(le Róislín)
Faoi dheireadh, an starr dheireanach! Finally, the home stretch! Cuid a ceathair as ceithre chuid (Part 4 of 4 parts). Today’s blog will deal with the fifth of the cúig iontráil in Fintan O’Toole’s “Wasting Good Words on a Terrible Situation” (www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0103/1224309734610_pf.html). I’ll repeat the SPOILER ALERT though. You might want to wait until finishing an blag seo and the previous three sa tsraith cheathairchodach seo to read O’Toole’s article, since these four blogs are set up as a dúshlán to discover, via Irish, what English words he listed.
To quickly review the terms already covered in this series, seo cúig fhocal le meaitseáil:
1. déine a. difficult
2. tarrtháil b. austerity (1)
3. gátar c. sacrifice
4. íobairt d. bailout
5. deacair e. austerity (2)
If you’ve just joined this dúshlán focal, the answers are sna trí bhlag roimhe seo: “austerity,” “bailout” http://www.transparent.com/irish/cuig-fhrasa-bearla-gan-mhaith-de-reir-fhionntan-ui-thuathail-aka-fintan-o%E2%80%99toole-cuid-13/; “difficult” http://www.transparent.com/irish/cuig-fhrasa-bearla-gan-mhaith-de-reir-fhionntan-ui-thuathail-aka-fintan-o%E2%80%99toole-cuid-24/, and “sacrifice” http://www.transparent.com/irish/cuig-fhrasa-bearla-gan-mhaith-de-reir-fhionntan-ui-thuathail-aka-fintan-o%E2%80%99toole-cuid-34/. Or just check na freagraí thíos.
At any rate, that brings us up to iontráil a cúig. This one is a full-fledged seanfhocal, so instead of just listing comhainmneacha (synonyms), I’ll provide two keywords and see if you can piece the seanfhocal together. It’s quite well known in English.
5. eochairfhocail (keywords): diabhal, mionsonra
But wait, it’s not quite that simple. Or to paraphrase the pitchmen of the gnéchláracha fógraíochta, “Ach fan, tá a thuilleadh ann!”
There are a couple of other possibilities for “mionsonra,” such as “mionphointe” or simply “sonra.” The prefix “mion-“ can be added to “sonra” or to “pointe” to emphasize the miniaturizing aspect, and, of course it can also be added to hundreds, perhaps thousands of other words, like “mionarm” (small weapon), “mionchabhlach” (flotilla), “mionduirling” (small shingle-beach), “mionfheoil” (minced meat), “miongháire” (smile, soft chuckle), and “mion-ghnéchlár” (featurette).
For that matter, there are also a number of synonyms or nicknames (umm, “old”-nicknames?) for “an diabhal” in Irish, including “an giolla goillín (lit. the tormentor-lad)” “an mac mallachta (lit. the son of curses),” and “an t-áibhirseoir (the adversary).” In fact, he goes by various names in English too, such as “Old Scratch,” “Mr. Splitfoot,” and “Old Nick.” In today’s proverb, however, the most basic name, “devil,” is the one that applies.
There are still a few points to keep in mind with our “diabhal/mionsonra” proverb. “Sonra” means “detail” and “mionsonra” is “minor detail,” but the words are sometimes used interchangeably. “Pointe” can mean “point” in general, but also means “a particular (thing/aspect),” “a precise spot,” and “a distinctive trait;” I don’t think “pointe” is the best choice for “detail” here, since it can mean so many other things (including “headland,” “tip,” “direction,” etc.). “Mionphointe” [MIN-FWIN-tchuh], though, means “fine point,” “small point,” or “particular detail,” so could be used here.
I looked for examples of this proverb in Irish online, and found, at most a mere handful of examples (about five!). I was a bit surprised, since it is so widely used in English and seems to have a universal meaning. How widely used in English? 1,370,000 hits worth. In the search for Irish versions, I used all the variations for “detail” that I could think of. That included both singular and plural forms for words like “pointe” (pointí), “mionphointe” (mionphointí), “sonra” (sonraí), and “mionsonra” (mionsonraí). An interesting point is that in English, there is a split as to whether we’re just discussing one detail (or perhaps, with a bit of sineicdicé, one detail stands for all the detail) or whether we say “details” (plural). At any rate, there is a fairly consistent split in English, with American writers tending to use the plural form (details) and both Irish and British writers using the singular (detail).
So if you want to translate this proverb with the plural sense, it would be: Tá an diabhal sna mionsonraí (sna mionphointí, sna sonraí, srl.), “the devil is in the details.”
O’Toole uses the proverb with the word “detail” in the singular, so that would be: Tá an diabhal sa mhionsonra (sa mhionphointe, sa sonra, srl.), “the devil is in the detail.”
At some other point, we can review the difference between “sna” (plural) and “sa” (singular), but that would definitely be at least blag iomlán eile.
Another thought that occurred to me in looking at this proverb is the possible use of the habitual form of the verb “to be” (which Standard English doesn’t differentiate). So I also double-checked for examples with “bíonn” but found … tada (aka faic)! “Bíonn” is routinely used in sentences that have adverbs like “i gcónaí” (always) or “go minic” (often), but even on its own, it suggests the habitual nature of an activity. In theory, we could say “Bíonn an diabhal sna mionsonraí” (the devil does be in the details) but I found neither hide nor hair of that online either.
