Since our posts are usually heavily loaded with images, on the first page of río Wang you can see only the most recent four or five posts. Let us therefore have here this back door for a quick overview of all the posts.
Ghost sign in Isfahanمرگ بر شاه morg bar shâh, death to the shah. Now, in July 2015. Thirty-six years after the revolution. In Isfahan, in the alleys behind the bazaar.
Come with us to Iran!If the stunning beauty of the country, the kindness of the people, the multitude of historic monuments, and the great Iranian cuisine were widely known, we would not be able to step away from the many tourists.
Armenian Iran: New JulfaIn 1606, when Shah Abbas began the construction of Isfahan, he ordered the artisans of the Armenian Julfa to be its first builders. He settled the whole population of Julfa next to Isfahan.
Iran arménien: à la Nouvelle JolfaEn 1606, alors que Shah Abbas venait de lancer la construction d’Ispahan, il invita les artisans de Jolfa à s’y installer pour en être les maîtres d’œuvre — et ce fut ainsi toute la population de Jolfa qu’il déplaça à Ispahan.
Dissolving: For woman poets, on invitation cardsUtamaro, From the series Seven women applying make-up, 1792-93 • Hofbauer, Invitation to the reading of Hana Kvapilová in the Youth Club of Prague, 1899
Ashura en AbyanehEl ritual de la conmemoración anual de la tragedia de hace mil quinientos años brinda la oportunidad de que cada uno experimente también el dolor personal de la pérdida.
Ashura in AbyanehThe annual ritual commemoration of the tragedy of one thousand five hundred years ago provides an opportunity for everyone to experience personal loss as well.
Cuna«Una de las primeras labores por la mañana es espumar el yoghurt que se ha ido formando durante la noche. El cuero de cabra está suspendido con un trípode.»
Crib“One of the first tasks in the morning is churning the whole-milk yoghurt, which has been forming over night. The goat-skin churn is suspended from a tripod.”
Abyaneh, el Pueblo RojoLa mayoría llevan trajes tradicionales. Los hombres, calzones anchos negros, de seda. Los vestidos de tela estampada de las mujeres recuerdan la antigua ropa zoroástrica.
Abyaneh, the Red VillageMost people still wear traditional costumes, the men black baggy silk trousers, while the women’s flower-printed white robes are reminiscent of the former Zoroastrian wear.
El desierto persa«Le comenté que estaba haciendo fotos del desierto. Me dijo que no sabía leer ni escribir pero que consideraba el desierto hermoso.»
The Persian desert“I told him that I was taking pictures of the desert. He said he couldn’t read or write, but he regarded the desert beautiful.”
Sultán SavalánMe despierto al amanecer en el bus, un cortado vertiginoso a la derecha, el cañón del río Qezel Ozan en el momento en que corta las montañas doradas de los nómadas Afshari.
Sultan SavalanI wake up at dawn in the bus, a dizzying depth to the right, the canyon of Qezel Ozan river, as it cuts through the golden-colored mountains of the Afshari nomads.
SorudTo the one-eyed small beggar, who on the Tehran subway sang Rumi poems from terminus to terminus.
SorudPara el mendigo tuerto que, de parada en parada, cantaba poemas de Rumi en el metro de Teherán.
The tomb of Queen Esther in Persia“Do pilgrims still come here?” I ask Rabbi Rajad. “Of course, very many! At Purim, the courtyard is full, but throughout the year they come from every Jewish city of Iran.”
La tumba de la reina Ester en Persia«¿Aún vienen peregrinos?», le pregunto. «Claro, ¡muchos! Por Purim el patio se llena, pero a lo largo del año vienen de todas las ciudades judías de Irán.»
Pink postcards 23“The field card I send you now is an eternal memory from your birthplace, because this is a birch bark.”
Pink postcards 22The field postcards, which were the most convenient from the censor’s point of view, did not contain any personal information.
Faces of Kashan“There lives God”, she says, with eyebrows pulled together, pointing to the small apartment-mosque. “God?” I ask. “Yes, God”, she nods seriously, not even stopping.
Rostros de Kashán«Allí vive Dios», dice frunciendo el ceño, señalando el pequeño piso de la mezquita. «¿Dios?», pregunto. «Sí, Dios», asiente con seriedad, sin detenerse.
Pink postcards 21“Life is already very boring here. The geese and chicken start to run out. Perhaps we will get to a place where there is more, because this is what the soldier likes, not the war.”
Come with us to Azerbaijan!We go up along the northern slopes of the Caucasus to the mountain Jews in Quba, and to Xinaliq, the highest-lying ancient settlement of the Caucasus – places where one can hardly get individually.
Los Judíos de Montaña de AzerbaiyánAl volver del cementerio oímos música de boda en una de las casas. Los anfitriones nos invitan a formar parte de la fiesta «entren, aunque sea diez minutos».
Mountain Jews in AzerbaijanDescending from the cemetery, we hear wedding music from one of the houses. The hosts, standing in front of the house, politely invite us to take part, to “come in just for ten minutes”.
LahijPalabras turcas se mezclan con un arcaico, lapidario persa, como si quisiera gritar al otro lado de una línea divisoria de dos mil años. El tiempo se despliega ante mí como un panorama montañoso.
LahijTurkic words are mixed with some archaic, lapidary Persian, as if he wanted to shout across the divide of two thousand years. Time unfolds before me like a dazzling mountain panorama.
Pink postcars 20“Here at the front we have such an apartment, like in Hotel Ritz. All covered with wallpaper, flowers in vase, pictures on the wall.”
Midsummer’s DayDuring our Eastern journeys in recent months, we encountered several representations of St. John the Baptist with an iconography which is fairly unusual for the Western viewer.
En uno de los techos del mundo: Xinaliq«Cuando vino el comunismo sacamos todos los libros del pueblo y los llevamos a la cueva del Şahdağ. Pero los comunistas los encontraron y lo quemaron todo.»
On one of the roofs of the world: Xinaliq“When the Communists came, the books were evacuated from the village, and moved into the cave of the Şahdağ. But the Communists found them, and they set the whole thing on fire.”
Road to XinaliqWe travel to Xinaliq on a ribbon of asphalt, frayed at the edges, and flying; because that is what it feels like as we float high above the valley bottom.
De camino a XinaliqNos acercamos a Xinaliq por encima de una cinta de asfalto con los bordes deshilachados, volando. Es como si flotáramos muy alto sobre el fondo del valle.
Pink postcards 19“Now we are not in the Carpathians. Much better so, that those giant mountains are not here.”
Galícia mítoszai, avagy meghívás időutazásraKutya Galícia. A mi történelmi emlékezetünkben nagyjából ennyi maradt meg Galíciáról. Mikor mentem Galícia felé, még a fák is sírtak.
Pink postcards 18“I write this on the train while watching this view, although having all my thougths in Budapest. A million kisses from Károly”
Pink postcards 17“My dear Janka. I’m so sorry I had to leave without a farewell, but I could not come to see you, because I had no time.”
Pink postcards 16bAt this time Private Károly Timó spends the last weeks of the recovery period unexpectedly allotted to him, thanks to the “thousand crowns shot”, in the earlier mentioned hospital in Molnár Street, Budapest.
Saint Nino and the mystic lightAccording to tradition, the king, while hunting in a deep and dark forest, lost his way, and found it only after praying to “the God of Nino”.
KseroksAt the kseroks stall, a policeman comes up to us. “Please do not take pictures of this. Soon we will build a new one in its place.”
KseroksEn el puesto de kseroks un policía se nos acerca. «Por favor, no hagan fotos ahora de esto. Pronto construiremos aquí uno nuevo».
Pan profanoLa iglesia armenia de Abastumani está hoy en muy mal estado. De hecho, en período soviético fue transformada en horno de pan.
Unholy breadThe Armenian church of Abastumani is today in very poor condition. In fact, during the Soviet period the church was transformed into a bread oven.
Come with us to Maramureș-Bukovina!Through the medieval city of Baia Mare/Nagybánya, the cradle of Hungarian Impressionism and the gate of historical Maramureș, we arrive at one of the most archaic regions of Transylvania.
Welcome to AzerbaijanA bus goes daily from Istanbul to Baku, it stops sometime in the afternoon on the highway around Kutaisi, at a Turkish grill.
Bienvenidos a AzerbaiyánUn autobús parte cada día de Estambul hacia Bakú, se detiene en algún momento de la tarde en la carretera, cerca de Kutaisi, en un asador turco.
After the FloodThe Holy Trinity Church of Gergeti was built so high up on the “roof of the Caucasus”, that they say, this alone was not inundated by the Flood.
Tras el DiluvioLa iglesia de la Santísima Trinidad de Gergeti fue construida tan arriba en el «techo del Cáucaso», que se dice, que es el único lugar no anegado por el Diluvio.
Shepherd
Kutaisi awakes / Amanecer en Kutaisi
TamarobaEl icono de la reina – Rey – Tamar se muestra solitario en una hornacina aislada y difícil de alcanzar, subrayando así la devoción que suscita y su significado para las gentes del lugar.
TamarobaThe icon of Queen – King – Tamar stands alone in a niche which is difficult to reach, highlighting the devotion to the Queen and her significance..
Viejas postales de KutaisiLas fotos, de jóvenes georgianos que parten a la Gran Guerra, fueron entregadas a padres y hermanos para que los recordaran tras su muerte en algún rincón de Galizia, de los Cárpatos húngaros o Przemyśl.
Old photos from KutaisiThe photos, by Georgian boys leaving for the Great War, were left to their parents and brothers, so they would remember them after they died somewhere in Galicia, the Hungarian Carpathians, or under Przemyśl.
Barcelona – Bayern MünchenMessi kicks the second goal. A member of the company rises to toast, with an archaic clay vessel in the hand, filled to the brim.
Barcelona – Bayern MünchenMessi marca el segundo gol. Un miembro de la compañía alza un anticuado vaso de barro lleno hasta los bordes.
The red wall board“Do you know why the bottom of the fire bucket was pointed in those days?” asks András. “So it would not be stolen. Because like this, it could not be used for anything else.”
El colgador rojo«¿Por qué se harían estos cubos en forma de cono en aquella época?», se pregunta András. «Así nadie se los llevaba. Con esta forma no podían utilizarse para otra cosa».
Gelati, royal monasteryMama o shenma. (Our Father). The monks of the monastery and singer school of Zarzma
El centenario«Quisiera preguntarle, caballero, ¿qué piensan en Europa sobre lo que nos pasó? ¿Hay alguien que reconozca que hubo un genocidio armenio?»
The hundredth year“I want to ask you, Sir, what they think in Europe about what happened to us? Is there anyone who recognizes that there was an Armenian genocide?”
For St. George’s DayAccording to the ancient Georgian tradition, St. George defeated not the dragon, but Emperor Diocletian.
Celebració de San JordiSegons l’antiga tradició georgiana, Sant Jordi va vèncer no al drac, sinó a l’emperador Dioclecià.
War“We heard about the war only from our grandparents. All these horrors were far away, and seemed to never reach here. But things have changed in the Ukraine.”
Pascua en el cementerioAquí enterraron a los jóvenes soldados caídos en defensa de las fronteras orientales del país. Las coronas están aún frescas en la mayoría de tumbas.
Easter in the cemeteryThey bury here the young soldiers fallen in defense of the country’s eastern borders. The wreaths are still fresh on most of the graves.
Pascua en LvivA medianoche se anuncia la resurrección de Cristo en medio del alborozo general y arranca la procesión por las calles de Leópolis.
Easter in LvivAt midnight they announce the resurrection of Christ in the midst of great joy, and a procession begins through the streets of Lemberg.
Armenian Easter“I sing to you one of our Easter hymns. It is about the light penetrating into the darkness of the tomb. Just as it penetrates now into the church.”
Pascua armenia«voy a cantarles uno de nuestros himnos litúrgicos. Trata de la luz que se introduce en la oscuridad de la tumba. Tal como entra ahora en la iglesia».
