Re: [OT: Elfquest]
On Tue, Aug 12, 2003 at 12:14:36PM -0400, ScruLoose wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 12, 2003 at 01:56:55PM +0200, David Fokkema wrote:
>
> > I was going to argue that this is an incorrect translation and should've
> > been 'shade and fresh water', but, apparantly, this is wrong. Wendy
> > herself has said 'shade and sweet water'. Why? Is there some sort of
> > english subtlety I miss here? Why is water sweet?
>
> There's a long history in English (especially informal English, maybe)
> of using 'sweet' for 'good' in some circumstances.
> From the pop song some years back that mentioned "kisses sweeter than
> wine" which makes no literal sense because neither kisses nor (decent)
> wine are actually sweet-tasting -- to the widespread use of "sweet
> deal!" to describe a particularly impressive bargain...
Ah, of course... This reminds me of a line in a children's song: 'wie
zoet is krijgt lekkers' meaning 'those who are sweet will receive
candy/cookies/whatever' (I don't know the word in english which
describes the whole range of candy/cookies/etc.). In this context,
'zoet' also means 'good'. I could've known, ;-)
> > I am from the Netherlands, where they say: 'schaduw en zoet water',
> > where 'zoet' means 'sweet', but 'zoet water', as opposed to 'zout
> > water', means 'fresh water' as opposed to 'salt (sea) water'.
>
> Ahh, the quirks of languages!
Indeed, ;-)!
I never looked at it this way, but 'zoet water' historically could mean
'good water' as opposed to salt water, which you can't drink or grow
crops with.
Thanks for enlightening me,
David
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