joe.

Dang. That is hilarious and impressive - the best I can do is summarize it in haiku.

Gore digs the Deaner.
His old pal didn't get called.
Sorry, Lieberman.

I'm ok at doggerel too (and have an insufferable proofreader gene that gets activated every once in a while from my newspaper days), but I'm off my game today. All I've got is a few limericks:

There is an ex-doctor named Howard,
whose campaign says that he's people powered.
"Do they mean that Dean
is pure soylent green?"
John, Dick and John asked as they cowered.

Joe Lieberman of Connecticut
should be treated with much better etiquette
Though he sounds like a muppet,
he's not Dubya's puppet;
its past time that we all admitted it.

Hilarious, Moe. There is something indeed Shakesperian to this Goreian betrayal.

st, I think you're reading "decant" for "descant" in the original. "Decant" means to pour out liquid, which would have the vulgar meaning you bring up, but "descant" means to talk about at great length, which might instead be translated in Blinkie's synopsis by "Only thing I can do is whine and moan about how ugly I am".

Michael N. - Hmmm, upon further review, you may be right in the dictionary, thats-what-the-word-actually-means sense, but I think that there's an intentional pun in there - at least that's how my Shakespeare professor explained it to me. I don't think you will win a lot of money betting against intentional puns in Shakespeare.

But, fair point nonetheless.

Fine work.

Gotta add some backslapping here. Nice piece, Moe. Bill would've stood you a round for that one.

"Bill would've stood you a round for that one."

Then ripped it to shreds and put it back together again over drinks, no doubt. :)

Moe

PS: Thanks for the kind words on this one.

Well done, Moe.

Well done, Moe. (Why haven't more people linked to this?)


Doug M.

"Well done, Moe. (Why haven't more people linked to this?)"

(wordless shrug) I've seen two links to it - both from blogspot, so no trackbacks. Guess I'm not particularly good at advertising. Big surprise there, huh, Doug? :)

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