El largo camino a UshguliLlegamos a Ushguli al final de la tarde, en su alto y remoto valle, sin ni una sola carretera de acceso antes de la década de 1930, y aún aparentemente inmune al paso del tiempo.
El largo camino a UshguliLlegamos a Ushguli al final de la tarde, en su alto y remoto valle, sin ni una sola carretera de acceso antes de la década de 1930, y aún aparentemente inmune al paso del tiempo.
A long road to UshguliWe arrive in Ushguli late in the afternoon, nestled in its high, remote mountain valley, unreachable by any road at all before the 1930s, and still apparently untroubled by the passing of time.
White Easter
The land of forgotten songsThese fortresses are not emblems of a lost civilization; they’re the most visible signs of a culture that has endured almost miraculously through the ages.
Entre ritual y teatro: la berikaobaEste género teatral se define por la mascarada y la improvisación. Su nacimiento se remonta a las antiguas fiestas de fertilidad y renacimiento, así como al culto de los dioses paganos Kviria y Telef..
Between ritual and theater: the berikaobaThis theatrical genre is defined by masquerade and improvisation. Its birth reaches back to the ancient fertility and rebirth feasts, as well as to the cult of the pagan gods Kviria and Telef.
Musa Dagh, the mountain of resistanceApril 1915, one hundred years ago. Five thousand Armenians, persecuted by the Turks, seek refuge on the massif of Musa Dagh, nort of the Bay of Antioch.
Armenian pictures, 1977The majority of them represent the monasteries standing for centuries, or more than a thousand of years in the highlands, the incredibly elaborate cross-stones, and the beautiful Armenian scenery.
Imágenes de Armenia, 1977En su gran mayoría representan a esos monasterios firmes durante siglos, o por más de mil de años, en las tierras altas, aquellas increíblemente elaboradas cruces de piedra y el hermoso paisaje armenio.
Happiness
MarcasEs sorprendente no sólo la abundancia de marcas y señales anotadas a mano, sino también cómo hacen alusión de manera tangencial a la historia profundamente estratificada y multiétnica de esta vieja ciudad.
MarksThey are striking not only for the copiousness of their handwritten marks, but also for the way they hint, in foreshortened form, at this old city’s profoundly layered and multi-ethnic history.
Armenian Iran, from Tabriz to JolfaThe superior listens to the request, shrugs his shoulders, and pulls out a pen from his pocket. He draws a pass in fine arabesques in the palm of the guide’s hand, directly on his skin.
Iran arménien, de Tabriz à JolfaLe chef écoute la requête, hausse les épaules et sort un stylo de sa poche. En fines arabesques, il dessine un laisser-passer dans la paume de notre guide, directement sur sa peau.
Dissolving: “…cor meum vigilat”It is a more or less unconscious survival of expressive pictorial formulas, which takes shape in the form of the rays emanating from the heart of the security guard.
Disolución: «…cor meum vigilat»Es una insurgencia inconsciente de representaciones o fórmulas expresivas que nos salta ahora a los ojos en el resplandor del corazón del guardia.
The Sultan’s new clothesI wonder why she replaced “Turkish dictator” with “Turkish Sultan”? Perhaps in order not to hurt the sensitivity of the Turkic peoples of the Soviet Union?
El traje nuevo del sultánMe pregunto por qué cambiaría «dictador turco» por «sultán turco». ¿Tal vez para no herir la sensibilidad de los pueblos turcos de la Unión Soviética?
Ceci n’est pas une pipeThe French photographers who in the late 19th century roamed the country to make ethnographic photos, were really amazed at the sight of the old pipe-smoking Breton women.
The House of LifeAs he moves through the rooms of his home, he gradually unfolds the fabric of his life, keeping a delicate balance between the detailed technical description of the objects, and a self-critical revelation of himself.
La Casa della VitaMientras va recorriendo las habitaciones de la casa, una vida intenta aclararse en equilibrio entre la descripción técnica, objeto tras objeto, y el desnudamiento íntimo, refractado en una justa inteligencia autocrítica.
Noruz in the KottiIt is clear therefore, that they organize here the Noruz-day festivities, with dancing and a stake tamed to the conditions of Berlin.
Nouruz en la KottiEstá claro, por tanto, que será aquí donde se organicen los festejos del día del Nouruz, con los bailes y una hoguera algo amortiguada por las condiciones de Berlín.
The smell of NoruzNoruz has a pungent smell of smoke, the smoke of the steakhouses and the smoke of the bonfires made in the squares and courtyards for the night fire-jumping.
El olor del NouruzNouruz es un olor acre a humo, el humo de los asadores sumado al de las hogueras en las plazas y patios preparadas para el anochecer, para saltar el fuego.
ThawHitherto I have believed the strange things you have told me, because I look upon you as a sober fair man, but now I am sure you lie.
DeshieloHasta este momento he creído las cosas extrañas que me has relatado, porque vi en ti un hombre sensato y de honor; pero ahora estoy seguro de que mientes.
The European costumeAn official protest has been made against the book, and not from the clearly secular-minded army, or from some committed Atatürk fan club.
Letters to Saint Peter from RutheniaWhat was the black market for these letters like, the grave robberies, the elimination of the name of the deceased in the letters and their replacement in the hands of another, less wealthy deceased?
Cartas a San Pedro desde Rutenia¿Cómo sería entonces el mercado negro de estas letras, los robos en los cementerios para cambiar el nombre del difunto sobre el papel y ponerlo entre las manos de otro menos afortunado?
Seven days in GeorgiaYou cannot get to know a country in seven days. This is not what we will attempt in our first Georgian tour. We would rather like to have a taste of all the typical regions of the country.
Come with us to the Eastern Easter in Lemberg!Lemberg/Lwów/Lviv is always beautiful, but especially beautiful during the Eastern Easter, which is also a veritable festival in the multi-ethnic city.
I’ll cross the sea swimmingThe ideology of Moscow fought with a special devotion against all values and symbols of the United States, also including jeans, and therefore the Soviet citizens considered, that where there are jeans, there is happiness.
MarshrutkaCirculamos unas horas en la penumbra y los faros de vez en cuando iluminan una figura de pie al lado de la carretera.
MarshrutkaWe ride for a few hours in the semi-darkness, and the headlamps occasionally pick out figures standing next to the road.
The sea in TbilisiThe Tatar mosque is the only mosque in Tbilisi, and virtually the only one in all Georgia.
El mar en TbilisiLa mezquita tártara es la única de Tbilisi, y apenas se encuentra otra en toda Georgia.
Los judíos de Georgia. Historia de una diásporaSegún algunos, llegaron hasta aquí hace 2.600 años, y por tanto serían también uno de los grupos judíos de la diáspora de más larga supervivencia.
Georgian Jews. History of a diasporaAccording to some, they came here 2600 years ago, and thus they are one of the oldest surviving diaspora communities.
Rózsaszínű levelek 16.
Vámonos a GeorgiaAl principio de los tiempos, en los días en que Dios se propuso repartir la Tierra entre los pueblos, todos ellos obedientemente se pusieron a la cola, solo los georgianos quedaron bebiendo y cantando detrás de las montañas.
Come with us to Georgia!At the beginning of time, when God was giving out land to the peoples of the Earth, they all obediently stood in line, only the Georgians were drinking and singing behind the mountains.
Eating well and cheap in Romeis not so easy. Like the structure of the city, the rules of finding the good eating places are not as transparent as you would like.
A lucky journeyAs the Russian-speaking waitress places the over-full cups before us, mine is tipped a bit too much, and a stream of black slurry runs down the side of the cup.
Un viaje afortunadoCuando la camarera de habla rusa nos pone delante las tazas bien colmadas, la mía se inclina ligeramente y un reguero de lodo oscuro se escurre por el borde.
PeajeVeo la gruesa cuerda atravesada en la carretera, fuegos en las cunetas, unas figuras enmascaradas que avanzan hacia nosotros.
The tollI catch sight of the thick rope across the road, the fires on the roadside, the masked persons who start toward us.
Pink postcards 15My dear son, I have a new apartment again. But I like it very much, because I have not yet lived in such a smart hospital.
Sábado por la tarde en la iglesia de MetekhiEl umbral de la entrada a la iglesia de Metekhi está desgastado y brillante por los más de ochocientos años de roces y besos de creyentes.
Saturday afternoon in the Metekhi ChurchThe doorpost of the gate of Metekhi Church has been worn shiny over eight hundred years from the kisses of the believers entering.
En el valle del río Inguri«Esta carretera la construyó Saakashvili», dice con reverencia nuestro chófer mientras esquiva una vaca huesuda o algún cerdo que cruza en el frío glacial.
In the valley of the Inguri river“This road was built by Saakashvili”, our driver says in awe, while dodging the skinny cows and pigs, who cross at their glacial leisure.
Kutaiszi
Georgia, minuto a minutoBudapest está cubierta de nieve recién caída y hay placas de hielo en las calles mientras damos inicio a nuestro vuelo nocturno. En Kutaisi hace quince grados y los naranjos maduran en las fotos de los blogueros rusos.
Georgia, minute by minuteBudapest is covered by freshly fallen snow, ice patches on the street, as we start off for our midnight flight. In Kutaisi, it is fifteen degrees Celsius, and the oranges blossom on the photos of the Russian bloggers.
Pink postcards 14
Windows of LublinThe former citizens of Lublin moved back into their town. They look out from their former flats, at the table they sit, they take sips from our glasses
Thank youAt the loan desk of Berlin’s Staatliche Bibliothek they are grateful for the book, they say thanks, and it seems that they are really happy about it.
In search of Adolf Guttmann, 3. MarriagesBertha Marks born Guttmann obviously cannot attend a woman, the proves of whose adultery are so obvious and touch her so closely.
À la recherche d’Adolf Guttmann (3): mariagesBertha Marks née Guttmann ne pouvait évidemment pas fréquenter une femme dont les preuves d’adultère étaient si évidentes et la touchaient de si près.
Pune encountersI use the morning for a visit to the 8th-century Pataleshwar Caves temple, to the north of the Peths.
Encuentros en PunePaso la mañana en el templo de las cuevas de Pataleshwar, del siglo VIII, al norte de los Peths.
Tired waterPalma, along the Parque del Mar, under the windows of the Bishop’s Palace, where the water is the closest to the wall.
Agua estancadaPalma, a orillas del Parque del Mar, bajo las ventanas del palacio del obispo, donde el agua se acerca más a la muralla.
La sonrisa de la MadonnaUna mujer vestida de hombre fue elegida Papa y cuando, durante una procesión, dio públicamente a luz un niño, el pueblo mató a ambos.
The smile of the MadonnaA woman dressed as a man was elected pope, and when she, while riding, publicly gave birth to a child, the people killed both of them.
Talk to us, we can help youThis morning in the Trastevere. A knotty problem, isn’t it? But the solution is obvious.
Peths of PuneIn the old town of Pune, gray eagles circle the sky like fragments of paper ash floating on the heat over a fire.
Pink postcards 13Regarding the request of private Károly Timó, special effort will be made to drown our soldiers in the mud, rather than in the frosty snowfalls coming with beautiful dreams.
Pasquino greets HitlerOn his pedestal, night after night, savagely biting political pamphlets in verse – pasquinades – saw the moonlight, and Rome’s people happily got up before sunrise to read, memorize and pass them on.”
MetroAs an underground system, the metro is necessarily a space apart from the happier face of the city in sunlight, being confined beneath it to dark, meandering passages, and comprising a Hades, an underworld.
Grassroots“MY BELOVED HOMELAND. I need volunteers for the establishment of this party (center-left).” Lisbon, yesterday
White ChristmasA childhood dream. Freshly fallen snow, a walk on the hillside in the twilight, on the crunching snow, the light of the candelabra dissolving as the milk loaf, the sound of the snow being bumped off the branches.
Azulejos“…are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, restaurants, bars and even railways or subway stations.”
Pink postcards 12“Now it is very quiet here, and for the last couple of days there have been hardly any battles. They say that there is a 21-day truce, and peace negotiations are going on, is this true?”