I also checked for fronting, which would be used for extra emphasis (Is sna mionsonraí atá an diabhal, etc.). Diabhal amas a fuair mé mar sin (“Divil” a hit I got like that, that is to say, tada, rud ar bith, faic na fríde).
In other words, the picture is pretty clear. This seemingly simple proverb just isn’t widely represented in Irish, at least not according to a fairly comprehensive search. To the limited extent that I can find it online, it varies slightly in form (sonraí, mionsonraí, mionphointí) and it also tends to preceded or marked by a linguistic disclaimer, suggesting that the writers realize that they’re really using an English expression and translating it. One such introductory phrase is “Mar a deirtear” (as it is said). Another technique is to put the phrase in quotation marks. Admittedly, that might be true of proverbs in general, but it seems to be all the more telling here, given the lack of Irish examples in a natural context. Of the few places I found an Irish version of this proverb online, they were mostly translation sites, or primarily North American sites (or both together). This suggests that the writers were aware that they were using an Irish version of a saying that is not traditionally found in Irish. Which is done a-plenty these days, and makes life all the more interesting.
So, suimiúil, nach ea, that there should be so many examples of this proverb in English and so few in Irish, especially since Irish is rich in both humorous and threatening traditional expressions regarding the devil. Some of these include “An rud a thig thar dhroim an diabhail, imíonn sé faoina bholg,” “Beidh an diabhal is a mháthair le díol,” and “Cead an diabhail acu!” But the translations for those will have to wait for blag eile!
Meanwhile, getting back to O’Toole’s list, somehow, in the back of my mind I keep mulling over yet another Irish proverb as a near-ish equivalent to “The devil is in the detail.” It’s certainly not a literal equivalent, and takes a somewhat different slant on the issues like maolú (obfuscation, mollification, lessening, reduction, dulling) and dorchú (obfuscation, darkening, being secretive). But nevertheless, I’d like to suggest it as at least an angle on looking at deliberately obfuscated material, perhaps overloaded with mionsonraí:
An rud a scríobhann an púca, léann sé féin é. (What the pooka writes, he himself reads, i.e. only he can read it).
So perhaps that suggests that some of the mealy-mouthed, jargon-laden doublespeak that we encounter in official documents could be written by púcaí, and that would explain it all! An fíor dom é? Bhur mbarúlacha?
And further checking out bhur mbarúlacha, what do you think of O’Toole’s conclusion, that these words (austerity, bailout, difficult, sacrifice, the devil is in the details) not be used, except, as he says, “ironically and in inverted commas”? Of course, I’m sure he doesn’t realistically expect the words will actually be outlawed or that íoróin (irony) will trump tláithíneacht (“mealy-mouthedness”, wheedling, flattery) or béarlagair an mhaorlathais (bureaucratic jargon) or ceol draíochta an bhéalghrá (the magic music of lip-service). Or that uaschamóga will be diligently used where advisable. O’Toole does, however, make a strong plea for society as a whole to devote more attention to issues such as “republic,” “democracy,” equality,” “justice,” and “sanity.” So in some future blog, we’ll get back to those terms in Irish, and perhaps cúpla ainmfhocal teibí eile (and perhaps a few other abstract nouns). But idir an dá linn, ábhair níos éadroime? SGF, Róislín
Freagraí don “mheaitseáil”: 1b, déine, austerity (1); 2d, tarrtháil, bailout; 3e, gátar, austerity (2); 4c, íobairt, sacrifice; 5a, deacair, difficult
Gluais: amas, hit (in computer search); béalghrá, lip-service; ceathairchodach, four-part; éadrom, light; gnéchlár fógraíochta, infomercial (cf. gnéchlar, feature program); sa, in the (followed by a singular noun, as in “sa bhosca”); idir an dá linn, meanwhile; sineicdicé, synecdoche; sna, in the (followed by a plural noun, as in “sna boscaí”); sraith, series.
Nóta don iontráil “béalghrá”: as for “ceol draíochta an bhéalghrá,” thanks to Ruth Nic Giolla Iasachta (an t-iriseoir / drámadóir / scríbhneoir scripte) for that frása gonta (pithy phrase, which is, ironically, ar ábhar na neamhghontachta), from her article “Teannas agus Drochamhras” (http://www.beo.ie/alt-teannas-agus-drochamhras.aspx). Both “ceol draíochta” and “béalghrá” are established, traditional Irish phrases, but the combination is, drmbansm, one of those moments of inspired journalistic phraseology. In this case it neatly links Irish folklore (the “ceol draíochta”) with óráidíocht pholaitiúil thocsaineach (toxic political oratory), a rare combination!
Nóta don nóta: ar ábhar …, on the topic of …, drmbansm, my new acronym for IMHO, lit. de réir mo bharúla, ach nach saoi mé (according to my opinion but it’s not an expert that I am); neamhghontachta, non-pithiness
