"This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

[larryhammer]

"Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral."

"Grub first, then ethics," as it's commonly translated when not aiming for a singable score. It's a descriptive statement, but every once in a while, I imagine Herr Brecht saying* it prescriptively: "No, no -- you're doing it wrong. Grub first, then the ethics." Which inevitably leads to the obvious Pink Floyd parody: "If you don't eat yer grub, you can't have any ethics! How can you have any ethics if you don't eat yer grub?"

At which point I highjack my brain and forceably think about something else, such as tenser tensors or division by rabbits, as the crossover that is The Threepenny Wall does not bear thinking about. At least, not without a lot more alcohol and Marxist in-jokes than I can stomach.

* Yes, I know, in the original it's spoken, or rather sung, by two characters. Death of the author be damned, when it makes a good joke.

---L.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

'fressen' is the eating by animals, as opposed to 'essen' eating by humans. So I'd say "gobbling first, then morals."

[larryhammer]

Thus "grub" instead of "food," I believe.

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I think I'm too used to grub in everyday language to map it over 'fressen' but I see your point.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Perhaps 'fodder' would be better?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Well, fressen is mostly used for pigs and such, not sure if for horses, which is what I associate fodder with, but on the right track.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Interesting - I'd have thought that fodder was a more general term, though thinking about it I associate it most strongly with cattle, then pigs, with horses some way down the line.

[larryhammer]

I associate fodder specifically with feeding domesticated animals, and fressen is specifically any animal with possibly even a connotation of wildness.

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Could be I'm used to regional variation here, too.

[sovay]

"Feed first, morals later"?

[larryhammer]

Gets good alliteration in! "Feed first, then ethics"? Though the -th- isn't stressed in ethics ...

---L.