Camí des Correu

for Gyuri

The Camí des Correu, the centuries long Post Road passes through the western mountain range of Mallorca, the Tramuntana Sierra, connecting Esporles which lays in a closed valley of the mountains with Banyalbufar which lays in a closed bay of the seashore.


The bizarre Bearn or A manor house in Mallorca by Llorenç Villalonga describes in relief how much locked up and solitary these Mallorcan villages can be. Banyalbufar, founded by 9th-century Arabic conquerors turned away from the sea, became peasant, and instead of sailing it is cultivating the terraces fixed on the slopes of the mountains. Esporles, founded by 13th-century Catalan conquerors, has a mountain stream running down towards Palma, but the villagers never follow it to where their ancestors came from. However, perhaps because even they cannot bear this extent of solitude, these two ends of the world connected at least each other with a mountain path which until the 20th century, when the red asphalt road was built in the valley, was daily covered there and back by a messenger with the post. It is the green route.


The steep path soon arrives from Esporles to Sa Granja – “the Manor.” After the Catalan conquest of 1229 this Arabic holding became a Cistercian monastery and later a nobleman’s estate what it has remained to the present day. Its Arabic origins, however, are clearly indicated by its principal spectacle, applied in Arabic architecture both in Mallorca and in other regions whenever it can do: the water. In front of the manor house, the spring water led down from the mountains springs ten meters high. Just like in Isfahan where a similar water-jet springs up from the middle of the river, thus boasting with the supreme treasure of the town which some kilometers later is lost in the desert.


The Manor is still functioning. A part of it has been opened to visitors, and you are encouraged to watch it in a short film here. Although wild goats abound in the island, nevertheless these ones below belong to the manor.


The road climbs steeply uphill: four hundred meters of level difference on ten kilometers, up, and then down. Two and half hours, comfortably three. But at the end you also have to walk back, because the autobus from Banyalbufar is unpredictable. And the way is even steeper from that direction, climbing up from the sea. And for a good while there is no shadow, at least until you reach the forest after the terraces.


The dichotomy of the Communist regime in my native Hungary included that while we went on excursions quite a lot of times both at home and in the neighboring Socialist countries, we never thought of doing the same in the West. We were allowed to go out there for two weeks in every three year, and could only officially change a hundred German marks (a little less than eighty dollars) for our costs. So this few time and money we reserved for big cities, museums and books, and never for mountains. Although since the change of regime at the end of the 1980’s we have made a lot of excursions in the West too, nevertheless until today I feel it a great luxury there what in the East is just as natural as water.


The road is flanked by old lime-kilns. A short Catalan summary on Mallorcan lime-burning can be found here. Even the picture of this former lime-kiln is included.



The road is sometimes made more difficult by such walls of dry masonry – a Mallorcan speciality – for holding back the cattle. Nevertheless the ladder is put there for the postman.


As we approach the Son Sanutges peak, the horizont slowly opens up. That solitary rock in the sea is also seen by the small lime tree.




As the road begins to descend, we catch sight of the first terraces of Banyalbufar. The system of these terraces and of the water reservoirs and channels encompassing them were built by the Arabs during several centuries. A great part of them are in use even today.



We descend among olive groves into the town of five hundred inhabitants.

Sephardic tales I

To Zoli Ábrahám

Ensemble Lyrique Ibérique: When King Nimrod. From the CD Romances judéo-espagnoles (1992).

The members of the Ensemble Lyrique Ibérique – Dominique Thibaudat (voice), Nabil Ibn Khalidi (oud), Pierre Rigopoulos (zarb and bendir) – perhaps have not even published any more common CD. This one, however, is worth more than the complete discography of some other. They choose songs from the whole Sephardic world, and they perform them with the dynamism which is so much missing from most Western European Sephardic CDs. (Compare for example this version of King Nimrod with the entertainment version by the Raices.)

