Thursday, May 8, 2014

Truncated Proverbs?

What a proverb actually has communicated can only be ascertained from the results upon Society. If a proverb purports to describe Society, then what it describes can be known from the realities of the society it describes. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. (Hmm! That this proverb should have been said in the days before Facebook is surprising. It is a truly amazing indication of prophetic tendencies in the past that that someone should have thought to say that the proof of the pudding lies not in how good it looks in a FB status picture OR how many 'Likes' the pic got, in the days when even photography did not exist, leave alone Facebook.)

From the ways of Society, it seemed to me that some proverbs are now available only in their truncated version and some words at the end have gone missing. Even this "The proof of the pudding is the the eating" can benefit in clarity by the addition of " or the spitting out" but that still ends up communicating the same meaning. Some proverbs, though, seem entirely misleading because some words at the end seem to have gone missing.

Take "Absence makes the heart grow fonder", for example. The World War II soldiers receiving those "Dear John" letters, which indicated that their spouses had decided to donate them to the service of their country and take up with someone else, would have been far less shocked had the full proverb been available to them - "Absence makes the heart grow fonder - of someone else". (Yup! There IS that proverb which suits the extended version better - "Out of sight; Out of mind")

There are a lot of people who say, "They also serve who only stand and wait". Others seem to think that these are people, who are slavering to really do something, but are reconciled to serve only by standing and waiting - only to be rudely shocked when they call on these people for service and find them VERY recalcitrant, indeed. If only the others knew that what they meant was, "They also serve who only stand and wait - for someone else to do the job." A rather neat way of getting the mantle of service without having to really serve.

I also find a lot of people getting irate about some people who appear god-fearing but are totally untrustworthy. I do not agree with casting aspersions on the god-fearing nature of these people, even if their acquisitive habits do not seem to see the difference between 'mine' and 'thine'. You see, it is just that their version of the proverb is extended version, "God helps those who help themselves - to other people's property".

I hear this clamor from you - "Silence is golden". Ah! If only you knew that I can always extend it with another proverb - '..but all that glitters is not gold'!

P.S: Thanks, Anita, for that 'they also serve who only stand and wait'

16 comments:

  1. Thanks for this enlightening post :) This explains a lot...why we are the way we are! If only our English-language ancestors had been honest with us, we wouldn't have stressed too much over all those virtues and such things ;)

    Beauty Interprets, Expresses, Manifests the Eternal

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    1. Hahaha! I only highlight the way we choose to misinterpret, what we have been told, to suit ourselves :)

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  2. Great to find a mention of my name, Suresh ji :)
    Agree with your analysis here :)
    You can soon have a book on and about Proverbs!

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    1. You contributed that proverb Anita!

      Hahaha! A book, huh! Enough if even these posts get readers :)

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  3. Indeed absence does make the heart fonder of someone else :)

    Bikram

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  4. Your interpretations of proverbs covered with your witty take on them, is a sure delight to read

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    1. Thanks Redhanded! Lovely to hear you say that

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  5. I am sharing this Proverb series of yours with dad and the mister and I must say they have become a regular reader of your articles now. You twist them so much and make them sound do funny and meaningless or rather something totally different. A book you must write on these for the future generations to relish. :-)

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    1. I am overwhelmed Rekha! You have no idea how happy you have made me.

      Actually, my intent was to show a. that proverbs need to be interpreted in the context of where you apply them and b. that people tend to twist proverbs to suit themselves. Of course, in some posts, I have hung my own ideas of how people behave on the peg of proverbs - as in this one :)

      A book, hmm! Let us see :)

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  6. You've added a new meaning to Peter Drucker's words: "The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said."

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    1. Hahaha! Now don't remind me of my management education days :)

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  7. ah!! so beauty is actually in eyes of the be'er' holder? now i understand the need to truncate proverbs! actually that way it becomes easier to explain that nothing is impossible....i have been doing nothing for years!

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    1. Hahaha! I too manage to do the impossible this way :)

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  8. I am hoping that you will be taking up the oft used truncated proverb - Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder... - in a subsequent episode? Clearly something is amiss in its usage since it has never been uttered in the context of Megan Fox or Deepika Padukone!

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    1. Titli has taken it on very effectively in her comment :) You only need to be drunk enough :)

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