Budapest, seventh districtThe objects in the windows are not for sale • Ahead, for an outstanding year of 2015! • Industrial Cooperative of Embroidery and Flag-making • Király. The most typical street of Budapest
The conquest of the airA double-decker, with bellows camera, hand-released bomb. Kolomea, the chief town of the Hutsul land, 1916.
CrowsWhen we find ourselves at year’s end, do we ask ourselves, have we sucked each day of all its sweetness, have we found enough moments worthy of our personal scrapbooks?
Pink postcards 11“I am writing this letter in the Carpathians, by the light of a campfire. I send my wishes of luck, so that the new year be more pleasant than the past one.”
CoordinatesHere is the “X” we wanted: the devise of Emperor Augustus, the crab clutching in its pincers a butterfly – an image usually accompanied with the Latin motto Matura –, converted in a graphic sign.
CoordenadasAhí está la «X» que queríamos: la divisa del emperador Augusto, el cangrejo que atrapa entre sus pinzas a una mariposa —imagen habitualmente unida al mote latino Matura— se metamorfosea en signo gráfico.
La casa Manili del barrio judíoEste edificio, construido en estilo «clásico» por un simple ciudadano romano testifica de manera más elocuente que cualquier gran obra de arte la fuerza y el impacto del Renacimiento emergente.
Manili House in the Jewish SquareThis building, built in the “Classical” style by a simple Roman citizen testifies more eloquently than any major work of art to the strength and impact of the emerging Renaissance.
Christmas of the enemyThe enemy is us. And our Christmas has just been presented in the exhibition Auguri dal Fronte, “Greetings from the Front”, at the Palazzo Corner Mocenigo in Venice, by the Cats Museum of Cattaro/Kotor.
A secret messageTwo short texts on the sides of the emblem, which cannot be read in any known language. We suspect it may be some kind of secret script.
Mensaje secretoDos textos breves, a ambos lados de la pictura, que no logramos atribuir a ningún idioma conocido. Sospechamos que pudiera tratarse de algún tipo de escritura secreta.
The miracle tree
Field postcards for ChristmasOn the occasion of Christmas, we remember with a few seventy-year old field postcards those, who, not of their own choice, spent the feast thousands of miles away from their loved ones.
Pink postcards 10“Please come in the same way that we agreed last week. Today we go to confession. How are you? I feel as if I were in prison.”
My castle
With camera in the Don BendThat the soldiers of the Second World War, in spite to any earlier notion, mass-produced private photos, has become a well-known fact for more than two decades, mainly due to the German war photo exhibitions.
Don. A tragedy and its afterlivesThe exhibition documents the fate of the 2nd Hungarian Army, sent to the Don Bend, from their leaving through the Voronezh breakthrough of the Red Army until the return of the surviving soldiers in April 1943.
Don vs. SinaiThe artillery batteries of Kassa and Budapest served the Emperor and King in the same Holy Land, where no Hungarians had fought since the crusades – until the summer of 1916.
The long voyage“C’est de Paris la ville incomparable… From Paris, the incomparable city sets out the long voyage, which passes through all the great cities of Europe.”
Le grand voyage« C’est de Paris la ville incomparable, qu’a lieu le départ du grand voyage qui va nous faire parcourir toutes les grandes villes de l’Europe. »
WinterreiseIn the Netherlands there had been landscape painters since the late 16th century. Some of them made the tour to Italy and painted the landscapes flooded with the warm light of the sun.
Voyage d’hiverIl y eut aux Pays-Bas, dès la fin du XVIe siècle, des peintres de paysage. Certains d’entre eux faisaient le voyage en Italie et peignaient des paysages à la chaude lumière du sud.
Edge of the Old WorldAs many observatories, as many local meridians. But only a few of them had the privilege to be accepted by the international society of cartographers as a generally valid prime meridian.
Drawing the time: all a meridian can measureThis spot of light runs, month after month, along the great meridian of the former hospital in Tonnerre, founded in 1293 by Margaret of Burgundy, widow of Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily.
Dessiner le temps: les mesures d’un méridienCette tache de soleil court, mois après mois, sur la grande méridienne de l’ancien hôtel Dieu de Tonnerre qu’avait fondé en 1293 Marguerite de Bourgogne, la veuve du roi de Sicile Charles d’Anjou.
Dissolving: The organ-grinderWilly Römer, the photographer of everyday life in Berlin between 1905 and 1935: An organ grinder and his monkey amusing the children in the courtyard, 1925.
A rózsa neveThe Görlitz Train Station was built in 1865 by the “Railway King” of Berlin, Bethel Henry (originally Baruch Hirsch) Strousberg (1823-1884).
Time loopFor many children in Angyalföld, the organ-grinder’s music was linked to the Sunday lunch. Others for the price of an ice cream helped to to pick up the coins thrown from the courtyard windows.
East UnlimitedThe thousand-kilometer long road meanders back and forth with the irresoluteness of the billiard ball over the borders of the countries apparently invented by Shakespeare.
Lenin’s bodyguardNonsense, Lenin’s body guard? “Well, he took out a photo and showed that this is Lenin, this is Stalin, and lo, this is me.”
Lenins LeibwachterUnsinn, Lenins Leibwächter? „Nun, er hat ein Foto vorgezogen, und zeigte, dass das ist Lenin, das ist Stalin, und siehe, das bin ich.“
Képek világvégéreIvan Vladimirov’s most expressive and realistic works are his documentary sketches from 1917-1918. During this period he worked at the Petrograd police, and was actively involved in its daily activities.
Bilder für das Ende der WeltIvan Vladimirovs ausdrucksstarksten Werke sind seine dokumentarischen Skizzen von 1917 und 1918. Während dieser Zeit arbeitete er an der Petrograder Polizei, und war aktiv in ihren täglichen Aktivitäten beteiligt.
Картинки на конец светаНо наиболее выразительным и реалистичным явился цикл его документальных зарисовок 1917-1918 годов. В этот период он работал в Петроградской милиции, и активно участвовал в ее повседневной деятельности.
Life is beautifulWhat first touches us in these pictures is the radical absurdity, the perfect incompatibility of scenes, objects, people, the parallel realities coexisting in the photos.
La vida es hermosaLo primero que nos toca en estas fotos es el absurdo radical, la icongruencia perfecta entre escenas, objetos y gentes; unas realidades paralelas que convergen en cada foto.
Das Leben ist schönWas zunächst berührt uns in diesen Bildern, ist die radikale Absurdität, die perfekte Unvereinbarkeit von Szenen, Objekte und Menschen, die auf den Fotos nebeneinander existierenden parallelen Wirklichkeiten.
And now you investigate!In the following – hopefully with the collaboration of our readers – we will unveil the last (?) protocol journey of the Arrow Cross government.
Und jetzt untersuchen Sie!In den folgenden – hoffentlich mit der Zusammenarbeit unserer Leser – werden wir das letzte (?) Protokollreise der Pfeilkreuzler-Regierung enthüllen.
A sada neka istraže Vi!Sada – pomoću Vas – želimo da otkrijemo detaljezadnjeg međunarodnog putakabineta strelastih križeva.
From an authoritative source…now present you the portraits of those frivolous over-age students, musing in trendy pubs, who would flee abroad en masse, to benefit the West from the taxpayers’ money spent on them.
A tale of meridiansBut our subject here is another Triestine landmark, an understated one of almost vanishing subtlety.
The rooster has crowedYesterday, on the concert of the Muzsikás Ensemble, the musicians told about how they collected from old Transylvanian and Moldovan musicians the repertoire of the Jewish folk music once played by them.
Der Hahn hat gekrähtGestern, am Konzert des Muzsikás Ensembles die Musiker erzählten darüber, wie sie von alten siebenbürgischen und moldawischen Musikern das Repertoire der einmal von ihnen gespielten jüdischen Volksmusik gesammelt haben.
Genuine pearlSimilar icons have been produced by Romanian families in the Transylvanian Plain since the early 19th century.
Echte perleÄhnliche Hinterglasbilder wurden von rumänischen Familien am Siebenbürgischen Tiefland seit dem frühen 19. Jahrhundert produziert.
Forgotten Jewish village musicOur faithful readers will surely remember that some years ago we made a meandering musical tour with Két Sheng, where we accompanied the history and parallels of the song The rooster is crowing.
Vergessene jüdische DorfmusikUnsere treue Leser werden sicherlich daran erinnern, dass vor einigen Jahren haben wir eine schlängelige musikalische Tour mit Két Sheng gemacht, wo wir die Geschichte und Parallelen des Liedes Der Hahn kräht begleiteten.
The gift of the magiIt is not so much for the little sentimental story pointed to a moral lesson, but rather for the fine-toned watercolors painted thirty years ago by Lisbeth Zwerger, that we publish this Christmas story.
Das Geschenk der WeisenEs ist nicht so sehr für die kleine, auf eine Moral ausgespitzte Geschichte, sondern für die von Lisbeth Zwerger vor dreißig Jahren gemalten, fein getönten Aquarelle, dass wir diese Weihnachtsgeschichte veröffentlichen.
Memorial to the LiberatorsIt is surprising to read the Russian formula known since our childhood in a completely different context, and in addition four years ante festum.
Памятник ОсвободителямУдивительно прочитать эту с детства знакомую русскую формулу в совершенно ином контексте, и кроме того четыре года ante festum.
Denkmal für die BefreierEs ist überraschend, die seit unserer Kindheit bekannte russische Formel in einem völlig anderen Kontext, und noch dazu vier Jahre ante festum zu lesen.
Immaculate Conception“On the day of your patron saint greets you and wishes you much happiness your brother who does not forget you: Federico”
Die Unbefleckte Empfängnis„Am Tag deiner Schutzheiligen begrüßt dich und wünscht dir viel Glück dein Bruder, der dich nicht vergisst: Federico“
A city in-betweenYou can still find your way in Tbilisi with the old maps of the city published by the Baedeker on Russia in 1914 or of the guide of Moskvich from 1913.
Une ville dans l’entre-deuxOn peut encore se diriger dans Tbilissi avec ces plans anciens, le plan de Tiflis publié dans le Baedeker sur la Russie de 1914 ou celui du guide Moskvitch de 1913.
Hip
Sweet homeWhom they could not persuade to voluntary surrender, wanted at least break his military morale by reminding him of his sweetheart left at home.
Dear FriendsThis letter was published by the Romanian journalist Lucian Mîndruță on 1 December, the national feast of Romania and the official anniversary of the unification of Transylvania with the Old Kingdom.
Liebe FreundeDieser Brief wurde vom rumänischen Journalist Lucian Mîndruță am 1. Dezember, an der Nationalfeier Rumäniens, dem offiziellen Jahrestag der Vereinigung Siebenbürgens mit dem Altreich veröffentlicht.
Honor y honras«Un ejemplo de colaboración fructífera entre investigadores de diferentes países que ha hecho accesible al público de habla inglesa una importante fuente primaria.»
Honras“An example of a fruitful collaboration among scholars from different countries who made accessible to an English-speaking audience an important primary source.”
The American soldierWe do not know whether the Front of Liberation of Vietnam exhausted from the Soviet example or from their own inspiration to distribute to the American soldiers passports enhancing the voluntary surrender.
GuessCan you identify all the flags on the cover of the public transport information booklet published for the 1937 Paris World Exposition?
Before the StormSeventy-five years ago, on 25 November 1937 closed its doors the Paris World Exposition, which gave for the last time a panorama of the development of humanity before the Second World War.
Avant la tempêteIl y a soixante-quinze ans, le 25 novembre 1937, L’Exposition internationale de Paris refermait ses portes. Pour la dernière fois avant la Seconde guerre mondiale, elle avait présenté un panorama du développement du monde.
Hawelka“This is how the story of the brave Moravian brothers became part of the history of the Monarchy, and this is how it was amalgamated with the traditions of two nations. with which they originally had nothing to do.”
Hawelka„Das ist es, wie die Geschichte der tapferen mährischen Brüder Teil der Geschichte der Monarchie wurde, und das ist es, wie sie mit den Traditionen zweier Nationen zusammengelegt wurde, mit denen sie ursprünglich nichts zu tun hatte.”
