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Episode 162: This Poem!
Manage episode 291381251 series 1756847
To fraszka!
English Phonemes: “toh FRA[SZ]-kah”
Literal Translation: This poem.
Elegant Translation: This is a poem.
English Equivalent: It’s a snap.
A “fraszka” is a very specific type of poem. It’s a two-line poem where both lines rhyme and match rhythm almost perfectly. The purpose of it is to convey a witticism or a joke. A lot of people think this is easy, but it takes a real wit to come up with a good one.
Sometimes, you’ll see a longer poem like this, where you have two rhyming lines, then two more, and so on. But that’s more of a proper poem in the fraszka style. Kind of like a haiku is 5 7 5 and if you see a longer poem that harkens back to that shape, that’s fine, but it’s not technically a haiku.
Examples of this kind of poem include:
“Ulepił Pan Bóg figurę z błota,
tak przyszedł na świat pierwszy idota.”
by Lech Niekarz
Which means: “Lord God clumped a figure out of mud, that’s how the first idiot came to the world.”
Or
“Czasem się trafia taka parafia,
gdzie anioł z diabłem to jedna mafia!”
by Jan Bester
Which means: “Sometimes, you chance on a parish where angel and devil are all one mafia.”
Anyway, to say something is “to fraszka” is to say that it’s a snap. Easily done. This idiom can be said about any task that you think is simple. In this idiom, you don’t need a verb because the word “is” is implied.
Enjoy!
To = this, then [depending on context]
Fraszka = specific name for the 2-line rhyming poem [proper noun, fem. s. subj. form]
Support the show on Patreon! www.patreon.com/howyousayfm
Email us! mailbag@howyousay.fm
Tweet us! @HowYouSayFM
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!
Rate the show!
Visit the website! www.howyousay.fm
101 episodes
Manage episode 291381251 series 1756847
To fraszka!
English Phonemes: “toh FRA[SZ]-kah”
Literal Translation: This poem.
Elegant Translation: This is a poem.
English Equivalent: It’s a snap.
A “fraszka” is a very specific type of poem. It’s a two-line poem where both lines rhyme and match rhythm almost perfectly. The purpose of it is to convey a witticism or a joke. A lot of people think this is easy, but it takes a real wit to come up with a good one.
Sometimes, you’ll see a longer poem like this, where you have two rhyming lines, then two more, and so on. But that’s more of a proper poem in the fraszka style. Kind of like a haiku is 5 7 5 and if you see a longer poem that harkens back to that shape, that’s fine, but it’s not technically a haiku.
Examples of this kind of poem include:
“Ulepił Pan Bóg figurę z błota,
tak przyszedł na świat pierwszy idota.”
by Lech Niekarz
Which means: “Lord God clumped a figure out of mud, that’s how the first idiot came to the world.”
Or
“Czasem się trafia taka parafia,
gdzie anioł z diabłem to jedna mafia!”
by Jan Bester
Which means: “Sometimes, you chance on a parish where angel and devil are all one mafia.”
Anyway, to say something is “to fraszka” is to say that it’s a snap. Easily done. This idiom can be said about any task that you think is simple. In this idiom, you don’t need a verb because the word “is” is implied.
Enjoy!
To = this, then [depending on context]
Fraszka = specific name for the 2-line rhyming poem [proper noun, fem. s. subj. form]
Support the show on Patreon! www.patreon.com/howyousayfm
Email us! mailbag@howyousay.fm
Tweet us! @HowYouSayFM
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!
Rate the show!
Visit the website! www.howyousay.fm
101 episodes
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