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?
Ah, 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?