concept
Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas
vanity of vanities
also: Суета сует и всяческая суета
Latin tag from the Vulgate Ecclesiastes 1:2 ('Vanity of vanities, all is vanity'); Chekhov deflates its biblical gravity by rendering it as mere nonsense-mongering invented by a lazy phlegmatic.
Reading notes
- Temperaments (According to the Latest Findings of Science) §6 Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas
Latin tag from Ecclesiastes ('Vanity of vanities, all is vanity'); Chekhov's joke deflates the biblical gravity of the phrase by rendering it as mere nonsense-mongering, fit for a lazy phlegmatic.