Today Czech Update seems to be devoted solely to the Czech EU Commissioner. But there are a lot of things there and we will probably never go back.
English is often said to be particularly fond of puns and word play in general. Czech on the other hand, is seen by outsiders, as more literal. That, of course, is wrong. One need go no further than the work of Pavel Eisner who wrote the famous celebration of Czech language "Chrám i tvrz" (Our Cathedral and fortress) and translated the incredibly difficult and pun-filled "The Education of Hyman Kaplan" by Leo Rosten. The difference is (and this would bear more research) the context in which wordplay is acceptable. You won't find it on the pages of Czech newspapers or official speeches (or at least not so prominently as in the English-speaking media which often seem to think of a pun first and the story second.) But you will find poetry and fiction (and popular entertainment) that is full of wordplay. Another reason, why puns seem a little less frequent is the fact that Czech has no simple word for "pun". The best translation is "slovní hříčka" (word play) but that covers most of the phenomena associated with wordplay. There is no formal definition and there is no groaning when a pun is uttered. Having said that let's have a look at what Vladimír Špidla said:
EUROPA - Vladimir Spidla - EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Such an occasional publication is no bad thing. I am definitely not planning to use it to curry favour. I would really hate it to grate. And I won't be using it to set the record straight.EUROPA - Vladimír Špidla - Komisař pro zaměstnanost, sociální záležitosti a rovné příležitosti
Není to špatné mít takový občasník. Rozhodně nemám ambici ho vnucovat jako obšťastník. Jen bych nerad, aby z něj byl časem otravník. A už vůbec ho nemíním projektovat coby opravník.
First, hats off to the translator. She or he captured the meaning very well - unfortunately the cohesion given to the paragraph by wordplay is lost. The four words that are repeated are:
- občasník = occasional publication
- obšťastník = something that gives pleasure
- otravník = something that annoys
- opravník = something that corrects
Only the first word is a dictionary word (although, the others, as David Short points out, are not all that uncommon). All the others take the form of adding the same suffix '-ník' - which creates concrete nouns from verbs, adverbs and adjectives. In this case, it points to a periodical - words like "deník" a "týdeník" - "a daily" and "a weekly" (others include večerník, měsíčník, čtvrtletník for evening, monthly, and quarterly news but interestingly enough not nočník for annual news - thanks to David Short for pointing this out.)
It also uses similar prefixes ob- meaning around spatially but used to mean 'every other' metaphorically (or even literally as in 'ob den' 'ob dům' - every other day / house) or 'occasional' temporally (e.g. občas meaning occasionally) on the first two words and simply o- for the second two which has a similar meaning.
Together, these three words give a wonderful unity to the paragraph and express both lightheartedness and humility (combined with a bit of a smugness). Such language is typical of a certain type of Czech discourse, such as you might find in the plays of the Jára Cimrman group (a theater of cult popularity in which case the cult membership is most of the Czech elites).
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