Swept off his feet again

Reader question:

Why is a movie star marrying for a second time is described as “has been swept off his feet again”?

My comments:

Again, because it is happening for one more time.

The actor being swept off his feet, that is.

In other words, the movie star is falling in love again.

The question, still, is, why “falling in love” is the same as being “swept off one’s feet”.

Imagine that love is a broom, that the actor is tiny piece of broken paper. The broom comes along and sweeps up the piece of paper along with dusts on the floor. Swoosh! Gone.

In front of the broom with its overpowering force, the paper has no chance. In other words, the helpless actor is swept off his feet and carried off without resistance.

I don’t know if it’s a good idea to liken the power of love to a big broom or if it’s appropriate to imagine a man can be as powerless as a piece of paper in front of love but metaphorically speaking I think you’ll get the point.

At any rate when one is swept off one’s feet, one loses balance and is likely to fall, hence the analogy to one FALLING for their partner.

In other words, a man (or woman) in love will fall like a soldier. From that point on, no resistance whatsoever.

Got it?

All right, here are media examples of people being swept off their feet, either by love or some other overpowering force of nature or emotion:

1. Madonna is open to walking down the aisle again following her two failed marriages to Sean Penn and Guy Ritchie as she is a “romantic” hoping to be “swept off her feet by a knight in shining armour”.

The pop superstar has been dating French dancer Brahim Zaibat for more than a year, and the 53 year old tells talk show host Graham Norton she would consider becoming a wife for the third time.

When asked if she could see herself walking down the aisle in the future, Madonna replied, “I could actually, yes”, adding: “I think I’m a pretty good judge of character but I have made a few mistakes.”

Madonna, who is mother to four children, admits she is a hopeless romantic at heart.

She explains, “If you’re a romantic like me, and every girl I know is, every girl wants to be swept off her feet by a knight in shining armour. Unfortunately we’re raised on those fairy tales.

“Even if we are sophisticated, educated, intelligent, evolved human beings, we like to think in the back of our minds that Mr Right is going to sweep us off our feet and take us into the sunset, and we’re going to live happily ever after.

“But we keep getting disappointed. If you have even half a brain you know that doesn’t exist.”

- Madonna open to marriage again, UK.News.Yahoo.com, January 12, 2017.

2. A 25-year-old man is recovering in hospital after he was swept off his feet by a rogue wave in Co Clare yesterday.

The American tourist was standing on the shoreline at Doolin Point with his wife, who managed to escape injury, when the incident happened.

The Irish Coast Guard marine rescue sub centre was alerted at around 4.00 o’clock yesterday after the man was swept onto the rocks by a rogue wave and the Doolin unit was dispatched.

It was feared that man had been washed into the sea, but when volunteers from the nearby Coast Guard station arrived at the scene, they located the injured man on the rocks.

- Man recovers in hospital after being swept off rocks, Clare.FM, May 6, 2016.

3. Four young Englishmen conquered Japan 50 years ago — with music. They were, of course, the Beatles — the biggest pop act in the world at the time.

“I have the honour to report that the Beatles, M.B.E., were in Tokyo from the 29th of June to the 3rd of July,” wrote Dudley Cheke, charge d’affaires at the British Embassy, to his superiors in London.

Noting that Tokyo had been hit by an exceptionally heavy tropical rainstorm just before the band arrived, Cheke said “the ‘Beatles typhoon’ ... swept the youth of Japan off their feet.”

One of those swept off her feet was Mieko Iwabuchi, who saw all five of the Beatles’ shows. The group’s visit to Japan coincided with her university exams.

“My grandfather was a doctor,” says Iwabuchi, whose photo appeared in a Japanese fashion magazine's feature on Beatles fans. “My mother lied to him (to get a note saying Mieko was sick). I was very grateful to my mother.”

- Yesterday: When the ‘Beatles typhoon’ hit Japan, JapanTimes.co.jp, June 25, 2016.

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.