Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Hamlet живет здесь

Hamlet: I think it be thine [thy grave] indeed, for thou liest in it.

Gravedigger: You lie out on't sir, and therefore 'tis not yours. For my part, I do not lie in  't, yet it is mine.

Hamlet: Thou dost lie in 't, to be in 't and say 'tis thine. 'Tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.

Gravedigger: 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away again from me to you.

Hamlet: What man dost thou dig it for?

Graved: For no man, sir.

Hamlet: For what woman, then?

Grave: For none, neither.

Hamlet: Who is to be buried in it?

Graved: One that was a woman, sir, but rest her soul, she's dead.

Hamlet: How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us.


Latin vivus, Greek bios, English quick, Slavic zhiv-, русский жизнь, живёт. Cf. Doctor Zhivago, the doctor of the living.

Note the witty gravedigger and Hamlet cross linguistic swords with their puns on 'lie' and on 'quick'.

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