A very black seaIn 1920 he embarked hopeless, leaving a hopeless cause. He would throw his hat overboard, cross a very black sea, to a land full of exile, leaving behind him only scraps of scraps of memory.
Une mer très noireEn 1920, il embarquait en désespoir d’une cause désespérée. Il allait jeter sa casquette par-dessus bord, traverser une mer très Noire, pour ne laisser après lui que des bribes de bribes de mémoire.
Ein sehr schwarzes MeerIn 1920 hat er hoffnungslos von einer hoffnungslosen Sache Abschied genommen, um seine Militärmünze über den Bord werfend ein sehr schwarzes Meer durchzukreuzen.
Gyöngyösi StreetI was busy in quite different jobs, when I suddenly found myself in the courtyard of Gyöngyösi Street 45, vis-à-vis the statue of the talented rock guitarist who had started with promising hopes.
Gyöngyösi StraßeIch war in ganz verschiedenen Sachen beschäftigt, als ich mich plötzlich im Hof des Gyöngyösi Straße 45, vis-à-vis der Statue des talentierten, mit vielversprechenden Hoffnungen abgefahrten Rock-Gitarristen gefunden habe.
A page from an albumHe loved to posture so much, like in this picture, on the side of a friend, both dressed Chinese, in the Po-Chou studio of Hong Kong in 1897.
Une page d’albumLui qui aimait tant poser, le voilà aux côtés d’un ami, tous deux costumés en Chinois au studio Po-Chou à Hong-Kong en 1897.
Ein Blatt aus einem AlbumEr, der so sehr posieren mag, hier sitzt mit einem Freund, die beide als Chineser angezogen, im Studio Po-Chia in Hong Kong im Jahr 1897.
The schwarzgelb baizeConversation with Robert Makłowicz about his new book Café Museum (Európa 2012, translated by Noémi Kertész)
Das schwarzgelbe TuchGespräch mit Robert Makłowicz über sein neues Buch Café Museum (Európa 2012, übersetzt von Noémi Kertész)
The benchThe bench is the model of the world. Everything revolves around the bench. Love-starved couples, who have no place to go, seek for the bench.
Die BankDie Bank ist ein Modell der Welt. Alles dreht sich um die Bank. An Liebe verhungerte Paare, die keinen Platz haben, wo zu gehen, suchen die Bank.
The red tree
All quiet in the Eastern frontAs this region of Southern Podolia was part of the Ottoman Empire between 1667 and 1699, its Jewish population was strongly influenced by the pseudo-Messiah of Smyrna, Sabbatai Zevi, whose movement lived its heyday just then.
Im Osten nichts neuesDa die Region war Teil des Osmanischen Reiches zwischen 1667 und 1669, wurde ihre jüdische Bevölkerung vom Pseudo-Messias von Smyrna, Schabtai Zwi beeinflusst, dessen Bewegung gerade dann ihre Blütezeit lebte.
Alexander Roinashvili, photographerAlexander Roinashvili was born in 1846 in Dusheti, not far from the Georgian Military Road. We do not know how he discovered photography, but I imagine him posing, as a teenager, in front of an itinerant photographer.
Alexander Roinashvili, FotografAlexander Roinashvili wurde in 1846 in Dusheti, nicht weit von der Georgischen Heerstraße geboren. Wir wissen nicht, wie er die Fotografie entdeckte, aber kann ihn wohl vorstellen als Junge, vor einem ambulanten Fotograf posierend.
Alexandre Roinashvili, photographeAlexandre Roinashvili est né en 1846 à Dusheti, non loin de la route militaire géorgienne. Comment a-t-il découvert la photographie, ce n’est pas dit, mais je l’imagine adolescent, posant devant un photographe ambulant.
RecognitionPerhaps our readers still remember that we wrote several times about the manuscript legacy of the great Hungarian poet and holocaust victim Miklós Radnóti.
AnerkennungUnsere Leser werden vielleicht noch daran erinnern, dass wir mehrfach über das handschriftliche Erbe des großen ungarischen Dichters und Holocaust-Opfers Miklós Radnóti geschrieben haben.
Die Mitte“He had many weaknesses, that swine Redl, which finally made him a traitor, but for this one, his affection for the ham of Prague, I have at least a partial understanding.”
Behind the facades of TiflisIn 1856 the wealthy Armenian merchant of Tiflis, Vardan Arshakuni gave commission to the architect G. Ivanov for a small building that had to be both intimate and original: the palace Arshakuni. Really original, he specified. And intimate.
Derrière les façades de TiflisVardan Arshakuni, un riche marchand arménien, passa commande en 1856 à l’architecte G. Ivanov, pour un petit bâtiment qui aurait été à la fois intime et original. Vraiment original, avait-il précisé. Et intime.
The guideAnd the traveler says goodbye to József Kovács, who claims himself a Little Russian, was a Czech soldier, believes himself to be a Calvinist, but he is in fact a Greek Catholic, and he is Russian not after his father, but his mother, who, however “was a Hungarian”.
On the Georgian military roadThis is the road that Alexander the Great may have used if he really came to Colchis and he really built the iron gates to stop the peoples of the North, Gog and Magog.
Sur la route militaire géorgienneC’est une route qu’Alexandre le Grand aurait pu emprunter si seulement il était venu en Colchide : il y aurait construit les Portes de fer pour arrêter les peuples du Nord — Gog et Magog.
Waiting for you, comrade birdThis picture should be actually not published today, but in May, when the lark sings and the nightingale replies.
Lighthouse of the revolutionThe Mayakovsky memorial museum opened in Moscow during the perestroika, in 1989, at the foot of the old KGB headquarters, in the former home of the poet.
Маяк революцииВо время перестройки – в 1989-ом году – открылся в Москве мемориальный музей Владимира Маяковского. Выставку устроили в бывшей квартире поэта недалеко от центра КГБ.
Letter from GeorgiaI always arrive at night to Georgia. The first time we crossed the Turkish border on foot, and took a taxi to Batumi.
Lettre de GéorgieArrivés sur une vaste place obscure, juste éclairée par un unique réverbère, le taxi nous avait laissés là sur cette esplanade de terre jaune, dans une chaleur moite qui évoquait une lointaine Afrique et ses sortilèges.
The swift water of CheremoshIn the final scene of the recently mentioned Буковина – наша земля (Bukovina, our land) we can listen to the Rusyn folk song – kolomeika – on the Cheremosh river.
Together in OdessaThree thousand kilometers, seven days, one hundred and twenty waking hours, a dozen visited places, a thousand adventures. Nineteen people who lived through all of this, and who report on their impressions below.
The Joys of PolishWe have seen, that The Joys of Yiddish, this magical little book is able to inspire authors even without reading it.
The navel of EuropeThe center of the world is about half-way to Bukovina. South of Galicia, east of Máramaros, northwest of Moldova, along the river Tisza, there is a point.
Brothers“Please! Just not this “Polish-Hungarian, two good friends”! It is a quite old and boring saying, and, excuse me, only a sentimental crap nowadays.”
To know a cityMy neighbor Sue is very happy, she will soon travel to Budapest with her friend. She has always wanted to get to known this city, and now the time has come. She asked me for ideas on what to see.
Cernăuți, 1939 – Черновиц, 1940Something was in the air in Romania in 1939, as the Journalul Sonor, the Romanian newsreels began to travel around the cities of the country and showed their beauty and development.
The cemetery of CzernowitzThe cemetery, which always reflects two or three generations earlier conditions, bears witness to the coexistence and not rarely coalescence of all these peoples.
Ghosts, 2. SpiritsWhere are the spirits of the dead, separated from their corpses; those who haunt castles and old houses, who live in the stories passed down from generation to generation becoming literature?
Fantômes, 2. EspritsOù sont ces esprits des morts égarés hors de leurs corps, ceux qui hantent châteaux et vieilles maisons, qui peuplent les récits qu’on se transmet de génération en génération et font la littérature?
The Oxford Arms InnGhosts can become not only the unsuspecting passers-by, who are forever captured on the glass plate of the camera in front of the old buildings. But also the buildings themselves, whole streets and neighborhoods.
The ghosts of Old LondonDraws the attention to those figures which, just like on a steampunk Google Street survey, were accidentally trapped in the camera photographing the hitherto disappeared buildings of the neighborhood.
Fantômes, 1. OmbresJ’aurais voulu être cet homme, le premier fantôme à avoir jamais été photographié.
The Art Nouveau in SzabadkaThe building of the City Museum of Szabadka/Subotica, hosting the exhibition of the Art Nouveu in Szabadka is itself one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Szabadka.
Szabadka Unlimited, 4. GlobetrottersAccording to the news of a hundred years ago, globetrotting was an established industry in the already multinational Szabadka, which was open to everything new.
The Library of a NationSelect the Hungarian-English option of Google Translator. Copy/type in the left-side/Hungarian field the name of the Hungarian National Library: “Széchényi Könyvtár”. Check how this is translated by the doorkeeper.
LuzCinco fotos en la pared, cinco hermosas imágenes del legado cuya intemporalidad marca un fuerte contraste con la contextualizacion férrea de las que están abajo.
LightFive photos on the wall, five beautiful pictures from the legacy, whose timelessnes is in a sharp contrast to the time-boundness of the documents laying under them.
Szabadka Unlimited, 3. So ugly that already disgusting“The railway station in Szabadka is the building which all the foreign rulers unanimously declare to be ugly.” This sentence contains the essence of the journalism of Szabadka/Subotica.
The last Hungarian-Turkish warWe see nine players on a small stage, for which the unknown artist, as the label shows, chose Danzig as a background.
Szabadka Unlimited, 2.Kangaroos and black police officers, Native American seminarists and Chinese idol figurine sellers, Russian revolutionaries and Odessa Jews in Szabadka/Subotica a hundred years ago.
The taste of traveling, 1905As he began his last school year in a high school in Paris in October 1912, my grandfather had no idea that the intimate geography of his last days would be limited to Verdun and environs.
Une géographie, programme 1905Alors qu’il entamait son année de Terminale dans un lycée parisien en octobre 1912, mon grand-père ne se doutait pas que sa géographie intime se dessinerait pour le reste de ses jours à Verdun.
In the old chocolate factoryOn Studiolum’s advice I went to the museum quarter established in the Krasny Oktyabr chocolate factory in Moscow.
Catedral steampunkMientras tomo estas fotos, un anciano arrastra los pies fuera de la cabina donde guarda la motosierra y un montón de arena. «Fascinante», exclamo entusiasmado. «Está en construcción desde hace nueve años», responde con orgullo.
Steam cathedralAs I’m taking the photos, an old man shuffles out of the cabin guarding the saw machine and the sand pile. “Fascinating”, I enthuse. “They’ve been building it for nine years”, he says proudly.
Viajar a LwówViajar a Lwów. De qué estación partir / a Lwów, sino de la del sueño, al alba, / cuando el rocío escarcha las maletas y nacen / trenes expreso y de alta velocidad
To go to LwówTo go to Lwów. Which station / for Lwów, if not in a dream, at dawn, when dew / gleams on a suitcase, when express / trains and bullet trains are being born
Thank you / Muchas graciasThe news has been known for a week, but today we were also officially notified that Poemas del Río Wang was voted into the ten most popular Hungarian cultural blogs.
New Year in UmanThe Pushkin Street is five minutes, but two thousand kilometers from the center of Uman.
MessagesIn the demonstration of last Saturday in Madrid, two things surprised us, apart from the dimensions of the large crowd filling all the Plaza de Colón and the neighboring streets.
InscriptionesEn la manifestación del pasado sábado en Madrid nos sorprendieron dos cosas –aparte de la gran cantidad de gente que asistió llenando la Plaza de Colón y desbordando las calles de alrededor.
Último aviso para LembergEste próximo jueves por la mañana empezaremos nuestra vuelta a Lemberg / Lwów y a sus alrededores.
Last minute LembergWithin five days, on Thursday morning our next tour will start to Lemberg/Lwów and its environs.
