It is good to know that God is on our side, but a little confusing when you find the enemy equally convinced of the opposite. To quote the immortal lines of the poet during the First World War:
Gott strafe England, and God save the King.
God this, and God that, and God the other thing.
'Good God,' said God, 'I've got my work cut out.'
* a brief comment:
In the passage quoted in "Russell's Words for Today" we find the line "I've got my work cut out." How would you translate this?
The poet in question is the English poet Ernst Lissauer (1882?1937). At first, I mistakenly thought that the phrase "cut out" in "I've got my work cut out" meant something like "cut off → taken away." However, through the following exchange with ChatGPT, I realized that this interpretation was incorrect.
It is true that from the literal feel of "cut out" one might be inclined to think "the work has been taken away." But in English the idiom "to have one's work cut out (for one)" actually means "to have a hard task ahead" or "to be faced with a difficult challenge."
Etymological nuance
The origin of this expression goes back to the 18th century, and it derives from the imagery of tailors or craftsmen. When the cloth has already been cut, there remains a mountain of sewing or assembling work waiting to be done. In other words, "a great deal of work is already prepared and waiting for me."
→ Thus "cut out" here does not mean "taken away," but rather "already cut out (prepared) and assigned to me."
