“
Scarlett Johansson has the best breasts in Holywood, according to a new poll. The Lost in Translation actor’s ample assets claimed the top spot in the vote, leaving curvaceous Jessica Simpson and actor Salma Hayek in second and third place.”
Some words strike you when you come across them even for the first time. When, as an adolescent, I graduated from reading historical novels to reading Marathi short stories and books about
him and
her, I came across one such word that described woman’s breast as a pair of ---- doves (
Girrebaaz kabutar in Marathi).
Comparison, between two nouns, must be a recognized figure of speech in many languages, but here one noun simply
substitutes the original noun since the physical resemblance between the two is so obvious. It may be noted that the substituting noun (kabutar) in this figure of speech also has an adjective (Girrebaaz) which actually
accentuates the metaphorical effect. It may be a little difficult to translate Girrebaaz from Marathi/Hindi comprehensively into English; it could be translated as something majestic but haughty, or defiant and yet inviting, or perhaps at best, as a combination of all of these.
One of my army friends always used an anatomical parallel between a woman and an automobile during our private conversation. He would, rather aptly, talk about someone’s ‘differential’ instead of ‘posterior’, since, according to him, both served as important junction points in their respective transmission systems. Obviously, the fact that these two also resembled each other in their shape and in some cases also in size, was merely coincidental. He would also sometimes talk about someone’s ‘headlights’ and we all would know what
that meant.
We had our Jayne Mansfields, Rita Haywarths and Jane Russells in our time and their assets were somewhat a distraction for serious movie-watching. Bob Hope once introduced one of them as “the two and only Jane Russell” during one of his talk-shows. Quite Bob Hopish I reckon but nothing substantial really. But while reading the news clipping given above, I was struck by yet another innovative use of the language; Scarlett Johansson is said to have once confessed to naming her breasts as ‘the girls’. I found Scarlett's description rather
dynamic, live and of course
super-feminine.
