Information ... Are you standing by, Patrick? I have the goods on
'doswa' which I missed spelling by about a thousand miles! It is 'da
shui', pronounced 'da sh-wai', with an upward tilt at the end. So
'doswa' was the first deliverant's American accent getting in the way
probably. My student and friend Wong Li has given me the lowdown and
instructed me on the pronunciation. So, now I will go and repair the
poem. I have another one in the same style which I am presently
tinkering with. I'll broadcast it soon.
Thanks for keeping me honest, Patrick.
Andrew
On 05/01/07, andrew burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Well, you pegged me on that one, Patrick. It is a phonetic version of
> a word a Chinese student explained to me when he came looking for
> 'doswa'. He explained it as looking to 'hit you for water' in the
> colloquial sense of 'ask you for water' (as in 'hit the road' or 'hit
> the books'). Now, I have a Chinese/English dictionary but it ain't
> there that I can find, and my friends who could possibly tell me are
> incommunicado due to swatback and/or exams, and my stepdaughter, she
> of various lingoes and a mistress of Mandarin, is away down south ...
> I will repair its spelling when I know it!!! Satisfied??!! (I raise my
> voice in theatrical anger at being caught out with a phonetic and not
> a dictionary spelling) (shibboleth indeed) ...
>
> Andre-clouded-in-Mist ('Is that mist? or is that sulphur dioxide?')
>
> On 05/01/07, PATRICK MCMANUS <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > doswa??p
> >
> > andrew burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 'I'd speak if I wasn't afraid of inhaling'
> > the air here is thick with shibboleth
> > he comes down for doswa not just
> > to drink but to feel the temperature
> > expatriot ghettoes breed insecurity
> > it is shortly after the reason to be jolly
> > now in the season of promise I pause
> > with a China Post pen in the air
> > she points at the page to indicate
> > press harder to be read push down
> > to give it all birth to give it all berth
> >
> > (Snap beginning with a line by Fanny Howe)
> >
> > Andrew
> > linfen prc
> > 3/1/2007
> >
>
>
> --
> Andrew
> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
>
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