Who would like to decipher this?

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""MI DEER JO i OPE U R KR WITE WELL i OPE i SHAL SON B HABELL 4 2 TEEDGE U JO AN THEN WE SHORL B SO GLODD AN WEN i M PRENGTD 2 U JO WOT LARX AN BLEVE ME INF XN PIP."?

My attempt:

My dear Joe,
I hope you are white. Well, I hope I shall ....... (indecipherable) Wink

PS, a slate refers to "(formerly) a writing tablet made of slate/rock layer"?

Context:

I am, for more than one reason, reminded irresistibly of this passage from Great Expectations:

One night, I was sitting in the chimney-corner with my slate, expending great efforts on the production of a letter to Joe. I think it must have been a full year after our hunt upon the marshes, for it was a long time after, and it was winter and a hard frost. With an alphabet on the hearth at my feet for reference, I contrived in an hour or two to print and smear this epistle:

"MI DEER JO i OPE U R KR WITE WELL i OPE i SHAL SON B HABELL 4 2 TEEDGE U JO AN THEN WE SHORL B SO GLODD AN WEN i M PRENGTD 2 U JO WOT LARX AN BLEVE ME INF XN PIP."

There was no indispensable necessity for my communicating with Joe by letter, inasmuch as he sat beside me and we were alone. But, I delivered this written communication (slate and all) with my own hand, and Joe received it as a miracle of erudition.

"I say, Pip, old chap!" cried Joe, opening his blue eyes wide, "what a scholar you are! An't you?"

"I should like to be," said I, glancing at the slate as he held it: with a misgiving that the writing was rather hilly.

(From Contrex)

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Type: Question • Score: 3 • Views: 9,722 • Replies: 21

View best answer, chosen by oristarA

It says, I need a life, can anyone help?

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@oristarA,

Honour to whom honour is due: contrex posted that, but it's by Charles Dickens

contrex wrote:

I am, for more than one reason, reminded irresistibly of this passage from Great Expectations
[... ... ...]

My dear Joe, I hope you are quite well. I hope I shall soon be able to teach you, Joe – and then we shall be so glad. And when I am apprenticed to you, Joe: what larks! Believe me, with affection – Pip.

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

Honour to whom honour is due: contrex posted that, but it's by Charles Dickens

contrex wrote:
I am, for more than one reason, reminded irresistibly of this passage from Great Expectations
[... ... ...]

My dear Joe, I hope you are quite well. I hope I shall soon be able to teach you, Joe – and then we shall be so glad. And when I am apprenticed to you, Joe: what larks! Believe me, with affection – Pip.

You deciphered this? Or googled it out?
It is quite well, but not every detail fits in. For example: INF XN - with affection? I can't see how "with" comes out of here.

Quote:

"MI DEER JO i OPE U R KR WITE WELL i OPE i SHAL SON B HABELL 4 2 TEEDGE U JO AN THEN WE SHORL B SO GLODD AN WEN i M PRENGTD 2 U JO WOT LARX AN BLEVE ME INF XN PIP."

1 Reply

@oristarA,

I used the version from my schoolbook - more than 50 years old.
Sorry, if you expect something better.

So wait until some of your favourite posters replies.

Have a nice day.

0 Replies

orister, this was written by someone in the book who was mostly illiterate. It's not going to match exactly. The important thing is the meaning it gets across.

You can't always get things perfectly in translating, and you can't obsess on very minor details like this.

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This is, of course, phonetic.
Pip is trying to reproduce the sound of how he would say it aloud.
I believe "INF XN" is his way of saying "in affection".

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The reasons why I was reminded of the passage are still more cogent.

1 Reply

@contrex,

Indeed

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Oristar has not yet answered this question:

Quote:

if the American Revolution of the 1770s "caused" the decline of church attendance in Britain in the 20th and 21st centuries, how to explain the intervening massive peak in religiosity during the Victorian era and later?

1 Reply

Did the Norman Conquest cause the decline in UK tea consumption since 1990? Did the Wars Of The Roses cause the decline in public library membership? Etc.

1 Reply

@contrex,

Who put the ram in the ramma-lamma-ding-ding-dong?

I blame Benjamin Franklin.

1 Reply

@George,

Franklin, however promoted Christianity since he invented the lightning rod and de-mystified Germanic tribal religions. Thus, the Saxons could be easily defeated by Charlemagne.

0 Replies

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

Oristar has not yet answered this question:

Quote:
if the American Revolution of the 1770s "caused" the decline of church attendance in Britain in the 20th and 21st centuries, how to explain the intervening massive peak in religiosity during the Victorian era and later?

Of course I will answer.
But first we hope you to rewrite your sentence "It is nevertheless true, if that is what you mean" so that we can grasp it without any possible misunderstanding.

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@oristarA,

"My dear Joe, I hope you are quite well. I hope I shall soon be able to teach you Joe, and then we shall be so glad and when I am apprenticed to you Joe, what larks and believe me. In affection, Pip"

This is my attempt at deciphering this message. I'm not entirely sure of it, but I sure do hope it would at least make some sense of itself. And yes, I'm aware of my very late reply. Hope you still do find this piece of information interesting. XD

1 Reply

@dawn2815,

Roger that.

Great expectations never die, don't they? Wink

Does "what larks" mean "what lucks"?

0 Replies

A 'lark' is a game or other pleasant activity or experience; 'what larks' was a set phrase in 19th & early 20th century British English. "What larks [I/we will have]!" means "what fun or pleasure [I/we will have]!". Example: what larks we will have with our new puppy. (Note 'what' here is an exclamation not a question.)

A lark can mean "Something done for fun, especially something mischievous or daring; an amusing adventure or escapade."

0 Replies

I note that the phrase 'what larks' has so far fallen into disuse that the vast majority of Google hits when searching for that phrase are questions from students asking about Pip's letter to Joe.

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What a lark when the fox got in Grandma's hen house.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

What a lark when the fox got in Grandma's hen house.

Or, of course, what larks when the fox got in Grandma's hen house.

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