Temat lekcji: Idiom devil may care
Wykonawca: Diana Krall
Utwór: Devil May Care

Dziś na warsztat weźmiemy iście piekielny idiom, rodem z najgłębszych czeluści angielskiej frazeologii. Jednakże przed chwyceniem owej słownikowej bestii za rogi, posłuchajmy utworu, który pomimo diabła w tytule okazuje się być frywolną, skoczną i przyjemną dla ucha kompozycją.

That's how I'll take and I'll give

Devil may care

That's how I'll live and I'll die

And devil may care

Cóż zatem oznacza wyrażenie devil may care? Najprościej rzecz ujmując, jest ono skrótem następującej frazy:

The devil may care, but I do not.

Czyli zachowujemy się tak niefrasobliwie i beztrosko, tak nieodpowiedzialnie uskuteczniamy tumiwisizm, że nawet sam diabeł zaczyna się przejmować naszymi poczynaniami, podczas gdy nam wciąż jest wszystko jedno. W języku angielskim często używamy tego idiomu w formie przymiotnika devil-may-care:

• Mark is definitely too lighthearted, reckless, and devil-may-care.
• He has a devil-may-care attitude.

• beztroski
• lekkomyślny
• ryzykancki
• zuchwały

In an old abbey town, down in this part of the country, a long, long while ago–so long, that the story must be a true one, because our great-grandfathers implicitly believed it — there officiated as sexton and grave-digger in the churchyard, one Gabriel Grub. It by no means follows that because a man is a sexton, and constantly surrounded by the emblems of mortality, therefore he should be a morose and melancholy man; your undertakers are the merriest fellows in the world; and I once had the honour of being on intimate terms with a mute, who in private life, and off duty, was as comical and jocose a little fellow as ever chirped out a devil-may-care song, without a hitch in his memory, or drained off a good stiff glass without stopping for breath.

This is the sort of witchering, not easily defined — but, by its votaries, pretty sensibly felt, in hunting the fox. The light-hearted high-spirited stripling, when cigaring it careless to cover, with a kind of a knowing demi-devil-may-care twist of his beaver, receives in his transit a benison from every real friend of the chase he may chance to pass; and the airy, eager zeal of the youthful aspirant to rolls, tumbles, and the brush, will flush his memory with the frolic gayety of other days, and animate his mind with reflections most welcome to his heart.

Then the soldier went out, to refresh at the inn –

Perhaps he did not — if he did it’s no sin –

he made his congee, and he bowed to us all,

And said he was going to Liberty Hall:

‘Tis certain he went, but certainly where

I cannot inform, and the devil may care.

Pełny tekst utworu:

No cares for me

I'm happy as I can be

I've learned to love and to live

Devil may care

 

No cares and woes

Whatever comes later goes

That's how I'll take and I'll give

Devil may care

 

When the day is through, I suffer no regrets

I know that he who frets, loses the night

For only a fool, thinks he can hold back the dawn

He who is wise never tries to revise what's past and gone

 

Live love today, let him come tomorrow what may

Don't even stop for a sigh, it doesn't help if you cry

That's how I'll live and I'll die

And devil may care

 

No cares for me

I'm happy as I can be

I've learned to love and to live

Devil may care

 

No cares and woes

Whatever comes later goes

That's how I'll take and I'll give

Devil may care

 

When the day is through, I suffer no regrets

I know that he who frets, loses the night

For only a fool, thinks he can hold back the dawn

He who is wise never tries to revise what's past and gone

 

Live love today, let him come tomorrow what may

Don't even stop for a sigh, it doesn't help if you cry

That's how I'll live and I'll die

Devil may care

 

Devil may care

Surely devil may care

Devil may care

• poprz.
• nast.