More deceptive prudery
Throughout Dick Higgins' translation of Hymnen an die Nacht, "Schoß" is consistently translated as "womb", except in the last line, "Und senkt uns in des Vaters Schoß", which is translated as "and sink us forever [?] in our Father's lap". Even though the first two lines of that very stanza refer to Jesus as a beloved bride. (Right, Jesus ≠ heavenly father, but it should at least indicate that some fastness* and looseness is being played with gender.)
* It has never before occurred to me to wonder about "fast and loose", presumably because I'd never substantialized the phrase before. Having always assumed that "fast" in the phrase was speedy, and "fast and loose" just meant something like hard to get a handle on, tricky, or whatever, I am delighted to learn that it's actually a contrast; the "fast" is (if you will) "fest", not "schnell": held tight. Sez the OED:
fig. to play (at) fast and loose: to ignore at one moment obligations which one acknowledges at another; to be ‘slippery’ or inconstant.
That's def. b.; the primary, now obsolete meaning is as the name of "an old cheating game", which the quotation from 1857 describes: Fast-and-loose, a cheating game played with a stick and a belt or string, so arranged that a spectator would think he could make the latter fast by placing a stick through its intricate folds, whereas the operator could detach it at once.
. This implies that "fastness and looseness" wasn't really apt, above.
Sounds like a real fun game, too.
Comments
on 2008-04-27 13:58:00.0, Cala commented:
This post really made me smile.