Category Archives: folk simile

Miss Mary

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chicago, IL
Performance Date: May 2nd, 2021
Primary Language: English

Background

The informant, Chase, is the brother of the interviewer. She grew up in Chicago, Illinois where he currently resides. 

Context

Chase tells the interviewer about a childhood rhyme they would sing on the playground.

Transcript 

“So this rhyme you would sing to your friends on the playground. It was always funny as kids because the words sound like they are about to be swear words, but then they are not. So no adults could get you in trouble for saying them because you didn’t actually say them. I learned it from you [interviewer] who learned it from our older cousin, Jordan.

The rhyme goes like this: ‘Miss Mary had a steamboat, Her steamboat had a bell. Miss Mary went to heaven, Her steamboat went to… Hell-o operator, give me number nine. If you disconnect me, I’ll kick you in the… Behind the refrigerator, there was a piece of glass.

Miss Mary sat upon it, and broke her little… Ask me no more questions, tell me no more lies.

The cows are in the pasture, eating chocolate pies, pies, pies. Miss Mary went to London, Miss Mary went to France. A french man pulled down Miss Mary’s underpants, pants, pants.’

I told all of my friends who thought it was the funniest thing. We would sing it all the time on the playground.

Thoughts

This is a very funny rhyme for kids. It is interesting how vast children’s folklore is and how quickly it can travel. My cousin who taught this to me is from Kentucky. All it took was one visit for Thanksgiving, and suddenly a rhyme kids in Kentucky sing made it all the way to a playground in Chicago.

Chinese Enigmatic Folk Similes

Nationality: Chinese
Residence: China
Performance Date: 03/01/2020
Primary Language: Chinese

Background: A friend and I were talking about the COVID-19 situation in the US. She mentioned that at late February, when COVID started to spread in the US, some people bought masks and sent them to Wuhan, China to support the medical workers there. She brought up this common saying:

Main piece: 

泥菩萨过河——自身难保

Pinyin: ni pu sa duo he——zi shen nan bao

Transliteration: A mud Bodhisattva crosses the river——She can’t even save herself.

Context: This piece of folk speech is often used to describe people who are well-intentioned to help others, but are themselves in dangerous or unstable situations. In the context of COVID, the informant means that it is kind for those people to send masks to Wuhan, but their very own lives are at stake in the US already.

Analysis: This is an example of a particular genre of folk speech in Chinese, 歇后语 (xie hou yu), which has been translated as “Chinese enigmatic folk similes” or “quiz-cracks”. Different from proverbs, an enigmatic folk simile doesn’t directly offer a conclusion or an advice. Different from riddles, an enigmatic folk simile doesn’t propose an explicit question and doesn’t have an answer. Enigmatic folk similes often contain multiple meanings. Its form is often separated into two parts. The first part succinctly tells a story, often alluding to historical or religious instances, and the second part provides a proverbial conclusion that is in line with the context created by the first part, but often with deeper connotations. In this case, the story, “a mud Bodhisattva crosses the river”, requires the audience to imagine and suppose that mud dissembles in water, and therefore a mud Bodhisattva in a river, no matter what good intention she has, might perish before she is able to help others. The deeper connotation is that regardless of good intention, one must first be responsible for themselves before considering others, or else no one is benefitted. 

For different versions of enigmatic folk similes, see 

Rohsenow, John Snowden. A Chinese-English Dictionary of Enigmatic Folk Similes (xiēhòuyǔ) = Han Ying xie hou yu ci dian. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991.

“Sweating Like A Hooker in Church”

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Unemployed
Residence: Jacksonville, FL
Performance Date: April 13, 2020
Primary Language: English

MAIN PIECE

“Sweating like a hooker in church”

“I believe that the saying is more of a way to describe sweating or nerves.  We probably say that down here cause we always like to make things a bit more illustrative then y’all do and we always love a church reference.  It’s not sweaty like a person whose been working all day, but more like when somebody is nervous about something that they are holding back from others like a secret or something of the sort”

BACKGROUND

This informant, HA, was born in Pensacola, FL but has lived in a few different parts of the American South for awhile, specifically the Floribama coastal area.  His family has stayed in the south for as far back as he can remember.

CONTEXT

I talked to HA by inviting them onto a zoom call with a few other friends we both knew from summer vacations where I used to live in Panama City, Florida.  After the call I asked if he could stay and chat and we shared stories about our lives while I asked him questions about sayings and activities he remembered from his childhood.

THOUGHTS

The American South has a fascinating way of coining certain terms that sound quintessentially Southern.  It seems upon further research that there are a lot more metaphors and similes used in Southern vernacular than in the rest of the United States.  HA’s relation of the quote to the church was very interesting as it made me think of Mary Magdalene as a possible referential point in how this statement came to be.  As well, variations of it are seen in other parts of the  world, but they still have enough variation where the meaning is shifted and holds itself as a different piece of folklore.  Ie. Midwesterners saying  “Praying like a sinner in church”

Texas Wind Simile

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 4/19/2018
Primary Language: English

I decided to ask my friend if she had any interesting folk similes. She shared with me a few she thought reflected her Texas heritage. She is marked KB, and I am marked CS.

 

KB: “So the simile we always use in Texas is, ‘The winds’ blowing like perfume through a prom.’”

CS: “Can you explain to me the meaning of this simile, in your own words?”

KB: “In other words, Texas weather is really intense. Kind of comes out of nowhere. It’s just a really true statement that reflects Texas well I guess.”

CS: “Have you personally used this simile before?”

KB: “Oh yeah, all of the time.”

 

Context:

Phone conversation in which I recorded KB’s recounts of folk similes as well as a riddle she grew up learning.

Background:

KB is a freshman at the University of Southern California and grew up in Austin, Texas.

 

Analysis:

I did enjoy this simile because, although I have never been to Texas, there is definitely a well-known stigma of it and it is clear there are certain sayings you just don’t hear anywhere else. That is what I find most interesting about Texas: there are so many heritages and cultural values it seems that the folklore in the South would be so strong and prevalent.

Texas Simile

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 4/19/2018
Primary Language: English

I decided to ask my friend if she knew any interesting folk similes. She shared with me a few she thought reflected her Texas heritage. She is marked KB, and I am marked CS.

 

KB: “So another simile we always use in Texas is ‘he’s got a ten gallon mouth.’”

CS: “Can you explain to me the meaning of this simile, in your own words?”

KB: “It’s just like, Texas people are really talkative. Like, you talk to them, and they just start…blabbering. Or when people talk really fast. I feel like that’s just such a Texas thing.”

CS: “Have you personally used this simile before?”

KB: “Oh yeah, all of the time.”

CS: “Where did you first hear it?”

KB: “Oh, my dad. Definitely my dad. He always uses Texas phrases.”

 

Context:

Phone conversation in which I recorded KB’s recounts of folk similes as well as a riddle she grew up learning.

Background:

KB is a freshman at the University of Southern California and grew up in Austin, Texas.

 

Analysis:

I did enjoy this simile because although I have never been to Texas, there is definitely a well-known stigma of it and it is clear there are certain sayings you just don’t hear anywhere else. Similar to other Texas simile, this one seems to reflect how deep-rooted Texas’ cultural values are. I never quite thought of folk similes as being so pertinent compared to the other forms of folklore, but clearly in this instance they are. They truly indicate their origins and that origin’s heritage.