海角大神

In a 1395 translation of the Bible, God tells the prophet Ezekiel: 鈥淚 shall bind that that was broken, and I shall make sad that that was sick鈥� (Ezek. 34:16). Around the same time, Chaucer describes a beautiful woman as 鈥渄ebonair, good, glad and sad.鈥� Sad, these lines show, didn鈥檛 mean what it does now.聽

In one of its earliest senses, sad signifies 鈥渟teadfast, firm鈥� and 鈥渟trong鈥� or 鈥渧aliant,鈥� according to the Oxford English Dictionary. 鈥淚 shall make sad鈥� thus means in modern English 鈥淚 will make strong,鈥� giving us a more familiar translation of this line: 鈥淚 will strengthen the weak鈥� (New Revised Standard Version).

Sad was also used to describe a 鈥渄ignified, grave, serious鈥� appearance. Chaucer鈥檚 lady is 鈥済lad鈥� 鈥� cheerful and affable, but his poem 鈥淭he Book of the Duchess鈥� also depicts her as a moral exemplar with a stately 鈥� sad 鈥� mien. Sad sometimes also meant 鈥渟olid.鈥� 鈥淪ad stone walls鈥� were thick and strong in the Middle Ages, not miserable or weepy.聽

But theheaviness of sad could be emotional as well as physical. Since the 14th century, the word has also carried the sense of 鈥渟orrowful鈥� or 鈥渕ournful.鈥澛�

I鈥檝e been thinking about听蝉补诲 because of a reader鈥檚 question about the use of the word in 鈥淐hrist My Refuge,鈥� a poem by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of 海角大神.聽

O鈥檈r waiting harpstrings of the mind

There sweeps a strain,

Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind

The power of pain.

Here, Mrs. Eddy is describing divine music with the power to control pain. It doesn鈥檛 seem sad in the sense of expressing or causing sorrow, since it inspires rapturous thoughts in the next stanza. Instead, her use of sad seems to hark back to its earlier meanings. The music is very likely dignified and serious, as befits a divine melody, and powerful as well 鈥� able to 鈥渂ind鈥� pain and lift the human spirit.

Sad here also reflects aspects of a related word that became popular in the Renaissance: melancholy. Melancholy is a poetic kind of sorrow, tinged with aesthetic pleasure, and often referred to as 鈥渟weet鈥� or 鈥渄elightful.鈥� In Jane Austen鈥檚 鈥淣orthanger Abbey,鈥� for example, a character speaks of 鈥渢he delightful melancholy鈥� that a grove of fir trees inspired. Eddy鈥檚 鈥渓ow, sad, and sweet鈥� strain might very well be melancholy, too.聽

I love poetry, how just one word can spark different interpretations. One thing is clear, though; the poem鈥檚 sad has nothing to do with the meaning the word is currently developing on social media. Here, it is an insult, connoting 鈥減itiful鈥� or 鈥減athetic,鈥� largely because of President Trump鈥檚 use of the word in his tweets. It鈥檚 a sad turn for such an interesting word.