Viajes de otoño: Lwów, Odesa, SuboticaPese al retraso de unos días, por fin tenemos la lista definitiva de viajes que organizamos este otoño y cuyo abanico de posibilidades presentamos previamente.
Autumn travels: Lwów, Odessa, SuboticaAlthough with a delay of a few days, but we have finally composed the definitive list of the journeys organized by us in this autumn, first outlined in the page dedicated to our travel plans.
In the airWhat is not trivial, instead, is to spread out clothes in Island. There, in early August we could only catch these few images.
Al aireLo que no es tan trivial es tender la ropa al aire libre de Islandia. Allí, a principios de agosto pudimos pillar al paso tan solo estas pocas imágenes.
Llegando a DrohobyczEn las laderas de los Cárpatos ya es otoño, los esqueletos del acanto gigante, hasta hace poco en flor, apuntan al cielo como secas garras negras. Con el crepúsculo llegamos a lo alto de la colina desde la que se domina Drohobycz.
Arriving at DrohobyczOver the Carpathians it is already autumn, the skeletons of the recently still richly blooming giant hogweeds stare at the sky as dry black claws. At dusk we reach the hilltop before Drohobycz.
Szabadka Unlimited, 1.A German tourist on his way to Greece passes in the night by the art nouveau spa of Szabadka-Palics, and hits a kangaroo that escaped from the Palics zoo. Soon the police arrives, and a black policeman gets out of the jeep.
El mercadillo de OdessaEl mercadillo de Odesa se encuentra en el centro de la Moldavanka, en el Viejo Mercado del Caballo, aunque el último que compró aquí un caballo fue el carretero Pogrom Mendel, el padre de Benya Krik.
The flea market in OdessaThe flea market in Odessa is in the center of the Moldavanka, on the Starokonny, that is, Old Horse Fair Street, although the last one who bought here a horse was the carter Pogrom Mendel, Benya Krik’s father.
In Budapest they all love and respect each otherThe day before yesterday was in Budapest the best Russian photo blogger, Ilya Varlamov, whose pictures have been quoted several times in Poemas del Río Wang.
The Fire-birdAs the brave archer the Fire-bird, so we bring this book about them from a far away land, from Odessa, the large book store in Greek Square.
Play with usWe have never applied for GoldenBlog, the most prestigious blog contest of Hungary. Yet each year our readers submit Poemas del Río Wang. And once we play, let us play it well.
The Jewish heritageWe collected for the first time in a list the posts of Río Wang written on the Eastern European Jewish cultural heritage when we announced excursions to in the region well known by us.
Tekeháza, Jewish cemetery.Tekeháza/Теково is a small settlement in the former Ugocsa county of Hungary, now in the Ukrainian Transcarpathia, to the east of Nagyszőlős/Виноградово, on the left bank of the Tisza river.
Le voyageur cartographeLongtemps, les érudits de l’étoile Sirius ont étudié la Terre. Parfois, de siècle en siècle, quand ils en ont eu les moyens, leur Académie a envoyé quelque voyageur visiter ce monde étrange.
Odessa TalesWalking all the morning in the Moldavanka, looking for the traces of Babel. The Moldavanka is not any more the gangland it once was. True, the house of Misha Yaponchik is still standing, with Benya Krik’s dove-cot in the courtyard.
Chinese brickAnd how many good used bricks are there. For example these with the inscription RKF. A huge amount of them. Sometimes people come and buy of them, to build them into the garage or the fence, for decoration.
Facesfrom the City Park of Odessa, donated to the city in 1806 by the Catalan admiral of Catherine the Great’s fleet and the founder of Odessa, José de Ribas.
Powrót świętychAndrzej Bobola jest jednym z najpopularniejszych polskich świętych, męczennikem Polski. W 1657 roku, podczas jego czynności misjonarskich, kozacy Bohdana Chmielnickiego ujeli i torturujac zamordowali misjonarza.
Return of saintsAndrzej Bobola is one of the most popular Polish saints, the Martyr of Poland. He was captured by the Cossacks as a missionary during the Bohdan Khmelnytsky uprising, brutally tortured and finally murdered.
But what did the Romans ever give us?Chernowitz, Bukovina, Ukraine, at the corner of the University and Eliezer Steinbarg streets.
Come with us!In the conversations with our readers and fellow travelers, the ideas of the following travels have been outlined for the rest of 2012. It depends on the number of applicants which one will be really launched.
The glory of Ukraine– Glory to Ukraine! – Glory to its heroes! – replies the guard armed with a machine gun from the other side of the peep hole. The reinforced door opens. The guest, who knew the password, can enter the restaurant.
Four essays on GaliciaOnly one report was missing from the collective post on our travel to Lemberg/Lwów: that of Catherine Darley, whose four beautiful essays required a separate post of their own.
Quatre essais sur la GalicieDrohobicz ne cache pas ses ruines, elle les étale avec l’orgueil de l’inconscience. La synagogue n’accueille plus que les oiseaux, le vent et la pluie, nul meuble étranger ne l’encombre plus, nul ne peut y entrer.
Together in LwówWe arrive in daylight at Lwów, where we had managed to reserve three elegant accommodations for the group around the prestigious Shevchenko (formerly Akademicka) Avenue.
I have weighed everything
Dissolving: Measuring the worldGalileo Galilei: Drawings of the Moon, November-December 1609 (Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Ms. Gal. 48, f. 28r)
Dissolving: Fifer boysFifer. From the photo album of the Bibliothèque Nationale presenting the French imperial army between 1860 and 1870.
SztukaNotice the officer’s portrait at the left, beside the window. This was originally part of a series with many items.
Back from LembergAfter the shutters of the late Mikolasch Passage, some further signs that refer to the unity of this one-time world.
Eating in LwówDuring our past journeys we have tasted and photographed nearly forty coffee houses and restaurants in the city. Let us start now with those which are located in and around the main square.
Lwów TalesNext to me, in the domestic office they ask tickets for dreamlike destinations: Kherson, Simferopol, Odessa. I would willingly switch over for that queue.
MeanderWho can tell us the purpose of these iron/brass objects, which are made visible at the Ukrainian border, during the change of the wide/narrow gauge axis by the railway worker?
The CallTheir demands were radical: on the one hand, cancelling all the taxes, and on the second hand, an immediate conversion of all Jews to the Christian faith, or else their execution.
Last minute LembergToday was finally made up the team which will leave in a week, on 20 Friday early morning for the Klezmer festival of Lemberg/Lwów.
It’s rainingIn Britain it has been raining for four months. The advertisements, which encouraged to saving water in the critical shortage situation after the two past years of drought, were first faded out and then slowly washed away by the rain.
After feast
Ernest Chantre in the CaucasusIn the 1880s, when Dmitry Ermakov, the photo chronicler of the Caucasus walked with a mule convoy over the remote mountain valleys, another photo expedition passed through the Caucasus, too.
History
Give an explanationIn what language can the version at the right side mean the same as the other three, the 10th-century Arab baths?
Pictures cutUnder the pretext of the above mentioned post I present two books on the attempt of Sarajevo where the pictures are not only cut, but also cut together, and the omissions are also absolutely characteristic.
Bodega SanturceSus clientes habituales son los empleados de las oficinas de alrededor, trabajadores de los comercios. También hay siempre algún extranjero bien informado que sabe que aquí se come bien.
Bodega SanturceIts regulars are also the office-clerks, shopkeepers and craftsmen working here, in the heart of the downtown. We also have been coming back here for ten years.
Képek a KaukázusbólSince we have published Dmitry Ermakov’s collected late 19th-century photos from the Caucasus, about fifty more photos have been found on the net, which we now included at the end of that post.
¡España!
Picture writingSites and blogs all over the world remembered yesterday the attempt of Sarajevo of ninety-eight years ago.
Lemberg at home stretchThe program of our trip to the 4th Lemberg Klezmer Festival planned for 20-23 July is gradually being sorted out.
Lemberg’s empty placesHere, the memory of the former Jewish inhabitants has been written into the city’s fabric in the form of the places left empty in the wake of the ravages of World War II.
Wild EastIts unplastered red brick cover almost invites to noting down a hic fuit, and as the pictures show, after the nationalization there were a good number of people who could not resist the temptation.
Very rare videoI recently found some twenty hours of Finnish war newsreels on the web, and I’m going to write under their pretext some posts on the Finnish life around the Winter War.
My life
The Russian armyThe Bibliothèque Nationale, however, preserves photo albums not only on the army of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, but also on those of other contemporary great powers. For example, of the Russian Empire.
BruskaIn our previous post, presenting the photo album of 1914 of the Austro-Hungarian army we were speculating about where stood the cadre headquarters No. 28, presented in the first photo.
Army foundThis photo album of the Austro-Hungarian army, preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, was published in 1914 in Paris.
They have won andThe “death match” of Kiev in August 1942, about which we wrote two months ago, now on the occasion of the Euro 2012 championship in the Ukraine has become a veritable gold mine for the journalists.
Old crafts
GitanosPobreza, precariedad, exclusión. Imágenes dramáticas de los gitanos en Europa occidental, principalmente en Holanda, entre 1930 y 1960, que creeríamos tomadas en Rumanía, Bulgaria o Yugoslavia.
GypsiesPoverty, vulnerability, misery. Such dramatic images on the Gypsies of Western Europe, primarily of the Netherlands, from the 1930s to the 1960s, which we are accustomed to only from Romania, Bulgaria or Yugoslavia.
FloodWhile looking at the water and thinking about an alternative route, it comes to my mind to publish here the photos of the great flood of 1908 in Moscow.
StairwaysThe old towns of Lwów and Odessa are really similar to each other in many ways. Primarily because of that eclectic and Art Nouveau style which at that time was a common language of this region from Vienna to Baku
Courtyards of OdessaIn the houses that once saw better days, a number of renowned figures of the city lived in the golden age of Odessa. Their memory is preserved only by the walls and by the various sites compiled by the local lovers of the city.
DanceAt the Vörösmarty Square suddenly shine on the colorful dancers like a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Turks, Azerbaijanis, Gypsies from Anatolia, Romanians from the Ukrainian Bukovina.
Change of governmentThe 23 August 1989 issue of the Estonian journal Edasi (Forward) reviews with a vitriolic pen the curiosities to be read in the contemporary (Soviet) Estonian history books.
Flag scienceThis flag was sent to us, together with five other ones, from the store-room of the Memento Park (or the “park of Communist statues”), with the request to translate their Russian inscriptions.
GPSFor years I have traveled with companies using GPS, but I, to be on the safe side, always bring my maps with me. And never in vain.
MaximishinSergei Maximishin was born in 1964 in Kerch, since 1999 he has been the photographer of Izvestiya in St. Petersburg, since 2003 he has worked with the German Focus.
Come with us to the Klezmer festival in Lwów!After the highly successful tour in Lemberg/Lwów/Lviv in May, as we have described in detail, a number of new journeys began to take shape to the sites of the Central and Eastern European Jewish heritage.
Captain Ostapenko’s statueAs it was the landmark in the outskirts of the city at which the traveler leaving Budapest cast a last glance, so the name of Ostapenko became more and more known and merged with its immediate environment.
GugličkaThe guglička, or by other name walnut basket is one of the finest and most characteristic Slovak cookies of Csömör, which was made only for great feasts, weddings and illustrious events.
Dissolving: Grandpa and Wilhelm MiklasAustrian Federal President Wilhelm Miklas’ visit to Budapest, 1937.
Dissolving: the future behind a veilThe 11 year old Sâliha Sultana, daughter of Sultan Abdülaziz (1861-1876) and of the Georgian Dürrünev Kadın Efendi, on her visit card made by the Abdullah Brothers in 1873.
Lemberg: the fifth grave of the hero of GazaWe know very little about the life of Captain Władysław Truszkowski: actually not more than what the personal files of the Austrian War Archives in Vienna reveal about him.
Estamos de vueltade nuestra gira de cuatro días a Lemberg / Lwów y Galizia, organizada por nosotros conjuntamente con la Asociación Húngara de Cultura Judía.
