09/09/06: Re: the unanswered riddle

Hi. I'm Italian and know a little about such riddles. In Italy some practise a special discipline called 'enigmistica' (roughly 'enigmatography') dealing with many word games. Enigmatographs generally call games like that one 'indovinelli'. That's not really an 'indovinello', because it has no further meaning. The 'indovinelli' always have two very different meanings. For example, if I tellfu

"Bush receives some European monarchs" [title]

The House is full with many Kings and Queens [riddle]

you should probably think about a *poker hand*, despite the title referring to a political summit. Lessing's riddle doesn't fit with this. However, it works more or less in the same way. You can collect clues from it and try to identify a certain subject. No matter if this subject really exists. But, as you know, the author says it doesn't. Now, the problem is: does the riddle refer to the duck? Of course, YES. The Italian version doesn't allow any doubt.

Grasso grasso brutto brutto
tutto giallo in verità
Se mi chiedi dove sono
ti rispondo 'qua qua qua'
Quando cammino faccio 'poppò'
dimmi tu: chi mai sarò?

'Brutto' could refer to Andersen's fairy tale or not, 'poppò' has no meaning: it could just be an onomatopoeic word for a duck's walk. It's not important. In Italy such a riddle can refer to nothing but a young duck. But our hypothesis is: it's NOT the duck!!! So, it's very disappointing, but we have to admit there's no answer. I think the authors deliberately wrote a riddle about the DUCK and then excluded it to create a total nonsense.

Best regards.

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