PARVUM OPUS

 

Number 186

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ON THE ROAD

 

There's a blog called Littourati that takes you over the route covered in Jack Kerouac's 1957 book On the Road, with maps and updates on the actual locations. If you've read the book, and want to save gas on your summer vac, then go. I read the book when I was young and impressionable. Did a lot of things then that wouldn't make the same impression now; it's best to do them early.

 

THE LING

 

One thing about slang, no matter whether it disappears quickly or finds a home in the language, it's interesting. An exception is a new slang that Ashley Parker says is called the "Ling" (New York Times Magazine, July 23, 2006). It consists chiefly of abbreviated words and acronyms: pos for possibility, atyp for atypical, neg for negative, obvi for obvious; TOPOSH for "top of the pillar of St. Hilar" meaning hilarious; and little extras like rudabega which means rude and freak-a-leak which means freaky. This is the worst slang I've ever heard of since the Snoop Dog "shizzle" ... stuff. These are lame and artificial attempts to be original, not organic effusions of wit and insight.

 

ON THE LANGUAGE FRONT

 

Six Egyptian students entered the U.S. and disappeared. They've found some of them. But did you know the word taliban means student? I also found "seeker" as a definition. Six of these students were named Mohammed. According to writer/radio talk show host Tammy Bruce, this is more evidence of the Viking invasion. Stay tuned.

 

A GROWING GROWTH

 

Blurb for medical TV program: "A young girl from Haiti has a growth growing from her throat." We know that growths grow. The efficient writer would not only avoid that redundancy but take the opportunity to convey more information by replacing one of the words, and not with "tumor," which is a growth. The writer could tell us what kind of growth it is, add information, or else simplify the statement: "...has a growth from her throat."

 

THE REVEREND

 

Someone whose father was a minister wrote to Miss Manners (Judith Martin) that she thought "Reverend" was only a written title, not spoken. Miss Manners agreed, saying that it's unseemly for someone to call himself "Reverend," adding, "It is a bit as if the pope were to refer to himself as My Holiness." But there's a further objection. While "reverend" is defined as a noun, I believe that's only from constant incorrect usage. It's mostly an adjective ~ "the Reverend Smith" ~ see, what do you think "the" is doing there?

 

FEAR THIS

 

For a dollar I picked up a book on clearance that I wouldn't have bought for any more than that, just so I could see how bad it is: The Taming of the Shrew, part of the No Fear Shakespeare series, is "The play plus a translation anyone can understand." I acknowledge that we cannot understand Shakespeare today without help, at least a glossary. The language has changed too much. But translating is always tricky ~ even English to English ~ and the "translations" are prose, not iambic pentameter, but let's assume for the sake of argument that no meaning is conveyed by sound and rhythm. Examples:

 

Original:

Hortensio: Signior Petruchio, fie, you are to blame.

 

Translation:

Hortensio: Shame on you, Petruchio! You are too harsh!

 

"Fie" does mean shame, but I don't think "being to blame" has morphed into "being harsh" in the last four centuries.

 

            Original:

            Katherine: My tongue will tell the anger of my heart

Or else my heart, concealing it, will break.

 

            Translation:

            Katherine: I'll express my anger or die concealing it.

 

Even today heartbreak does not automatically mean death.

 

Many "translations" are equally faulty or at least unnecessary. "Oh, let me see thee walk!" becomes "I want to see you walk." I think today's students can be expected to understand "thee", and "let me" hasn't changed. "I like thee well" becomes "I love you." Not quite the same. "Half lunatic" becomes "total madman." Why?

 

I wish I'd found the No Fear Midsummer Night's Dream for a dollar instead because last week I went to see an amateur performance of that play in a park. The sole reviewer of No Fear MND on Amazon.com, an actor (possibly a student actor), had this to say:

 

The only translation I've found so far that is way out there is the translation of "Tary rash wanton...." The translation is "Wait a minute, you brazen hussy...." Now, HOW is that an understandable translation?

 

Well, he misspelled "tarry" but it could have been a typo. Although "brazen hussy" isn't exactly a current expression, I'd say a reasonably literate person should recognize each of the words as part of his reading vocabulary, if not use them as part of his speaking vocabulary. Obviously being a Shakespearean actor doesn't make one literate. Get thee to a dictionary, buddy. Wrong meanings lead to wrong dramatic interpretations.

 

I must share this lovely passage from Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V, where Puck compares lovers, madmen, and poets:

 

The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen

Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath strong imagination,

That if it would but apprehend some joy,

It comprehends some bringer of that joy;

Or in the night, imagining some fear,

How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

 

I might help a student understand it, but I wouldn't rewrite it for the world.

 

NAVAJO CODE TALKERS

 

Here's an instance of necessary and fascinating translation. During World War II, Navajo Indians joined the Marines, and their job was to transmit messages in Navajo, a code the Japanese never broke.

 

Navajo answered the military requirement for an undecipherable code because Navajo is an unwritten language of extreme complexity. Its syntax and tonal qualities, not to mention dialects, make it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training. It has no alphabet or symbols, and is spoken only on the Navajo lands of the American Southwest. One estimate indicates that less than 30 non-Navajos, none of them Japanese, could understand the language at the outbreak of World War II.

 

Furthermore, because the Navajo vocabulary did not include military terms, the Navajos invented words making the code even more difficult. If you've read any of Tony Hillerman's books about the Navajo tribal police, you may have run across some Navajo words, and some of these were given other meanings during the war. I remember the word dineh from Hillerman's books; the Code Talkers used din-neh-ih (clan) to mean corps.

 

Some of the invented words were clever charades, like BE-THIN-YA-NI-CHE, meaning district in English and deer ice strict in Navajo, and LA-CHAI-EN-SEIS-BE-JAY for dispatch in English, meaning dog is patch in Navajo. Others are inexplicable: Navajo for without care means English force ~ or explicable: grenades are Navajo potatoes. They also used acronyms: of is Navajo ocean fish. Others are cultural: English subordinate is Navajo helping each other. Cemetery is among devils; the Navajo have a taboo against dead bodies. They also used the alphabet in a complicated way, because more than one word is listed for the letters: The letter A could be Navajo words for ant, apple, and axe.

 

They even named countries. Africa was Zhin-ni, Navajo for blackies. America was Ne-he-mah, our mother (which explains their loyalty as soldiers); Australia was Chah-yes-desi, rolled hat. Britain was Toh-ta, between waters. Iceland was Tkin-ke-yah, just ice land. Why was Italy stutter (Doh-ha-chi-yali-tchi), and France beard (Da-gha-hi)? Spain was a charade, Deba-de-nih, sheep pain.

 

I leave you till next week as NA-NISH-YAZZIE, small job.

 

 

Meanwhile, cheers to Scotland Yard. Good job.

 

 

 

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The poet Muriel Rukeyser said the universe is not composed of atoms, but stories.

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