Get your own Free Home PagePosted by Lidia and Tad (lemantad@polbox.com) on March 05, 1998 at 15:44:12:
In Reply to: Re: El Proyecto Cuba at Queens College posted by Sammy on March 02, 1998 at 20:37:20:
Is there a syndrome of dog-in-the-manger on the Queens Board?
Internet surfing
is a very instructive pastime. After a few month of experience on the
Queens
Board we deliberate over a Polish designation "pies ogrodnika - sam
nie zje i
innym zjeśæ nie pozwala". In what manner this designation functions
in English,
particularly in American culture? We in Poland usually trace back this
designation to Lope Félix de Vega Carpio's play El perro del
hortelano (You
could leave me in peace with Marcela, but no, you are like the dog
in the
manger. Your jealousy cannot bear to see me marry Marcela, and when
you see that
I do not love her, you turn away from me. Madam, you rob me of my senses.
You
will not leave me to sleep or wake in peace. Either eat or let another
eat, for
I will no longer cling to such doubtful hopes.). A fortunate translation
from a
Spanish designation "el perro del hortelano" into an English designation
"the
dog in the manger" leads us easily to Aesop's fable The Dog in the
Manger (A Dog
looking out for its afternoon nap jumped into the Manger of an Ox and
lay there
cosily upon the straw. But soon the Ox, returning from its afternoon
work, came
up to the Manger and wanted to eat some of the straw. The Dog in a
rage, being
awakened from its slumber, stood up and barked at the Ox, and whenever
it came
near attempted to bite it. At last the Ox had to give up the hope of
getting at
the straw, and went away muttering: "Ah, people often grudge others
what they
cannot enjoy themselves.").
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