Babel

Tag: English language

  • Sometimes I Wish I Had Poetic Talent

    Twilight over the river Aude, Hérault, Langued...
    Image via Wikipedia

    Well… I was walking near one of the canals in Tottenham Hale towards the twilight (not that twilight, ugh, I can’t even use this word without sparkly cheesy connotations any more, bless you whatever-is-your-name-woman-who-invented-sparkly-vampires-sensitive-to-the-humans’-emotions) and it just felt … umm… like poetry.

    If you watched the video before reading this post, then, very good, if you didn’t please watch it. It’s basically a poem by Mihai Eminescu, something of a lullaby, but also describing nature going to sleep. I won’t go into interpretations (just search for “Somnoroase pasarele” – if you know Romanian – or “Drowsy birds” could be its English translation: find the poem here, in Romanian, English, Hungarian, Modern and Ancient Chinese). Here are the lyrics as translated in English (from that site – the version which is really nice, not the other one, *cough* Sleepy Birds… But it still can’t catch the nuances that it does in the Romanian language, it’s maybe why they say poetry can’t really be translated, it can be at most re-written, but its form and rhythm are built within the music of certain language and that language alone):

    Drowsy birds

    Drowsy birds at even gliding,
    Round about their nests alight,
    In among the branches hiding…
    Dear, good night!

    Silence through the forest creeping,
    Lullaby the river sighs;
    In the garden flowers sleeping…
    Shut your eyes!

    Glides the swan among the rushes
    To its rest where moonlight gleams,
    And the angels’ whisper hushes…
    Peaceful dreams!

    O’er the sky stars without number,
    On the earth a silver light;
    All is harmony and slumber…
    Dear, good night!

    (trad. de Corneliu M. Popescu)

    Well, anyway… While I was walking along the water – and feeling guilty that I forgot to take some treats with me again and all the birds were looking at me quite irritated – I felt like singing this song (because it was made a song by George Popescu) while I was watching everything natural and human going to sleep. At times like this I really wish I were a poet, but for some reason I can’t find words (that is poetic words that can describe an image or another), it feels really difficult to give shape to feelings – especially if they’re complex and include a whole pantheon of elements.

    Well, I was thinking that Eminescu must have taken a walk like me, some 200 years ago. The only difference? He wrote a poem, which was given music, and which is now a part of the Romanian heritage. What did I do? A blog post. A conventional blog post, with a YouTube video link. It’s not that I want to point at myself and say “Sinner, heathen, stupid, whatever”… It’s just that I wish I could write a poem as simple and beautiful as that. Plus, if in the 1880s, if there had been such a thing as blogging, I guess he’d be blogging too. And most likely not the poems and nice stuff, but normal, opinionated, perhaps even politically incorrect posts.

    But don’t let me destroy the dreamy feeling I have with silly assumptions. I’ll leave you with the drowsy birds and bid you a very good, peaceful night!

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  • On standard sentences, political correctness and reciting poems dictated by Scaraotsky

    Wooden Chair
    Image by epSos.de via Flickr

    This is not a new idea, nor is it new as compared to other posts I’ve made in this blog (here, or here for example) or in other places, but I never addressed this issue in its own blog post.

    Romanian has an expression that can be literally translated in English as wooden language. I am not sure about the equivalent in English, but this wooden language represents the words, sentences and phrases used in official/professional environments in order to express standard ideas or qualities using key concepts (such as the “turning any obstacle into an opportunity”, or even professional jargon when talking about notion blocks inserted into every-day or official conversation.

    This wooden language is very common. Even though it may take different forms, according to each context and political, social and/or religious situation, it can reach a point of crisis: when it’s emptied of its original – positive? – sense, like a fly is empty after the spider has feasted with its insides.

    This type of language can be particularly dangerous when it’s repetition is pushed towards the subconscious. That is, when it’s more than just background noise, it is a message that is being transmitted on invisible waves. In any case, this becomes something like radio waves: we don’t see them, but we are perfectly aware of their existence and effect. In other words, the worst threat is the one that you don’t even know of.

    One of the most common standardized wooden language (in the West, at least) is the one related to political correctness and with anything that deals with or contains the word “sustainable.” The expressions were created to replace other notions that are now considered rude or insulting (such as fat, short, skinny, etc.), but have already surpassed their original positive intention and have become utterly ridiculous. I am not saying political correctness is ridiculous, I am referring strictly to the terms used.

    Human beings are a very interesting species. We like to think we’re individuals, but the things we are most proud is our association with external entities (from bands to companies) and our very original ideas were planted in our heads through different methods. Such methods include as diverse sources as: repetition in school lessons, commercials, movies, music. From this point on, the notions are somewhere we can’t see, but every time we are confronted with a situation similar or identical to our trigger, the bomb sets off out of nowhere.

    So… Wooden or golden, language can be quite tricky, especially when trying to express something original, or when trying (and succeeding) to brainwash somebody by means of word-repetition.

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