[Cogsci-interpreting] interpreting nonsense verse

Israel Cohen cohen.izzy at gmail.com
Sun Oct 22 00:27:13 UTC 2017


Nonsense verse that has been generated via phono-semantic matching (PSM)
can be reverse-engineered via PSM. *The Red Wheelbarrow* by William Carlos
Williams seems to be a good example.

*The Red Wheelbarrow* is a famous poem, presumably with some "hidden
meaning".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Wheelbarrow



Here is my own explication via transliteration of *T**he Red Wheelbarrow *by
William Carlos Williams:



so much depends upon
a red wheel barrow
glazed with rain water
beside the white chickens.



I think it means:



so much depends upon
ONE MAN
AS the CORPOREALIZATION OF the MESSIAH
therefore, SING, LET US REJOICE FOR the SON



Here's why. Using @ = aleph, KH = het, kh = khaf, 3 = aiyin, a: = vowel
"aye"
                    and [T] for the ancient sound of the shin



wheelbarrow =       KHaDoFeN < Aramaic KHaD = one + @oFeN = wheel.
red wheelbarrow = KHaDoFeN @aDoM
                               KHaD BeN- at aDaM = one + man/human/person



rain water =     Ma:-GeSHeM. Glazed = Z'khookhi.
with rainwater glazed = B'Ma:GeSHeM Z' khookhi
                                      B'MaGSHiM  MaSHiaKH = as [the]
corporealization of + [the] Messiah



Beside the = 3aL YaD Ha-
                     3aL YaDa: Ha- = by means of, through; because of [this]

white chickens =   TaRNaGoLoT LaVaN
                           [T]aR NaGiLaT LaBeN = sing, let us rejoice + for
[the] son


Did Williams do this with conscious intent?

Did Williams know enough Hebrew to implement this process?



If this poem were written by Lewis Carroll, I would say "yes". Carroll was
fluent in all of the languages mentioned in *The Hunting of the Snark
<https://books.google.co.il/books?id=xabjCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT194&lpg=PT194&dq=%22I+said+it+in+Hebrew%E2%80%94I+said+it+in+Dutch%E2%80%94++++I+said+it+in+German+and+Greek:+But+I+wholly+forgot+(and+it+vexes+me+much)++++That+English+is+what+you+speak!%22&source=bl&ots=B_xG-2MmGu&sig=DCt5O4nnEtw4C2SPrppTsXHw6ZI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKs4nC-oLXAhULXRoKHdhPBXAQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=%22I%20said%20it%20in%20Hebrew%E2%80%94I%20said%20it%20in%20Dutch%E2%80%94%20%20%20%20I%20said%20it%20in%20German%20and%20Greek%3A%20But%20I%20wholly%20forgot%20(and%20it%20vexes%20me%20much)%20%20%20%20That%20English%20is%20what%20you%20speak!%22&f=false>*.

Williams’ mother was a Puerto Rican woman of French Basque
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Basque_Country> and Dutch Jewish
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Netherlands> descent.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Carlos_Williams

Perhaps he learned some Hebrew from his mother?

Perhaps he “engineered” this poem by doing the exact opposite of what I did?



Israel "izzy" Cohen

Petah Tikva, Israel

cohen.izzy at gmail.com
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