Palindromes

I think the first palindrome I heard was fittingly attributed to the first words of introduction between our first parents:

Madam, I'm Adam.

and ever since then, it seems, people have been jumping on the bandwagon.

Love or hate Napoleon, he had a great opportunity to use his captivity for greatness at that crucial moment when the line

Able was I ere I saw Elba

was appropriate.

However clever these two illustrious speakers were to come up with the right phrase at the right time, it seems even more so when we see that the phrases were spoken in good English. You ask how this can be? I ask how it can be otherwise; we have to conclude that they were originally in English since the chances of a palindrome in one language translating into another perfectly good palindrome in a completely different language are slim indeed!

I once saw writing in Hebrew that looked quite palindromic but I couldn't verify whether it actually meant anything. Besides, it is read backwards in any case so that may put it in a different category entirely. I mean one would be reading backwards forwards and forwards backwards and end up being twice as palindromic. So confusing.

This confusion aside, English is indebted to many other languages (mainly those who read forwards, however) for the use of their words. These words can make it easier in some cases for the construction of a palindrome.

To make things much easier, we should find a language that has words that either spell the same both ways (i.e. "elle") or that has words that are spelled the same as our words backwards so we might borrow words useful for palindromes. Since this language may not exist, I suggest we start it ourselves. Perhaps it could be called something like Hsilgne.

If this is too much work we can simply be satisfied with what foreign words we have to suit our purposes. Words such as toyota. A simple phrase can be constructed by adding just a few extra letters using this wonderful word as a base:

A toyota's a toyota.

And not much else can be said about that.

I am indebted to my Uncle for this last one containing two foreign words that beautifully mirror into a rather singular sentence:

go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog.

But perhaps we are getting too carried away.