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языки цитаты из песни и ее перевода. Я имею в виду английское выражение on a wing and
a prayer и русское на честном слове на одном крыле. Чтобы убедиться в том, что русское
выражение превратилось любимый нашими журналистами фразеологизм (кто-то скажет
— штамп), достаточно провести поиск в гугле. Употребляют его уже не только
журналисты (и далеко не только в отношении авиации, которая «породила» эту фразу).
Например, с сайта инвестиционной компании «Атон»: В отличие от прошлой недели это
[рост котировок] происходит «на честном слове и на одном крыле», — отмечает Шеин.
Или заголовок статьи об известной кинопремии: «Золотой орел»: на честном слове и на
одном крыле.
На сайте World Wide Words приводится следующее объяснение (с этимологией)
английского выражения:
[Q] From On a wing and a prayer: ―What does on a wing and a prayer mean?‖
[A] It means that you're in a desperate situation and you're relying on hope to see you through.
Congratulations on getting it right. It's one of the more commonly mangled phrases in the
language, frequently being said and written as ―on a whim and a prayer‖. One recent example
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was in the Daily Mail of 25 May 2004: ―It does nothing to change the impression of a club
stumbling along on a whim and a prayer‖.
Believe me, there's nothing capricious about it. Anyone who can write it that way is surely too
young to know that it comes from a famous American World War Two patriotic song, with words
by Harold Adamson and music by Jimmy McHugh. It tells the tale of a plane struggling home
after a bombing raid:
Comin' in on a wing and a prayer
What a show, what a fight
Boys, we really hit our target for tonight
How we sing as we limp through the air
Look below, there's our field over there
Though there's one motor gone
We can still carry on
Comin' in on a wing and a prayer.
The song came out at the end of 1942 and instantly became a huge hit on both sides of the
Atlantic, so much so that the phrase almost immediately entered the language.
А вот полный текст песни по-английски и по-русски:
COMIN' IN ON A WING AND A PRAYER
One of our planes was missing
Two hours overdue,
One of our planes was missing
With all it's gallant crew,
The radio sets were humming,
They waited for a word,
Then a voice broke through the humming
And this is what they heard:
Comin' in on a wing and a prayer,
Comin' in on a wing and a prayer,
Though there's one motor gone
We can still carry on,
Comin' in on a wing and a prayer.
What a show! What a fight!
Yes, we really hit our target for tonight!
How we sing as we limp through the air,
Look below, there's our field over there,
With our full crew aboard
And our trust in the Lord
We're comin' in on a wing and a prayer.
Русский текст С.Болотина, Т.Сикорской
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