We are backfrom our four-day tour from Lemberg/Lwów and Galicia, organized by us together with the Hungarian Jewish Cultural Association.
Hungarian soldiers in DanemarkAn estimated 12.000 Hungarian soldiers went as far as Denmark, to take over the places of the German soldiers, and virtually provided various tasks of guarding under the command of the German invaders.
Dissolving: MuzikA Russian peasant from Kaluga, November 1941 – A Russian peasant from an unknown place, January 1942
Whom does it hurtAt the beginning of the twentieth century, in the era of horse railways, flag-officer György Adorján etched into the clinker wall of the University during the probably boring hours of his job whatever just came to him.
Thirty-five stairsThe planks of the footbridge once already fully rot away, and the bridge passing over the railway station became impassable.
Perpetuum mobilenext to the former central railway workshop, at the derelict Istvántelek railway station, about which we will write more soon.
Super moonyesterday evening, at the point of its orbit nearest to the Earth, above Banská Štiavnica.
MatchThe movie focuses on the football match played on 9 August 1942 in Kiev’s Zenit stadium, where the soldiers of the Wehrmacht (“Flakelf”) and the players of the dissolved Dinamo Kiev (“FC Start”) clashed with each other.
And now you tell it“[First day stamp] for the second anniversary of theh [Polish] General Government. [Lemberg/Lwów] 26 October 1941” (see also: Campanile)
Greetings from a BudapestThis is how they imagined at the turn of the past century how Budapest would look ten thousand years later, when the finally dried up Danube would dig itself into the depth of a canyon in the former river bed.
The Joys of Yinglishekstra neyes ayn die Ist Seyd! eyn groyser bankrat seyl fun vare fun men’s farnishing
Brave old worldIn this house already at the middle of the 19th century there was a pharmacy, where Ignacy Łukasiewicz and Jan Zeh, of Hungarian origin, invented on 30 March 1853 the kerosene lamp.
Parallel worldsThe dates are not relevant in every photographer’s life, but in Dashevsky’s they are very much. He was born in 1935 in Moscow. Two years later his father fell victim to Stalin’s purges.
Eternal fireIn one piece of the futuristic postcard series issued by the Einem chocolate factory we find among the several technical wonders of the year of 2259 a surprisingly old-fashioned vehicle: a conventional fire truck.
Budapest 100Por segunda vez en la historia, este fin de semana de abril todos los edificios de Budapest que llegan al centenario en 2012 abren las puertas de la calle, y también las del sótano y el ático, y hasta las de los pisos.
Budapest 100It is already the second year that on this April weekend every building in Budapest which fills its centennial in this year keeps open not only its gate, but also the basement, attic and flats.
With a good breezeOne must be cautious with the spread-out sheets: as photogenic they are, as trivial they can become on the photo. However, Zsófi Porkoláb’s spreading-out blog helps to discover how much new is in them.
Venid con nosotros a LembergTenemos el honor de que la Asociación Húngara de Cultura Judía, tras haber descubierto las notas que hemos ido publicando sobre Lwów / Lemberg / Lviv, nos haya invitado a guiarles en la excursión que planean a esta ciudad el próximo mes de mayo.
Come with us to LembergWe had the honor that the Hungarian Jewish Cultural Association, on discovering our posts on Lwów/Lemberg/Lviv, asked us to be their guide on their excursion to the city in May.
Another bright futureEinem was wise enough to date the pictures not to the late 20th century, but to as far as 2259. And indeed, who knows whether the unforeseen anomalies of 20th-century development would not be really adjusted by then?
Amor’s bulletsWe recently found in a downtown street of Paris this graffiti, a modernized and stylized version of the topos popularized, among others, by the following emblem in Daniel Heinsius’ Emblemata amatoria (Leiden, 1613).
Amor y balasHace unas semanas fotografiamos este grafito en la pared de una céntrica calle de París. Parece una curiosa versión moderna y muy estilizada del tema de este emblema de 1613 que se encuentra en el libro de Daniel Heinsius, Emblemata amatoria.
Mi patriaEl Cabaret Leshchenko, conocido incluso en París como «el Maxim’s de Oriente», fue uno de los lugares de diversión más afamados del Bucarest de los años treinta.
My HomelandThe Leshchenko Cabaret, dubbed even in Paris as “the Maxim’s of the East”, was one of the most fashionable places of entertainment in the Bucharest of the thirties.
The sea at Lwów
Campanile
JanowskaUn altro giorno ha termine a Janowska, l’ultimo campo di lavoro tedesco ancora attivo nella stessa struttura e con la medesima finalità nella periferia di Lwów.
JanowskaMuere otro día en Janowska, a las afueras de Lwów: el último campo de concentración alemán cuyos edificios originales aún funcionan con usos de reclusión.
JanowskaAnother day ended in the Janowska, the last German labor camp which still works in the same buildings and with the same function on the outskirts of Lwów.
Cortile della MadonnaLos pasos de alguien que baja retumban por la escalera de madera mientras ajusto la cámara. Un hombre se retira detrás de la columna —ahí, ¿veis?— y se queda quieto hasta que disparo. «Kommen, Madonna!», me dice enseguida con entusiasmo.
Cortile della MadonnaThe steps rattle down the wooden stairs from the height of two floors while I set light. The man draws back behind the column – there, you see? – and waits until I click. “Kommen, Madonna!” he says then excitedly.
Long live, long live Comrade RákosiMátyás Rákosi’s birthday celebrations were obviously modeled on Stalin’s two years earlier 70th birday celebrations.
Petőfi in Banská ŠtiavnicaThe once famous Lyceum on the Trinity Square in Selmecbánya, where the poet Sándor Petőfi studied in 1838-1839.
Catastrophe tourismThe Elisabeth Bridge in Budapest was blown up on 18 January 1945 by the retreating German troops. The press of György Klösz and his son, one of the most important publishers of Hungarian city views was nationalized in 1948.
Başqa şəhərBudapeşti Arazla birlikdə gəzirik və onun gözləri ilə şəhəri mən də özüm üçün kəşf edirəm: Osmanlı hökmranlığı dövründən (1541-1686) qalmış, neçə müsəlman mehrabının – ibadət üçün divarda Məkkəyə istiqamətlənmiş oyuğun xristian kilsələrində günümüzə çatdığını.
Another cityWe are walking about Budapest with Araz, and I am also discovering the city with his eyes, noticing how many Muslim mihrabs, prayer niches turned towards Mekka have survived in the Christian churches from the period of the Ottoman domination (1541-1686).
Noruz
A history of two statuesI come back from hiking in the Bucegi, where Corporal Mușat is standing over the former Hungarian border. I pass in front of the Iron Székely on the main square of Székelyudvarhely, now Odorheiu Secuiesc. This is how the two statues make one complete story to me.
CaveThe den genre which was a great success yesterday, has several further classics as well. Let us show one of our favorites, the bear tales by Barbara Firth, without any comment: the pictures and text speak for themselves.
DenIt’s two years now that I have presented the tale whose protagonist, the fox spends its time in various attractive dens, just like the ones into which I as a child have imagined myself on the basis of a popular picture book presenting the animals living under earth.
Él da la nieve como lanaUn milagro que suele acontecer en Jerusalén cada cinco años y que nos hizo olvidar todas las penalidades de los días anteriores. Comenzaron a caer gruesos copos de nieve.
He spreads snow like woolA miracle occurred which happens once every five years in Jerusalem, and which made us forget all the hardships of the previous days. It started to snow in huge flakes.
RezeptionsästhetikCon la obra de Baltasar Gracián se han venido cometiendo toda suerte de abusos interpretativos.
RezeptionsästhetikWith the works of Baltasar Gracián all sorts of abuses of interpretation have already been committed.
A new Hungarian relic from the Holy LandWhy is it that the most fantastic discoveries – no matter whether the bigfoot, the monster of Loch Ness or the woolly mammoth crossing a river in Siberia – are always captured on photos out of focus?
Springon the southern slopes of the Zagros, over the Bakhtiari pastures. Image report of the Fars news agency.
DoorThe pair of that of the Grodzka in Budapest, on the Krisztina boulevard, next to the former watchmaker’s shop.
The most difficult language of the worldThanks to the readers of Río Wang, we already know which is the most entertaining language of the world. But which is the most difficult one?
The power of Persian musicNow, we have an irrefutable evidence that Persian music has a greater impact than any other music on the bias-free children’s soul.
FragmentsWhile looking for pictures on the Bakhtiari nomads, we have found Shahram Sharif’s flickr page. True, on the nomads he only had a few images, but more on other regions of Iran.
Dissolving: Budapest, February 1945The blown up Margaret Bridge over Danube, seen from the Parliament. Click here for the photos of Budapest localized on the city map after the end of the siege on 13 February 1945.
Guess what this isPre-Columbian deity? Inuit walrus bone carving? Renaissance amulet? Baroque memento mori?
Masouleh, 1975In the last entry we have belittled the northern Iranian tourist attraction, the village of Masouleh in comparison to the Bakhtiari mountain village, and now we would like to somehow make amends for this offense.
Sar Agha SeyyedTo the Bakthiari villages no roads lead: the Bakhtiaris themselves arranged it so during the centuries, thereby defending themselves against the various invaders from the Mongols to the Persian state.
Bakthiari tents…still today migrate by millions from the summer grasslands to the winter ones, from the valleys up the mountains, along spectacular roads, swimming over rapid mountain rivers together with their flocks, as it was shown in the first Iranian ethnographic film, the Grass (1925).
Filomena MorettiFilomena Moretti was born on the island of Sardinia in 1973. She graduated with honors from the Conservatory of Sassari. She has regularly performed (and won awards) since 1993 in Italy and France.
Dissolving: This was brought to us by the PartyCharles C. Ebbets: Lunch atop the Radio Corporation of America Building in construction, New York, ca. 1932
Agárrame ese fantasmaLa invención de la fotografía de fantasmas fue logro de William Mumler, de Boston, quien en 1861 descubrió en una de sus fotografías el vago perfil de un primo que había muerto no hacía mucho.
Ghost photographyThe creation of ghost photography was the merit of William Mumler from Boston, who in 1861 discovered on a photography taken by him the outlines of cousin who died not long before.
Tamten LwówOra visiteremo un angolo di Leopoli che suppongo conosciuto poco o nulla dalla maggior parte degli abitanti della città. Quest’area di Leopoli era il quartiere ebraico nella parte nord della città vecchia.
Tamten LwówVamos ahora a visitar un rincón de Lwów seguramente por completo desconocido o sólo conocido superficialmente, por la mayoría de habitantes de la ciudad. Esta parte de Lwów albergaba el barrio judío del norte.
Tamten LwówNow we will visit a corner of Lwów which, I guess, was completely unknown or only superficially known to most of the inhabitants of the city. This part of Lwów was the Jewish quarter in the northern part of the old Lwów.
Flores romanas, chinasBrindamos generosamente a los eruditos una fuente obvia para estas Flores romanas, es La Relación de las cosas del mundo, de Zhang Hua (232-300 d. C).
Ilyen is vanIt is just obvious that the source of the 16th-century Flores romanas cannot be anything else but Zhang Hua’s (A.D. 232-300) Relation on the things of the world which must have been brought to Mallorca by Zheng He’s fleet in 1421.
Google Translator, beta version, 1940El ingenio de la máquina impresiona. Pero, ¿qué clase de plus (Gebrauchsmehrwert) añade a los simples glosarios alemán-ruso que ya hemos visto?
Google Translator, beta version, 1940The ingenuity of the machine is stunning. But what kind of surplus use value (Gebrauchsmehrwert) may it have offered in comparison with the hitherto seen simple German-Russian glossaries?
I’ve Taken It To PiecesThe “I’ve Taken It To Pieces” project – “something just a bit, but something to the extreme, because the Lord has given a screwdriver in my hand” – fits quite well to the retronautic, fact-finding and creative thread of Río Wang.
Magic lanternThe predecessor of slides is the magic lantern, which is the combination of a projecting equipment and a series of images painted on glass. It is an exceptional luck when such glasses and equipments turn up.
