Unknown languages have on me the same effect as attractive women seen for the first time. I am curious, intrigued,wondering about possibilities and tempted to learn more about them. When I came across a brief entry in my “Language search” notebook “Ilargi –moon in Basque”, I couldn’t resist searching the web for more information. I think it was a subconscious hint, because today is a Moonday (shortened to Monday) and tomorrow is a Full Moon. The first find was a Basque song on Youtube(with Spanish text) entitled Ilargi Gorri Hortan Daude. The scenery is well matched with some interesting shots, though the howling of air raid sirens at the end is a bit puzzling. Perhaps, it has some secret meaning for the Basque or Spanish listeners. My Spanish is of a lost tourist variety, but I think that “Ilargi gorri” means red moon (Luna Roja) and the song is a romantic love song linked to the moon as a guardian of our dreams (guardados nostros suenos), shape of the heart (forma de corazon) and the climax od love (los climax dos amor). For the rest of this rough and ready translation, please use your usual bright imagination. In the Basque legends the moon is the daughter of the Earth which could mean that those ancient inhabitants of Europe knew of her origins as part of our planet which became unbalanced and was thrown off into the sky, but kept in a close relationship with its “mother”. There are some interesting etymological hypotheses about the original meaning of the word “ilargi” – the one I find most convincing is “light of the sleeping” (or dead) because the moon has a lot to do with sleep-walking, dreaming and insomnia. Basque language is mysterious and fascinating –an ancient witch glimpsed in the temple of knowledge.
13 October 2008 at 19:26 |
So now I have a choice where to visit you, here or there or just in between
so I think I will be checking both possibilities, just in case, and it can be a nice language adventure 
You didn’t write about this language having the effect as beautiful women in the other post about the song I read
13 October 2008 at 20:41 |
szekina: I am honoured by your comment and should frame it as it is the first on this blog. Further visits will be certainly much appreciated. I should add that I never attempt to translate entries in my Polish blog into English or vice versa. I write from what I remember in Polish, think in English and write. It is easier that way. I have now mentioned language=women in my reply to kadarka.
13 October 2008 at 20:57 |
So this is even more interesting. While translating some English text I was sometimes wondering how translation changes the original meaning not even through the person of a translator, but rather through the different language itself. And when I was thinking about the blog in English – which I finally didn’t start – I was asking myself whether the writing would be different and whether this one in me, who would prefer to write in English would be somehow different – just another inner person, with different things to say, or slightly different maybe. Maybe I’ll do it someday, who knows.
I liked the image of a Moon as a daughter of the Earth.
13 October 2008 at 23:30 |
szekina: Meanings may not get completely lost in translation, but they lose something, call it a flavour or the soul of the language. In the Polish text I talked about “grooves” into which native language usually falls. I had to give up that bit, because groove in English is not the same as Polish “koleina”. It can mean rowek, wyzlobienie, kanalik,szablon, rutyna etc. Exact translation wouldn’t convey my thoughts, images, metaphors.
I think that when I write in English I feel more what I am now. When I write Polish, I return to my much younger days, hence it is a very different writing, using different images, emotional background and even language which tends to be a bit old-fashioned, because it can better reflect that old personality.
You should start an English blog – as an experiment. I write mine, so that my English family and friends can keep in touch with my thinking. Goodnight