Kuando el rey Nimrod al kampo saliya Mirava en el syelo i en la’streyeriya Vido lus santa en la djuderiya K’aviya de naser Avraam avinu. Avram avinu, padre kerido padre benditcho, lus de Israel! La mujer de Terah se kedo prenyada De diya en diya, el le preguntava. De ké tenech la kara tan demudada? Eya saviya el byen ke teniya. En fin de mueve mezes parir keriya Iva kaminando por kampos i vinyas, A su marido, tal, no lo deskuvriya. Topo una meara, ayi lo paririya. En akéya ora el nasido avlava: Andadvos mi madre, de la meara. Yo ya topo kyen m’aletchara, Malah del yelo me akompanyara, Porke so kriyado del Dyo benditcho.

When King Nimrod went out to the fields He looked upon the sky and the stars He saw holy light above the Jewish quarter Because in that time father Abraham was born. Father Abraham, our beloved father, our blessed father, the light of Israel! The wife of Terah became pregnant Her husband asked her day by day: Why has your face changed so much? She knew well the treasure she was carrying. After nine months she wanted to give birth She roamed on the fields and in the vineyards She did not disclose her secret to her husband She found a cave and there she gave birth. In that hour the newborn spoke: Go away, my mother, from the cave. There will be someone to feed me, An angel of heaven will accompany me For I am the servant of the blessed God.

Savina Yannatou and the Primavera en Salonico: The dream of the princess. From the CD Άνοιξη στη Σαλονίκη (Spring in Saloniki, 1995).

Savina Yannatou in her more than twenty CDs sings the traditional songs of the whole Mediterranean and even more distant lands (in one of them for example a Moldovan Hungarian – „Csángó” – song, in Hungarian). This first CD of her, presenting the results of an ethnomusicological research in Thessaloniki, was completely dedicated to the music of the once numerous and rich Sephardic population of Saloniki. (For our favorite song in this CD see another tale.)

El rey de Francia tres hijas tenía La una labrava, la otra cusía, la más chica de ellas bastidor hacía. Labrando labrando sueño le caía. Su madre que la vía, aharvar la quería. – No me aharveš mi madre, ni me aharvaríaš Un sueño me soñaba, bien y allegría. – Sueño vos soñabaš, yo vo lo soltaría. – Me aparí a la puerta, vide la luna entera. Me aparí a la ventana, vide la estrella Diana. Me aparí al pozo, vide un pilar de oro con tres pajaricos picando el oro. – La luna entera es la tu suegra. La estrella Diana es la tu cuñada. Los tres pajaricos son tus cuñadicos. Y el pilar de oro, el hijo del rey, tu novio.

The King of France had three daughters One weaved, the other sew and the youngest of them embroidered. As she was working, a dream fell upon her. Her mother saw it and wanted to beat her. – Don’t beat me, mother, don’t beat me I have seen a dream, joy and happiness. – If you saw a dream, I will solve it for you. – I stood at the door and saw the full moon. I stood at the window and saw the morning star. I stood at the well and saw a golden column, three little birds were picking the gold. – The full moon is your mother-in-law. The morning star is your sister-in-law. The three little birds are your nephews. And the golden column is the son of the king, your bridegroom.

Kol Oud Tof Trio: Our bride asks. From the CD Gazelle (2002).

The Israelian Kol Oud Tof (“voice, oud, drum”) plays Moroccan Sephardic music. This music is usually heard with estrade-style orchestral accompaniment. The Kol Oud Tof, however, performs it in a refreshingly simple arrangement, which clearly displays the fascinating complexity of this music. Their suite De veinticinco escalones (Twenty-five scales) has not yet been published in CD, but you can see a part of it here.

Ansina dize la nuestra novia como se llama la cavesa. Esto no se llama cavesa sino toronja de toronjal ay mi toronja de toronjal ay mis campos de espaciar goze la novia con el novio. …como se llaman los cabellos. Esto no se llama cabello sino briles de lavrar. Ay mis briles de lavrar… …como se llama la frente. Esto no se llama frente sino espada reluciente. Ay mi espada reluciente… …como se llaman las cejas No se llaman cejas sino cintas del telar Ay mis cintas del telar… …como se llaman los ojos. No se llaman ojos sino ricos miradores. Ay mis ricos miradores... …como se llama la naris. No se llama naris sino datil datilar. Ay mi datil datilar… …como se llama la boca. No se llama boca sino anillo de dorar. Ay mi anillo de dorar ay mi rosa de rosal… pase la novia ante del novio La novia, el novio la novia, el novio

