The Owl and the Pussycat
Posted: January 28th, 2009, 2:57 am
Alright, here I am on vacation in San Luis Obispo, California with my brother's family. After a long day of fun, while putting my two nephews down for sleep, I read them a children's storybook that my sister-in-law borrowed from the library. The storybook was "The Owl and the Pussycat", an Owl and Pussycat in love with each other.
The storybook at first seemed pretty normal while reading it to my two young nephews. But then, on one of the pages, the lines said: "O lovely P.ussy! O, P.ussy, my love! What beautiful p.ussy you are, you are, you are! What beautiful p.ussy you are!"
Those lines really referred to the Owl professing his love for the cat, but the way it's expressed, the meaning completely sounded completely different, especially what the other meaning of "p.ussy" is. Fortunately, the kids are too young to understand what that means, but...
Then, on a few pages later, the lines read: "They sailed away, for a year and a day, to the land where the bong-tree grows..."
At first, I thought to myself, "Wow, this storybook probably isn't appropriate for kids, even though they may not understand the double meaning behind some of those references." However, I found out that it was written in the 19th century by the famous English poet, Edward Lear.
It's very funny that while older books can never die, words/references that were appropriate back then can/could take a completely different context than was originally intended for.
The storybook at first seemed pretty normal while reading it to my two young nephews. But then, on one of the pages, the lines said: "O lovely P.ussy! O, P.ussy, my love! What beautiful p.ussy you are, you are, you are! What beautiful p.ussy you are!"
Those lines really referred to the Owl professing his love for the cat, but the way it's expressed, the meaning completely sounded completely different, especially what the other meaning of "p.ussy" is. Fortunately, the kids are too young to understand what that means, but...
Then, on a few pages later, the lines read: "They sailed away, for a year and a day, to the land where the bong-tree grows..."
At first, I thought to myself, "Wow, this storybook probably isn't appropriate for kids, even though they may not understand the double meaning behind some of those references." However, I found out that it was written in the 19th century by the famous English poet, Edward Lear.
It's very funny that while older books can never die, words/references that were appropriate back then can/could take a completely different context than was originally intended for.
