I THINK this is a general question at the moment, but it could just as easily be MPSIMS - I don’t know, I’m afraid.
Anyway, a friend has asked me to find a source for a quotation that he renders as “speed the stranger home”. He thinks that it is from the Koran (apologies, but that is the spelling with which I am most familiar.) So, I have looked but have not found. Although I shall continue to look, I wondered whether anyone recognises this. Any suggestions gratefully received! BUT, a small problem - just because he thinks it is from the Koran does not mean that it is - could be from anywhere, really. After all, everyone was brought up with some kind of proverb saying “be good and hospitable to strangers, foreigners, etc.” So, although I shall be looking for it, I really would like to know whether it strikes a chord with anyone…
I suppose I can do a small hijack at this point? (Actually version No. 1 said “mall hijack” and I shall give that concept some thought later.) Well, thanks Friedo, but what is so exciting about “quotation”?
Bram Stoker uses it in Dracula. When Jonathan Harker is at Castle Dracula, asking to leave immediately, Dracula says, “You English have a saying which is close to my heart, for its spirit is that which rules our boyars: Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.”
Not much help in finding the origin, I realize, but now we have a different phrasing which might help in your search, and the possibility that it is an English expression and therefore not from the Koran.
It’s one of my pet peeves. “Quote” is a verb, i.e. “I am going to quote what you said.” And “Quotation” is a noun, i.e. “Here is a quotation from War and Peace.”
Yes, I do agree with you about quotaions. But, S.D.M.B. easily distinguished from the Bible? Hmmm. Differing authors, at different times, with differing opinions? Yes, I can see massive differences here. (Smiley is intended in spirit, but not done, because I haven’t learned to use them yet.)
Thanks to GKittridge for the Bram Stoker idea. I really do think that this is a quote that, if it exists, could be from pretty much any source, so all ideas are good; e.g. if it was Bram Stoker, then it might be someting English or Irish, which cuts it down a wee bit.
“Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.”
—Alexander Pope: from the translation of Homer’s Odyssey (1725).
Sorry, I don’t have access to the original Greek.
Sophocles? Speed this stranger to the gloom. Translation by F. Storr, BA, 1912. So, maybe ol’ Storr was playing off an old English saying. There’s a comment in Matthew Henry’s Commentary on First Kings, that sound vaguely similar: “O let the stranger, in a special manner, speed well in his addresses, that he may carry away with him to his own country a good report of the God of Israel”
Space Vampire, yes, but of course it was a joke about pedants, and about “pendants” hanging about. But, I am yet no wiser in my quest! Eek!
Silly though it might seem, this is a genuine question. I await the arrival of wisdom, although I would setle for knowledge. (Whether I am qualified to distinguish between the two, is, of course, a different matter.) Please help, Ms/Mr. Vampire, and all people, bloodsucking, vegan, whatever.
Connection problems have prevented me from coming back to the board to say thanks for all your help. So, thank you all, and I shall have to decide whether to pretend I worked it out all by myself, or whether to be honest.