Our bride asks how they call the head. They don’t call it head but orange from the orange tree. Oh, orange of my orange tree oh, my spacious fields, let the bride rejoice with the bridegroom. … how they call the hair. They don’t call it hair but silk to be embroidered. Oh, my silk to be embroidered… … how they call the front. They don’t call it front but a bright spade. Oh, my bright spade… … how they call the eyebrow. They don’t call it eyebrow but the thread of the loom. Oh, thread of my loom… … how they call the eye. They don’t call it eye, but beautiful look-out. Oh, my beautiful look-out… … how they call the nose. They don’t call it nose but date from the palm tree. Oh, date of my palm tree… … how they call the mouth. They don’t call it mouth but a ring to be gilded. Oh, my ring to be gilded oh, rose of my rose garden… let the bride come to the bridegroom the bride, the bridegroom the bride, the bridegroom

Farewell to Europe

I have finished a translation, and I called the publisher by saying that I would jump over with it from the Academy, just some corners from them. All right, they told. But they forgot to say that it would be a gigantic jump. The Europe Publisher has unexpectedly moved from the city center to the northern suburb of Óbuda.


There, above the left corner of the advertisement board, on the fifth floor, the windows with the all-around-balcony and the stone vases, that was it.


From here I watched for years, in the breaks of the consultations about new translation jobs the Danube, the Ethnographic Museum and the disneyland of the Kossuth Square with the Parliament.


The flood of 2003 of the Danube, in oil on the wall and in water outside.







At the landing of the first floor I say a last farewell to the Japanese girl.


Some years ago our bank was on the ground floor of this building, but it moved away. At the right side, in the Falk Miksa street the extremely inspiring Fire Bird antiquary closed down. On the other side the homely tavern was succeeded by an office. Now the building has become empty definitively. I let it go.

Constelaciones

Desde hace tres años Studiolum en colaboración con la Biblioteca de la Catedral de Kalocsa —una de las bibliotecas históricas más ricas de Hungría—publica cada Navidad un manuscrito medieval o algún incunable del que destaque su calidad o belleza. A fines del año pasado vio la luz en esta serie De Astronomica, es decir, De los astros, de Gaio Julio Higino, el que fuera bibliotecario del emperador Augusto.

La Biblioteca guarda varias ediciones de este libro. La editio princeps se imprimió en 1475 en Ferrara pero sin ilustraciones. Las xilografías de las cuarenta constelaciones y los siete planetas descritos por Higino solo aparecerán al cabo de diez años en la edición de Venecia de Erhard Ratdolt. Estas imágenes serían luego copiadas en la mejor edición del siglo XV, la de Tomás de Blavis, Venecia 1488. Y esta es la que hemos escogido para publicar ahora. Nuestro DVD incluye el facsímil completo del libro con la transcripción buscable del texto latino. Hemos señalado también todas las diferencias con el texto de la primera versión a partir de la edición crítica de 1983, y acompañamos cada ilustración con su correspondiente versión renacentista tomada de la edición de Basilea 1565. Este juego de ilustraciones ofrece un peculiar viaje en el tiempo: es evidente que las dos figuras representan lo mismo, pero viéndolas una al lado de otra queda igual de claro cuánto pudo cambiar el mundo en los cincuenta años transcurridos entre ambas.


Ya habíamos planeado este DVD como regalo de Navidad cuando supimos que 2009 era proclamado por la UNESCO Año Internacional de la Astronomía. Por este mismo motivo, la Biblioteca de Kalocsa empezó a organizar —tras su exposición de Biblias del año pasado con ocasión del Año de la Biblia— una nueva muestra que expusiera sus riquísimos fondos sobre astronomía. Ahora el objetivo es inaugurarla justo en el equinoccio de primavera, el 20 de marzo. Y en Studiolum nos hemos comprometido a preparar las primeras traducciones al español y al húngaro del De Astronomica, que se incluirán, junto con la versión inglesa, en la segunda edición del DVD a distribuir durante la apertura de la exposición.


