You can't judge a binch by its stribble?

Question

What does it mean?
We met at a shahndaffer down in the park.
It was on a Friday—the usual do.
His luds shown like grimulets in the near dark,
Which, as I recall, should have been my first clue.
He asked me to binch to the downdiddy dash
Then stribbled so cool with that gonquistry strup
That I couldn't resist. So I gathered my fash
And we binched and we bonched til the vundus rolled up.
Oh, he was so phistick and I so phramphyte;
The meuglen so perfect—one strom of a mence.
And not til we binched near a nerfuren light
Did I notice his yeng had a strange decompence.
And not only that, but his schluff was so sparse.
How it scongled and flumped in such wild gyration!
It was then the reality of this grand farce
Made my bonkies light up in cold strandification.
Well, I backed right off then, and I threw him a plawk
That would ruftin your fawver and whisten your fonk.
But it just made him gonquer! He strupped his begawk
And headed right for me, a-hoot and a-honk.
"Well, that's it," I thought as I gimpered my gear.
"I'll just have to do what ma told me to do."
She said to lamdogget, then grounch in his ear,
And last flamish him. So I did. Wouldn't you?

....Sharon Dunn, Sebring FL
© 1996 Sharon Dunn
HWUP! #40, May/Jun 1996

Answer 1

there isn't much meaning here:- but what there is, is utterly banal.

a female narrator meets an intriguing male at some kind of social function (a shahndaffer). they become friendly, and the male wishes to become friendlier. the female decides she does not want any further intimacy and chooses to follow her mother's advice (I'll just have to do what ma told me to do."). we don't discover precisely what ma's advice was, but it clearly involves getting rid of the male partner (we guessed it would).

stories where men 'come on to' women and the women don't like it and make clever escapes are pretty much a commonplace of dirty jokes and urban legend. they are one of the great slacknesses of popular imagination.

the poem may owe something to lewis carroll's nonsense 'jabberwocky' but sounds to me as if it is a lot closer to the thieves cant ballads of the nineteenth century, which include the anonymous 'faking boy' and the masterful translation of villon's 'car ou tu soies' by wa henley.

Answer 2

The dialect is English / Irish 'Cockney' with some insider puns thrown in and unless you understand the dialect it might seem a bit strange to you.

If you really want to 'translate' this cockney poem you could do a web search for cockney phrases and translations.

Answer 3

It doesn't mean anything. It's about the sound.

A quick search of the web reveals that this poem took second place in the NONSENSE category in a poetry magazine contest. I would sure love to hear that cockney translation about now. lmao

Answer 4

This is inspired by Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky, but is not as good...:

http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/jabber/jabberwocky.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky

See also:
http://thewordshop.tripod.com/nonsense.html

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