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D on't you love palindromes? My niece, Hannah, is reaching reading age, and fascinated by them. Perhaps you've noticed that "racecar" is a palindrome, or that "knob" backwards is "bonk."
Or how about stratagem and megatarts? Or amaryllis and sillyrama? (that probably hadn't occurred to you.) Of course, we've all heard the big famous palindromes, like "Madam, I'm Adam!" and Napoleon's great statement "Able was I, ere I saw Elba." (Then there's the less famous, but equally poignant, "Sore was I ere I saw Eros.")
Here's one of the more clever widespread palindromes:
A man, a plan, a canal — Panama!
Later on, some variations arose:
A man, a plan, a cat, a canal; Panama?
A dog, a plan, a canal: pagoda!
And the remarkable:
A man, a plan, a cat, a ham, a yak, a yam, a hat, a canal — Panama!
But let's not be absurd.
Have you ever seen a word-palindrome? That is, the palindromic quality resides not in the letters but in the words:
You can cage a swallow can't you but you can't swallow a cage can you?
And, of course, it's possible to envision a palindromic conversation, in which entire sentences are the mirrored element. Wow!
Speaking of mirrors, hold A TOYOTA up to one. Cool, yes? Since each letter is symmetrical and the phrase is a palindrome, it still reads the same. Hold the mirror the other way (that is top-to-bottom) on the word CHOICE, and you'll get the same effect.
Here are some favorites.
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Aha!
Bird rib
Evil olive
Gnu dung
Lepers repel.
Never odd or even.
If I had a hi-fi...
OH, NO! DON HO!!
I roamed under it as a tired, nude Maori.
Tarzan raised Desi Arnaz' rat.
Remarkable was I ere I saw Elba Kramer.
A man, a plan, a canoe, pasta, heros, rajahs, a coloratura, maps, snipe, percale, macaroni, a gag, a banana bag, a tan, a tag, a banana bag again (or a camel), a crepe, pins, Spam, a rut, a Rolo, cash, a jar, sore hats, a peon, a canal — Panama!
(... Yawn.) Madonna Fan? No damn way!
Too hot to hoot!
A Dan, a clan, a canal - Canada!
A slut nixes sex in Tulsa
I prefer pi.
Tons o' snot
What an interesting name you have, Mr. Mevahuoyemangnitseretninatahw!
Wonton? Not now.
YO, BANANA BOY!
Cigar? Toss it in a can — it is so tragic.
Golf? No sir, prefer prison-flog.
Straw? No, too stupid a fad. I put soot on warts.
Gustav Klimt milk vats — ug!
Flee to me, remote elf.
Laminated E.T. animal
Now Ned, I am a maiden nun:
Ned, I am a maiden won.
Sex-aware era waxes;
Sex at noon taxes.
Dr Awkward
Senile Felines
Solo gigolos
A final English palindrome by a master of the language, Percy B. Shelley:
Degas,
Are we not drawn onward,
We freer few,
Drawn onward
To new eras aged?
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FOREIGN LANGUAGE PALINDROMES
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LATIN
"Endure rough treatment from uncultured brutes":
Subi dura a rudibus
"The sower Arepo works with the help of a wheel":
SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS
This is one of the most perfect sentences ever made! For instance, look at the first letter of each word. Now look at the second, the third, and so on. Remarkable. And of course, since it's a palindrome, you can do the same backwards, from last to first. So, it's possible to make a 5x5 square of this, which reads the same vertically and horizontally, forward and backward.
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GREEK
"You arrested the ones a pig threw":
Sunelabes as ebalen us.
"Wash your sins, not just your face":
Nipson anomhmata mh monan opsin.
(remember, in Greek alphabet, the "psi" is one letter.)
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ITALIAN
"On the sides of Italy":
Ai lati d'Italia
"Either I bite your daughter-in-law, or I plough a racetrack":
O mordo tua nuora o aro un autodromo
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SPANISH
"The abbot was giving rice to the vixen":
Dabale arroz a la zorra el abad.
"Anita washes the bath":
Anita lava la tina
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PORTUGUESE
"Help me, I climbed on a bus in Morocco!":
Socorram-me, subi no onibus em Marrocos!
" 'To laugh', the short verb 'to laugh'...":
Rir, o breve verbo rir...
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FRENCH
"To the altar she went, she killed him there":
A l'autel elle alla, elle le tua la.
"Elected by that crook":
Elu par cette crapule.
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GERMAN
"A leather belt never carried Redel":
Ein leder gurt trug Redel nie.
"A Negro with a gazelle never despairs in the rain":
Ein Neger mit Gazelle zagt im Regen nie.
Written by Schopenhauer in an apparently optimistic, though perhaps drunken, moment.
"A pillar with bas-relief carving":
Reliefpfeiler
"Don't Think!"
Denk Ned!
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ROMANIAN
"They make coffee":
Ele fac cafele.
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SLOVAK
"Don't pour the beer to a red deer":
Jelenovi pivo nelej.
"PULL":
TAHAT
Like its English equivalent, this word appears on doors in public places. Since, however, it is not only a palindrome but a mirror word, its purpose is negated, to everyone's confusion, when written on a transparent door!
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WELSH
"Kill a blind sheep":
Lladd dafad ddall.
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NORWEGIAN
"Agnes in the bed":
Agnes i senga
"Dig down that wolf":
Grav ned den varg.
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FINNISH
"soap cup dealer":
Saippuakuppinippukauppias
*that's the longest one word palindrome in the world!
"salt economy":
suolatalous
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SWEDISH
"You speak good Latin":
Ni talar bra Latin
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It's nice to know that if you ever find yourself needing to compliment a Swedish person's Latin fluency -- in Swedish -- then you'll know what to say. On the other hand, when's the last time you ever had occasion to recall your days as a tired, nude Maori, or to say to someone, "Flee to me, remote elf"? I myself hope someday to be able to say with bittersweet grandeur, "Niagara, O roar again!"
Hey, wait...isn't "Flee to me, remote elf" one of those Schubert lieder?