El hispano Higino, jefe de la biblioteca imperal dedicó la mayor parte de su tiempo a compilar obras de referencia sobre temas muy variados para uso de aquellos ciudadanos de Roma que, al final de la guerra civil y con la llegada de la paz de Augusto, disfrutaban del sosiego necesario para adquirir una mejor educación. Realizó resúmenes sobre el origen de las ciudades de Italia, las familias de Troya, las historias memorables, la vida de personajes ilustres, los dioses e incluso sobre agricultura y apicultura, asuntos que también pertenecían al elenco de la literatura culta de entonces. Solo dos de sus libros han sobrevivido: las Fabulae, un compendio de mitología grecorromana, y la Astronomica que, aparte de una descripción del cielo estrellado, contiene también un sumario de los los mitos relacionados con cada constelación.


Hoy en día, rodeados de enciclopedias y diccionarios mitológicos, nos cuesta ver que no es algo tan normal el que determinados aspectos de la mitología clásica hayan llegado hasta nosotros de forma detallada. En la mayoría de otras naciones del mismo período, mientras sus religiones estaban vivas se consideró superfluo elaborar ciertos registros minuciosos, y aún más inútil era cuando aquellas quedaban sustituidas. De la milenaria mitología armenia solo sabemos lo que nos dijo en el siglo V, y a modo de ejemplo disuasorio, Movses Khorenatsi, su primer cronista cristiano. Y de la antigua religión húngara ni siquiera tenemos eso.


El conocimiento de la mitología grecorromana nos ha llegado justamente por medio de las compilaciones realizadas en aquel tiempo, la época de Augusto. En estos dos libros de Higino. En las Metamorfosis y Fastos de Ovidio, amigo de Higino, que son prácticamente resúmenes mitológicos en verso. En las notas recogidas por dos autores anónimos que se conservan en la Biblioteca Vaticana. Y esto es todo. El resto de fuentes son fragmentarias. Pero estas pocas obras bastan para componer un sistema en el que las otras fuentes se pueden insertar con comodidad. Estos libros fueron inspiración y modelo de los grandes manuales mitográficos del Renacimiento, empezando por la Genealogia Deorum, 1360, de Boccaccio.


Aquellos epítomes no se crearon solo como literatura de consumo popular. Jean Seznec cuenta en su pionero estudio Los dioses de la Antigüedad en la Edad Media y el Renacimiento (1940; ed. española Madrid: Taurus, 1983) que los ciudadanos educados del imperio helenístico, justo en aquel tiempo, empezaron a abandonar su creencia en la existencia real de los antiguos dioses y a reinterpretarlos como personificaciones de fenómenos naturales o como figuras históricas que habían vivido en los albores de la humanidad. Estos tratados sobre los dioses escritos hacia el reinado de Augusto —donde también se incluye el De natura deorum— de Cicerón ya se enfocaban desde un nuevo ángulo desmitificador y obedecían a la nueva necesidad de elaborar recapitulaciones.

Higino dedicó su De Astronomica a un tal M. Fabius. Según Jérôme Carcopino (1963), podría identificársele con el aristócrata y culto ciudadano romano Paulo Fabio Máximo, cuya estrella se elevó súbitamente en el año 11 a.C al emparentar por matrimonio con la familia imperial y que, en el 3 a.C., cayó en desgracia de manera igualmente abrupta. De ser así, Higino tuvo que escribir su obra entre el 11 y el 3 a.C. En ella, a la vez que desmitificaba las constelaciones celestes, se despedía de los dioses, relegados a un papel de meros símbolos. Casi al mismo tiempo tres astrólogos orientales emprenderían la investigación acerca de una nueva estrella aún no incluida en el discurso de Higino.

Constellations

For three years now, for every Christmas Studiolum has published in collaboration with the Cathedral Library of Kalocsa – one of the richest historical libraries in Hungary – an especially beautiful and important Medieval manuscript or Renaissance incunabula from the collections of the Library. At the end of the last year we have published the De Astronomica, that is, On the Stars by Gaius Iulius Hyginus, the librarian of Emperor Augustus.