The Black CatWe’ve a doorway with a staircase, Also known as a “black door”. In that place as in a palace A black cat has set up store.
“The party is on” – The lost WarsawIstván Békeffy and Viktor Bánky in 1939 interwove into a new Daróczy-Hunnia production, the film Áll a bál (“The party is on”) a Warsaw thread, which otherwise would have not been necessary to the logic of the story.
„Áll a bál” – Zaginiona WarszawaIstván Békeffy i Viktor Bánky w roku 1939 pisali warszawska czesc dla nowego filmu Daróczyego-Hunnii „Áll a bál” – ta warszawska czesc nie byla potrzebna – ze wzgledu na logike filmu.
La nieve en PalmaEn este lugar del mundo sabemos de la nieve gracias a su presencia imponente en la literatura centroeuropea, en la literatura nórdica, en la literatura rusa.
Snow in PalmaIn this part of the world we know about the snow only from its imposing presence in Central European literature, in Nordic literature, in Russian literature.
The past futureThe fashion of the city views pushed forward in the future also spread to Europe, and they apparently used the same montage elements to them.
Nueva Barcelona (Hungría, 1735)Por entonces rodeada de pantanos, Nagybecskerek (húngaro), Bečkerek (en serbio), Großbetschkerek (alemán), Becicherecul Mare (rumano), es decir, la actual Zrenjanin serbia puede verse en este detalle de la Tabula Hungariae, c. 1528.
New Barcelona (Hungary, 1735)The town of Nagybecskerek (Hungarian), Bečkerek (Serbian), Großbetschkerek (German), Becicherecul Mare (Rumanian), that is, the current Zrenjanin in Serbia was surrounded by large swamps already in this detail of the Tabula Hungariae, of ca. 1528.
Mao livesWe would like to present three series of photos connected with the Revolution, taken by three recognized Chinese artists. All three were exposed in the 百年印象 Băinián Yìnxiàng, “A Hundred Years of Impressions” photo gallery of Beijin in recent years.
Bienes familiaresLos fotografos de Beijing 黄庆军 Huáng Qìngjūn (1971) y 马宏杰 Mă Hóngjié (1963) han estado recorriendo durante años casi toda China intentando convencer a una familia en cada provincia de que expusieran sus propiedades delante de la casa.
Family stuffBeijing photographers 黄庆军 Huáng Qìngjūn (1971) and 马宏杰 Mă Hóngjié (1963) have been roaming about all China for years by trying to persuade a family in each province – it’s not easy, they say – to put off all their stuff in front of the house.
Old BeijingWe were looking for photos to the reconstruction of the old Beijing which has been systematically destroyed since the 1950s, and this is how we found this series of several hundreds of color photos, taken by by Dmitri Kessel for LIFE in 1946.
La República del Otro Lado del RíoEsta república se ha establecido más allá del pequeño río de Vilnius, en el antiguo gueto repoblado primero por marginados y por los más pobres de la ciudad y luego, desde los setenta, por un creciente número de artistas bohemios y de pocos posibles.
The Republic Beyond the RiverThis republic lays beyond the little river of Vilnius, in the former ghetto, populated after the deportation of the Jews first by the underworld and the city’s poorest residents, and then, from the 70’s onwards, an increasing number of penniless artists.
红色弗兰肯斯坦A dog after the cat. After a short pause, the Chinese language version of Río Wang is continued with a new post. Thank you, minus273!
Citizen Barrel OrganThe barrel organ, that is шарманка was popular in the towns and even villages of Russia at the turn of the century, together with its master, the шарманщик.
After harvest
“I Even Met Happy Gypsies”Aleksandar Petrović will perhaps forgive that we borrowed the first verse of a song from his world famous film, but now we enter a world in which this statement is entirely true.
Circular TimeFrom the “Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads” exhibition by Ai Weiwei, in the Edmond J. Safra Fountain courtyard of Somerset House, London, 12th May to 26th June 2011.
The Great Circle of TimeRipples appeared on the smooth surface of the sea, and the Dragon rose from the depths of waters, to visit, like all twelve years, his children.
SOPA negra, or the black soupUna SOPA muy negra, en suma, la que nos ponen sobre la mesa los legisladores estadounidenses. Algo como aquella μέλας ζωμός, que preparaban los espartanos y que era tan redomadamente mala que tras haberla probado entendía por qué siempre estaban dispuestos a morir.
SOPA negra, or the black soupUna SOPA muy negra, a very black soup served on our table by the U.S. lawmakers, we commented it the other day in Studiolum, in whose working language, the noble castellano, this pun offers itself spontaneously.
Hammam cemetery
Juego de sombras“Estoy sentado en el patio, esperando a mi amigo para felicitarle por su hijo recién nacido. La casa antigua, el patio oscuro, un sofá en el patio. Mi amigo aparece en el vano de la puerta, con una cuna en la mano. La cuna está cubierta de terciopelo granate, bordado en oro.”
Shadow play“I’m sitting in the courtyard, looking forward to my friend, to congratulate him on the birth of his newborn son. Old house, dark courtyard, a couch on the yard. My friend appears in the opening of the gate, with a cradle in the hand.”
This is how the houses seethemselves in the mirror of the canals of St. Petersburg. This is how Vladimir Kolbasov sees them in his fable book on the city.
Prague QuizSo we invite to a game our readers, who, we know well, are lovers of Prague. Tell us which image where was exactly taken.
Lanzado al vientoTen, hermoso serbal, piedad del gazapo, Ampárame, serbal, con tus bellas ramas. No des tu belleza al mal enemigo, Al mal enemigo, al malvado cuervo.
Scatter to the windPity me, O rowan bush! O rowan bush, O fair rowan tree! Do not give thy beauty to the wicked enemy, The wicked enemy, the wicked raven.
Letters go slowly on Russian landThe illustrated postcard, however, like so many other items, was usually a shortage at the front, and if the soldier wanted to cheer up his beloved ones at home, he himself had to draw one.
DoktorThe Trabzon singer Sefa Topsakal, the new star of Turkish pop published in the last year her first album entitled Doktor, whose title song is still a huge success in Turkey.
Deià, 1.En invierno Deià se arrebuja en un hueco de la Serra de Tramuntana, que la separa del interior de la isla.
Deià, 1.Deià is wrapped around by the Serra de la Tramuntana which separates it from the rest of Mallorca.
LetterHafez, through dead six hundred years now, is so alive to every Persian as perhaps no other classical poet of any other nation.
No hablo de toda OdesaSuena absurdo que el barrio de trabajadores de una ciudad sea anterior a la propia ciudad. Sin embargo, como diría Isaac Bábel, así se hacía en Odesa.
I don’t speak for all OdessaIt sounds absurd that the workers’ quarter of a city is older than the city itself. However, in Odessa they did it this way.
The last trolleybusElectrical transport, as throughout the Monarchy, started in the 1890s in the Czech cities as well: we know how much Kafka loved to watch from his window the trams of Prague.
Busy town Florence
The great voyageThe great voyage is not the one that takes you far or lasts long. The great voyage is the one about which you feel the need to write a diary or a logbook, a travel blog, mirabilia Urbis and Milione, even if you ultimately fail to do so.
ЧиталкафеВ то время, когда я пишу это, начинается лекция Галины Иванкиной в московской книжной магазине Читалкафе: Быт москвичей в романах Ильфа и Петрова.
ChitalcaféAt the time when I’m writing this, the lecture of Galina Ivankina begins in the Chitalcafé bookstore in Moscow: Everyday life of Muscovites in Ilf and Petrov’s novels.
DubbingI do not like dubbed movies. Although I know there have been some genial ones, nevertheless much is lost in dubbing.
El año de la nieveEn la Biblia nieva una sola vez. Benaía, hijo de Joiada mató a un león un día en que estaba cayendo una nevada (2Sám 20:23). Estos dos acontecimientos extraordinarios y simultáneos cooperaron para mantenerse en la memoria histórica.
The first snowSnow is mentioned in the Bible only once. Benaiah, son of Jehoiada killed a lion on the day when snow fell (2Sam 20:23). The two extraordinary events mutually reinforced each other in historical memory.
RequisitionNineteen-forty-two, as we have seen, brought a boom of Russian phrasebook business with itself, and Hungary did not miss the international trend.
Dead bodies’ frozen lightHowever, the most common photographic genre from the beginning was the portrait, with a strongly Spanish peculiarity since the very first Spanish plates, the photo portraits of dead children.
Luz congelada sobre los muertosPero el retrato fue el género más común desde el principio, con una peculiaridad fuertemente española desde aquellas primeras placas —que se continuaría luego en la fotografía en papel—, los retratos de cadáveres de niños.
Rainbow VillageWhen I saw for the first time a photo on the barracks suburb of Taichung in Taiwan, I thought it was founded by the members of the native tribes descending into the city from the mountains of central Taiwan.
Windglyphs
Two years have passedTwo years ago, on 3 January the Muromtsev Dacha was put to fire in Moscow’s Tsaritsino district. The bloggers who defended the house for months against the authorities speculating for the estate, have commemorated the anniversary.
A midsummer day’s dreamThe Langhe are a large hill region in the north-west of Italy, a land of corpulent wines and people accustomed to hard work, a scene of many wars, from the Napoleonic campaigns to the partisans’ Resistenza.
Сон в летный деньЛанге, это – крупный холмистый регион на северо-западе Италии, земля крепких вин и людей, привыкших к тяжелому труду, арена многих войн, от наполеоновской кампании до партизанского Сопротивления.
Sogno di un giorno di mezza estateLe Langhe costituiscono un’ampia zona collinare nel nord-ovest d’Italia, terra di vini robusti e di gente abituata alla fatica, e teatro di molte guerre, dalle campagne napoleoniche alla Resistenza partigiana.
The fate of a manThe following pictures are fragments of a former family photo album. The data interpreting them have been added from the comments to the original post.
HydrocycleOn Christmas Eve 1911 the Milanese weekly Letture della Domenica. Settimanale Illustrato gave news that finally, thanks to the genius of two brothers from Turin, it was possible to cross any river or lake without getting off the bike.
HidrocicloEn Nochebuena de 1911, el semanario milanés Letture della Domenica. Settimanale Illustrato daba la noticia de que por fin, gracias al ingenio de unos hermanos turineses era posible cruzar cualquier río o lago sin apearse de la bicicleta.
Año Nuevo en Odessa«Esta ciudad no se parece en nada a cualquier otra ciudad del Mar Negro, a ninguna otra ciudad de Ucrania. Es sencillamente imposible revelar su ambiente en las fotos»
New Year in Odessa“This city is absolutely not similar to any cities of the Black Sea, to any other cities of the Ukraine. It is simply impossible to render its atmosphere on photos.”
In praise of the chimney sweepSince my childhood it has been incomprehensible to me why the piglet and the chimney sweep, these inevitable figures of New Year greeting cards, gambling money and card calendars are considered luck-bringer around the end of the year.
Cuarenta y dosTodo el mundo sabe a qué nos estamos refiriendo. Es la respuesta a la Gran Pregunta. La Vida, el Universo y Todo lo Demás.
Forty-twoEveryone knows what this is. The Answer to the Great Question. The Life, the Universe and Everything.
For a birthdayI have just noticed, as I went on my usual evening walk on the Russian net, that I have forgotten about a birthday again. On 30 December 1922 the Soviet Union was born.
Messina, 1908Hundred and three years ago, on 28 December 1908 the most powerful ever recorded earthquake in Europe shook the city of Messina in Sicily, and within minutes a twelve-meter tsunami swept across the coast.
Night blueI got this simple little book printed on foldout cardboard from my mother at the age of three, and I was very impressed.
The lost art of punch card decodersThe punch card itself is a ghost from the past, it’s century-plus history in warehouse orders, transportation fare-cards, and, finally, computer programming all but forgotten.
Забытое искусство декодеров перфокартДа и сама перфокарта давно превратилась в призрака ушедших дней. Её болле чем столетняя история в складских заказах, билетах на транспорте, и, наконец, в компьютерных технологиях почти позабыта.
