And yet...and yet...

hi, i'm the book critic of the san francisco chronicle, drawn here from google by your excellent treeing of the phrase 'weapons of mass destruction.' here's one that's been bothering me for a while: the now-ubiquitous repetitive phrase 'and yet...and yet...' where did it come from, and how did it become so inescapable?

btw, who are you guys? how do you do it? and can you reply via e-mail to dkipen@sfchronicle.com as well as on the bulletin board? i've got a newspaper column to fill in the next 3.5 hours, in case the answers are newsworthy and you're feeling especially industrious.

all finest,
david kipen

We are an international group of volunteers who share a love and fascination of and with the English Language.
I do not have an answer for you on your phrase inquiry but hopefully someone will post something here to help you out.
Please visit again!

I can never resist tracking down a vaguely familiar quotation. I found so many, I will not quote them all, but will cite a few that may have served to popularize the phrase.

* W. B. Yeats, "The Wild Swans at Coole"
* Charles Hamilton Sorley circa 1912
* Thomas Bailey Aldrich, 19th century poet
* George Eliot in _Middlemarch_ (1871-1872)

The earliest usage I've found so far (assuming the English translation was made in the author's lifetime) is a haiku by Kobayashi Issa (1762 -1827):

The world of dew
is the world of dew,
And yet, and yet--

And yet, and yet... I doubt that's the earliest usage. I did try searching the Oxford Shakespeare at Bartleby and as much as I wish I could pin it on Shakespeare, it seems we can't.

A 17th or early 18th century origin seems likely, but there's just too much ground to cover in one day.

Another use of this evocative phrase (found using Google): Emma Goldman's essay "Durruti Is Dead, Yet Living" , linked below. If a follow-up post removes the link, return to this post for it or use
sunsite.berkeley.edu/ Goldman/Writings/Essays/durruti.html