The library preserves several editions of this book. The editio princeps was published in 1475 in Ferrara, but this came without illustrations. The woodcut images of the forty constellations and seven planets described by Hyginus were first represented ten years later in the Venice edition by Erhard Ratdolt. These pictures were also copied in the most beautiful 15th-century edition of the work by Thomas de Blavis, Venice 1488. We have chosen this latter version for publication. The DVD includes the complete facsimile of the book with the searchable transcription of the Latin text. We have also indicated all the differences of this early text version from the critical edition of 1983. In addition, we have also accompanied each illustration with their Renaissance counterparts in the 1535 Basel edition. These illustrations of the illustrations offer a peculiar time travel. It is clear that the two figures are the same, but it is also clear how much the world changed in the fifty years that passed between them.


We had already posted the DVDs intended as a Christmas gift when we came to know that the year of 2009 was announced by the UNESCO as the International Year of Astronomy. So our choice could not have even been more fortunate. At hearing the news the Library started to organize, after the Bible exhibition installed in the last year in honor of the Year of the Bible, an exhibition from their extremely rich astronomical collections to be opened, most appropriately, on the day of the spring aequinox, the 20th of March. And we have decided to prepare the very first Spanish and Hungarian translations of the De Astronomica, to be included, together with the English version, in the second edition of the DVD which will be distributed at the opening ceremony.


The Hispanian Hyginus, chief librarian of the imperial library mostly spent his time by compiling reference works in the most various topics for the citizens of Rome who, after the end of the civil wars and with the arrival of the Augustinian peace, felt the need again of obtaining some education. He made summaries on the origin of the cities of Italy, the families of Troy, the life of illustrious people, the memorable stories, the gods, and even on agriculture and apiculture which also belonged to the topics of educated literature of the age. Only two of his books have survived: the Fabulae, a compendium of Graeco-Roman mythology and the Astronomica which, besides the description of the stellar sky, was also primarily a summary of the myths connected with the constellations.


Nowadays, aided by so many mythological encyclopedias we do not even consider how little self-evident it is that Classical mythology has remained to us in such a detailed shape. For most other nations in that period, while their ancient religion was alive, regarded it superfluous to write it down exactly for this, and when they changed it for another – the Graeco-Roman or the Christian – religion, then for that reason. From the thousand years old Armenian mythology we only know as much as was mentioned for the sake of a deterrent example by 5th-century Movses Khorenatsi, their first Christian chronicler. And from ancient Hungarian religion not even that much.


The knowledge of Graeco-Roman mythology was preserved for us exactly by those few compilations which were made around that time, the age of Augustus. By these two books by Hyginus. By the Metamorphoses and Roman feasts of Ovid, the friend of Hyginus, which are practically poetic mythological summaries. By the collected notes of two anonym authors in the Vatican library. And that is all. All the other sources are fragmentary. But these few works are enough to set up a system in which the other sources can be inserted as well. These books were the inspiration and model to the great mythological handbooks of the Renaissance, beginning with the Genealogia Deorum of 1360 by Boccaccio.


These summaries were not only created for the purpose of popular literature. As Jean Seznec writes in his important The Survival of Pagan Gods (1953), the educated citizens of the Hellenistic empire exactly around this time started to give up their beliefs in the ancient gods as really existing beings, and began to reinterpret them either as personified natural phenomena or as outstanding historical figures who lived at the dawn of mankind. These tractates on the gods written around the age of Augustus – which also include the De natura deorum of Cicero – were already inspired by this new, demythifying view and the need of a new summary.

Hyginus dedicated the De Astronomica to a certain M. Fabius. According to Jérôme Carcopino (1963), he was most probably identical with the educated Roman aristocrat Paullus Fabius Maximus whose star was suddenly risen in 11 B.C. when he married into the imperial family, and who then in 3 B.C. fell into disfavor in a similarly abrupt way. If this is so, then Hyginus also had to write between 11 and 3 B.C. this summary, in which he, by demythifying the celestial constellations, said farewell to the gods behind them already regarded as mere symbols. He did so around the same time when three Oriental astrologers set off to look for a new star, not yet included in Hyginus.