For Argument's Sake

By luigi_pagano

Sun, 15 Aug 2021
  • 1101 reads
6 comments
 

In southeast Asia there is an island
divided into two separate countries,
specifically, East and West Timor.
East Timor is a tautological toponym
because the name Timor is derived
from timur that in Malay means east.
So East Timor is actually "East East".

We have to assume that West Timor
must transliterate into "West East".
Therefore Kipling's pronouncement
that east and west are different
and that the twain shall never meet
is proved to be a fallible statement.

Here ends my debatable argument.

 

© Luigi Pagano 2021

Certificate U
Poem
Mutevoli pensieri
Surreal
Humour
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by Ewan on

Your poem posted twice, Luigi, unfortunately, the wrong one was deleted. Here are the comments on the one that was deleted, which, fortunately, I had saved beforehand.

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Great response to the I P

Permalink Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Great response to the I P Luigi.

Jenny. xx

 

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Thank you, Jenny. I don't

Permalink Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Thank you, Jenny. I don't know what made me think of East Timor, it must have been remembering Kipling's ballad. Curiously enough, it looks as if there are two versions of this piece. and can't delete the duplicate.

Luigi xx

 

 

 

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Hi Luigi - we have a

Permalink Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Hi Luigi - we have a duplication removal expert who will be along shortly to sort you out!

 

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Thanks, Claudine.  Very

Permalink Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Thanks, Claudine.  Very grateful for your help. 

Luigi x

 

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Very, very clever Luigi.  For

Permalink Submitted by forest_for_ever on

Very, very clever Luigi.  For some reason the song 'East is East and West is West... (Doris Day?) came into my head.  In addition you have expanded my vocabulary with 'taugtological toponym'  Good writing AND a geography lesson.  Well done my friend.

 

Author Page at the 'Zon(link is external)
 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Thanks for retrieving this version and for reinstating the original comments, Ewan. I must also thank again Jenny, Claudine and Graham for their welcome responses

 

Best, Luigi

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

Great stuff, Luigi. I had no idea what Timor meant - and neither did the colonial powers who divided it up, apparently! 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

Hi Jane, this is the kind of knowledge I acquire as a hobby and that my wife labels 'useless information but which I find useful for my wordplay when writing. Another interesting fact I discovered this morning and may be valuable to me in the future is that the colour white, usually associated with purity, in Chinese culture it's a sign of mourning and death and used in funerals. Anyway, I digress; thanks for your kind response.

Luigi x

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Interesting, Luigi. There are probably many such paradoxes when words from different languages are put together without understanding. It brought to mind Barmouth, which sounds like 'The mouth of the river Bar', but actually Bar is a corruption of the Weslh 'Aber' which meanns 'mouth of the river or estuary', and 'mouth' is a corruption of the river Mawddach (dd pronounced as hard 'the'}, which comes to the sea there!

Rhiannon

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

One would have to be a polyglot to understand the subtleties of a language different  from one's own, I suppose.

Luigi x