January 11, 2019, 18:19
haberdasher...only remember always to call it, please, "research"!
January 11, 2019, 18:34
Geoffзамечательно! I'd forgotten about Tom Lehrer! Thanks for the memory jog!
January 11, 2019, 18:39
BobHaleI hadn't listened to Tom Lehrer for ages so after the link I left it playing more of his songs - for about two hours!
January 18, 2019, 10:24
zmježdFun!
I was curious about the two Russian sentences:
Жил был король когда-то, при нем блоха жила.
Once upon a time there lived a king, (анд) a flea with him lived.
Я иду куда сам цар идет пешком.
I go where the king himself goes on foot.
January 18, 2019, 11:05
zmježdI should've looked at the Wikipedia article on this song. In there is a paragraph about these two sentences:
quote:
[Tom] Lehrer wrote that he did not know Russian. In the song he quotes two book reviews in Russian; the first is a long sentence that he then translates succinctly as "It stinks". The second, a different but equally long sentence, is also translated as "It stinks." The actual text of these sentences bear no relation to academics: the first phrase quotes Mussorgsky's Song of the Flea: "Once there was a king who had a pet flea." The second references a Russian joke: "Now I must go where even the Tsar goes on foot" [the bathroom].[
See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobachevsky_(song and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...g_of_the_Flea#Lyrics)
January 18, 2019, 12:01
GeoffGood detective work, Z! Thanks! I've really missed your scholarly input, even on these frivolous threads!