backhanded compliment

図書館から本を借りて読む合間に先日アマゾンで購入したUnderstanding Bob Dylanを読んでいます。
今日はそこからの単語を取り上げます。
The ambivalence about the "Sad-Eyed Lady" comes across in the song's second and third lines:
And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes,
And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes
First there is religious association which occurs throughout the song--the prayers, the silver cross, the holy medallion, her gypsy hymns, the dead angels, her saint-like face, her ghost-like soul, the sad-eyed prophet - all of which remind us of the madonna and mother goddess side of modonna/whore equation. But.... "prayers like rhymes"? Is this also a backhanded compliment? Prayers are meant to be incantations that link the prayer with a deity, so should they be like rhymes, which are children's prayers perhaps, and note here "rhyme" is a noun, not a verb.
上の引用文に出てきた "backhanded compliment" は7/29/2016に取り上げた "complisult" の意味を調べた時に、辞書の説明に使われていた表現ですね。
今回は "backhanded" で辞書を引いて見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Indirect; ambiguous or insincere.: She laughs nervously at the backhanded compliment.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: A backhanded remark seems pleasant but may really be a criticism or mean something unkind: a backhanded compliment
日本語の褒め殺しを連想させますね。
明日から休暇を取ってハワイ旅行に行ってきますのでブログもしばらく休みます。