"buried in their own coffin"

vsergu on 2002-08-08T18:15:05

Saddam Hussein's latest rhetorical extravaganza isn't up to his usual standards:

All empires and bearers of the coffin of evil, whenever they mobilized their evil against the Arab nation, or against the Muslim world, they were themselves buried in their own coffin, with their sick dreams and their arrogance and greed.
(From The Washington Post)

The metaphor of the coffin just doesn't work for me. I think something must have been lost in the translation.

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Translations

ziggy on 2002-08-08T18:23:54

Sounds more like there's a couple of cultural references missing. Axis of Evil must not have much resonance in the Arab world. Perhaps there's a more Arab metaphor of Evil Coffin-Bearers bringing death and destruction with them or something. That would help explain why there is justice in burying those who come to bury you in the coffin they brought for the occasion.

Just a wild guess.

Re:Translations

vsergu on 2002-08-08T20:38:22

Probably. I'm wondering whether the word translated as "coffin" is also some more general sort of container (the way "casket" used to be before it was taken over as a funeral-industry marketing term). Maybe the invaders are bringing a big box of evil rather than a coffin.

But maybe you're right, and there's some cultural idea of invaders bringing along coffins to bury the people they kill. It just doesn't seem like the sort of things any real attackers would ever have bothered to do. Perhaps someone once showed up to besiege a city and brought along a coffin for the local leader as an intimidation tactic.