Original artwork, not a still
The Common Reader · 1925
Humour is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The speaker suggests that humour is especially vulnerable when someone moves into another language. Calling it a gift that perishes makes the loss sound personal: a person may retain things to say while struggling to reproduce their wit. The statement singles out comedy as difficult to carry across languages.
Context reviewed
