So the other night I used the phrase 'and yet and yet' in conversation (and trust me, it was brilliantly and appropriately used in context, like whenever I force a phrase I like into discourse), and one of the people I was with thought maybe I was referencing Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but I had to confess that I was referencing something less literary - an album by Do Make Say Think (which: great, go buy it).
Naturally, this resulted in my doing a google search on this phrase today, and surprise, surprise, it's got a nice long history, with two early usages being in a translation of a haiku by Kobayashi Issa:
The world of dew
is the world of dew,
And yet, and yet--
and this (a triple and yet!) from a letter by William Blake:
"Every one of my friends was astonished at my faults, and could not assign a reason; they knew my industry and abstinence from every pleasure for the sake of study, and yet-and yet-and yet there wanted the proofs of industry in my works."
Doesn't it suck when people want proof of industry?
Posted by Bill Stilwell at March 13, 2006 07:53 AMAh, I've been wondering the same thing, no matter how brilliant and appropriate your usage. I do have and love that album, and still don't know why Marquez popped into my brain, but I think it is because of this, a book I very sadly seem to have lost along the way...
it is mentioned in the many lists of Aurelianos maybe?