Edgar: doublets, bifrasismos, difrasismos

[Joanna M. Sanchez]

I would add that the two elements- water and fire/'burning'- while mutually exclusive in nature (as you point out, one overwhelms the other), they are maintained in the blood of the human body, which has properties of liquid and heat- I have always sensed that this couplet therefore has multiple referential loci- principally: 1) opposition inherent in conflict; and 2) a reference to blood (human liquid counterpart to water/rain) as the offering prescribed by the 'covenant' to feed the divine powers- this substance is manifested through warfare, and would thus be considered an essential component of the hydraulic cycle (see Monaghan 1995 Covenants with Earth and Rain.  Joanna

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: micc2 
  To: NAHUAT-L at LISTS.UMN.EDU 
  Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 3:04 AM
  Subject: Re: Edgar: doublets, bifrasismos, difrasismos


  the effects of water and fire have nothing to do with this disfrasismo except that:

  when fire overwhelms water, hot (and sometimes violent) steam is sent out....
  when water overcomes fire, it causes flames to shoot out as it puts the fire out... and again  steam (and smoke  this time) are sent out violently.

  it is this great release of violence and energy that symbolize war, not how water or fire were used in battle.

  mario cuauhtlehcoc
  www.mexicayotl.org


  ANTHONY APPLEYARD wrote: 
 --- Geoff Davis <mixcoatl at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ... Here are two common examples:
in atl in tlachinolli - "water and fire" - war
in xochitl in cuicatl - "flower and song" - poetry
    
Andrews's book translates difrasismos as e.g. "It is a flower and it is
a song".

In "it is water and it is fire" used to mean "it is war", I know that
war all too often involves setting buildings on fire, but where does
water come into it? Does it refer to war canoes? Or does the phrase
refer to water and fire being incompatible "elements"?

Citlalyani

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