TrinidadOne could ask the question again: when were these pictures taken? But we already know that we must be careful. A careful fading throws back by decades even the photos taken yesterday, especially if nothing changed during these decades.
The AlbuferaSoon, in mid-January, when the feasts of Saint Anthony – about which we have already written – arrive, the Albufera of Alcúdia will give again its (already almost negligible) share of the island’s eel consumption.
AlbuferaDentro de poco, cuando a mediados de enero lleguen las fiestas de San Antonio —sobre las cuales ya hemos escrito un par de veces— la Albufera de Alcúdia dará de nuevo su cuota —ya casi ínfima— de anguilas a la isla.
Una feliz NavidadProbablemente, la iglesia del pueblo católico árabe de Eilabun, en Galilea, sea la única del mundo cuya iconostasis ortodoxa ha sido hecha por un pintor de iconos judío, de nombre Sergei.
A happy ChristmasProbably the church of the Arab Catholic village of Eilabun in Galilee is the only one in the world whose Orthodox iconostasis was made by a Jewish icon painter, Sergei by name.
“He was born when light began to grow”When reading Russian news, blogs and comments, or speaking with former Russian friends, it is almost tangible to what extent the nostalgia for Stalin is growing Russia-wide.
The language of stampsGradually disappear the stamps we used to stick on the postcards, and along with them also the customs once connected with them, including a most peculiar one: the language of the stamps.
Tipos, trazos, tinta, textos, tomosEl primer taller de imprenta de Mallorca se instaló en Valldemossa, en Miramar, en una fecha tan temprana en Europa como 1485.
Letters of ink and leadThe first printing shop in Mallorca was installed in Miramar of Valldemossa in 1485, a very early date overall Europe.
Calle Rusa, 4En esta región de Europa, si uno tiene más de noventa y nueve años, lo normal es que haya sido ciudadano de cinco o seis países sin haberse movido de, digamos, Rimavská Sobota. Lo mismo vale, claro está, para los edificios.
Russian Street 4Around this region of Europe it is not unusual for someone past ninety-nine to have been citizen of five or six countries without having ever moved, say, from Rimavská Sobota. The same holds for the houses.
Kiki, Bouba and the contours of tangoMurat Erdemsel, a tango teacher with 10 years of experience, likes to introduce himself as “an avid tango dancer and a thinker first”.
Kiki, Buba y los contornos del tangoA Murat Erdemsel, un profesor de tango con 10 años de experiencia, le gusta presentarse como «ávido bailarín de tango y primero pensador».
Кики, Буба и контуры музыки тангоМурат Эрдемсель, учитель танго с 10-летним стажем, представляется так: “В первую очередь я – танцующий и мыслящий тангеро.”
Explosion at noonEighty years ago, on 5 December 1931 at noon Russia’s largest church, the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow was blown up.
Ant marriesI have been preparing for a whole year to present the life of Mrówka, full of unexpected twists. Now, thanks to the contribution of Studiolum, I can share it together with the English translation.
Love
ZabíjačkaTento snímok bol zhotovený niekedy v neskorej 1950, na decembrový deň, na zabíjačke v Čemeri.
ZabíjačkaThis picture was taken sometime in the late 1950s, on a December day, at pig slaughter in Csömör.
Foresight“Dear Muscovites! This fence was erected for the case of the riots triggered by the massive frauds at the upcoming elections. We appreciate for your kind understanding for the temporary incovenience.”
The line of life“For a long time I wanted to scan some pictures from Rena Effendi’s “The line of life” (Линия жизни)” – writes ulysses85.”
After electionsOnce we have published the funny pictures of the Russian elections, it is now fair to publish some of the less funny post-elections ones as well.
PotemkinThe photo series of yesterday on the little town in ruins for seventy-five years in Eastern Germany seems to have stirred our readers.
Soldatenkaffee«Una ciudad derruida y completamente abandonada después de la guerra, en la frontera oriental de Alemania, con un extraño nombre que olvidé por completo».
Soldatenkaffee“Ruined and after the war completely abandoned town in the eastern border region of Germany, with a strange name I completely forgot”.
Wiatr ze wschoduHistoria kinematografii 1941 roku zna dwa filmy, których celem było uzasadnienie napaści na Polskę w 1939 roku i wzbudzenie nienawiści wobec narodu polskiego.
Wind from eastThe film history of 1941 remembers two movies whose purpose was to justify the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and to keep alive the hatred against the Poles.
Elections reportHalf an hour ago the Russian parlamentary elections were over, the count of the votes has begun, and the first photos have been posted on the Internet.
Mezuzá«MEZUZÁ (Heb. מְזוּזָה), rollo de pergamino colocado en el umbral de las puertas de las habitaciones de los hogares judíos. El significado original de mezuzá es «umbral» (cf. Ex. 12:7)»
Mezuzah“MEZUZAH (Heb. מְזוּזָה), parchment scroll affixed to the doorpost of rooms in the Jewish home. The original meaning of the word mezuzah is “doorpost” (cf. Ex. 12:7).”
A vörös FrankensteinBulgakov in one of his harshest satires on the new Soviet regime, the Heart of a Dog (1925) describes how a devout and grateful stray dog becomes after the implantation of a human pituitary a pretentious and primitive Soviet proletarian.
La Ciudad de los MilagrosRecientemente contamos que delante del Centro Calvin de Budapest apareció un elefante indio ataviado de gala, con un trono por silla y un maharajá sentado en ella.
The city of miraclesWe have recently reported, that in front of the Calvin Center in downtown Budapest an Indian elephant appeared in full dress, complete with a throne and a maharaja.
Odessa, 1931From the color slides by Branson DeCou made during his Russian journey in 1931 we have already seen those made in Moscow and in the two former imperial palace complexes next to Leningrad, Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo.
A cemetery in KostromaCemetery, it seems, has always been here, but the brick church was built only immediately before the first world war on the expenses of the local peasant-mason Polyashov.
A simple storyThis is a very simple story. Its heroes lived in a little house with joyfully carved window frames. And the little house stood in a small village on the edge of the field, embraced by the forest..
Ex librisLwów conserva buena memoria de los días en que en la panorámica Librería de la Amistad se encontraban libros de todos los países amigos. Pero Lwów fue también durante un tiempo capital del libro polaco.
Ex librisLwów still faithfully preserves the memory of those days when in the panoramic Friendship Bookstore the books of all the friendly countries were available. But once Lwów also was the capital of the Polish book.
Say no to denatured alcoholThis constellation naturally results in the publication of the items with the label of “temperance campaign” of the poster collection in the Miejskie Muzeum Przemysłowe of Lwów.
Pomocy!Szukamy polskiego czytelnika, który może pomóc nam sprawdzić jeden artykuł w języku polskim i z polskim tematem.
Province, early 80sThese pictures were taken in the early eighties of the past century in a small Soviet district center and in the surrounding villages.
The survival of imagesWe have recently found, in a series of hitherto unknown photos on the División Azul in the Soviet front, the following surprising photo on which the Spanish soldiers entertain themselves with «saloon bullfight».
La supervivencia de las imágenesReciéntemente hemos encontrado esta sorprendente foto de la División Azul. Los soldados españoles se entretienen en una sesión improvisada —y un poco chusca— de «toreo de salón» al aire libre.
TransitionTonight we will go over to the new server. For this reason in some more remote locations the site of Studiolum and the images of the blog will not appear for a couple of hours.
TreesOn the Gretna pictures the trees are no protagonists, yet indispensable, for they mark out the space which is filled in by the dance of the millions of starlings.
MurmurationsNo one knows why they do it. Yet each fall, thousands of starlings dance in the twilight above Gretna, Scotland.
Basta decir «no»Entre los carteles antialcohólicos soviéticos el más emblemático es sin duda el creado por I. Govorkov en 1954, cuando el combate contra el alcohol, después de veinticinco años de tregua, volvió a encenderse a la muerte de Stalin.
Just Say NyetAmong the Soviet temperance posters the most iconic is undoubtedly the one created by I. Govorkov in 1954, when the anti-alcohol campaign, after twenty-five year interval, flared up again after Stalin’s death.
The cemetery that disappearedUnlike Krakow’s Kazimierz, in Singapore no glue attaches the Past to Present. Land is scarce, buildings are Towers, the Mall is religion and the dead do not compete with the living.
Doce vistas del Monte FujiEn las oscuras mañanas de Londres, mientras tomo el té, miro atardecer sobre el monte Fuji —a distancia, en una webcam.
Twelve views of Mount FujiIn the dark London mornings I take my tea and watch the sunset over Mount Fuji — remotely by webcam.
In eternal memoryTanto el alcoholismo de masas como su combate formaron parte de la vida cotidiana de la Unión Soviética desde su formación hasta su disolución.
In eternal memoryBoth mass alcoholism and the fight against it were integral parts of everyday life in the Soviet Union, from its formation until its dissolution.
Pure poetryPolitics is an art. And sometimes politics exceeds the highest peaks of avant-garde art, as in the following performance of the President of the Government of the Balearic Islands.
Poesía puraLa política es un arte. Y a veces la política supera las más altas cotas del arte de vanguardia, como en esta actuación del nuevo Presidente del Gobierno de las Islas Baleares.
DissolvingNikolai Rerikh: She who holds the world, 1933 – Ekkehard, Margrave of Meissen and his wife Uta. Statues of founders in the western choir of the Naumburg Cathedral, mid-13th century
Globat.comWeb host reviews, as we have just checked, today already consider Globat.com among the worst providers.
Fragile balanceThe life of the community in Poteryaevka has been also captured by another young photographer from Moscow, Misha Maslennikov. The same persons, the same actions, but how different photos!
PoteryaevkaThe name of Poteryaevka village comes from the word потерять, ʻto lose’, but in contrast to the lost Russian villages, Poteryaevka has just been found.
Yesterday in KhabarovskIn the context of the visit of the President of the Russian Federation D. A. Medvedev we strongly ask you not to hang out underwear on the balconies.
Müteferrika en IránIbrahim Müteferrika, el primer impresor turco, de origen húngaro recorrió un área tan vasta como pocos pudieron hacerlo en su tiempo.
Müteferrika in IranIbrahim Müteferrika, the first Turkish printer, of Hungarian origin traveled over such a vast area as few others in his time.
Murat Reis’ cemeteryMurat Reis – that is, Admiral – was already born in Rhodes, in a Muslim Albanian family settled on the island. Since the age of twelve he served under the greatest Ottoman admirals, Turgut Reis, Piri Reis and Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha.
Kurban BayramIn the village consisting of three streets and a few dozen houses every family cut sheep for the greatest Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha, or as they call it in Turkic and Persian regions, Kurban Bayram, the festival of sacrifice.
El cementerio de BalatonudvariEl viajero que recorra de este a oeste la orilla norte del lago Balaton, justo antes de entrar en el pequeño pueblo de Balatonudvari, verá a su derecha un peculiar cementerio, con unas antiguas y grandes lápidas, blancas, redondeadas.
The cemetery of BalatonudvariWhen traveling from east to west along the northern shore of lake Balaton, before entering the tiny village of Balatonudvari, you can see to the right a strange cemetery with huge, archaic, white round gravestones.
CemeteriesThe cemetery is a necro-polis, the city of the dead, where, as in the fairy tale, everything is opposite to how it is in life.
Дорога к храмуНа холме стоит церковь деревни моего деда, самое старое деревянное здание в современной Венгрии, построенное в 1670 г. в честь святого Николая Чудотворца.
Up the hillOn the hill stands the church of my grandfather’s village, the oldest wooden building in present-day Hungary, constructed in 1670 in the honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
SymbiosisI would not upload these pictures if I had no dogs and I did not know too well this well-bred, sure in its portion, yet wistful look.
The image of ParisAmong the several photographers capturing the accident at Gare Montparnasse, Henri Roger-Viollet (1869-1946), with whose photo we started the previous post, was certainly the most renowned and most refined one.
The theme is laying on the street– Is it difficult to take photos of railway stations? – It is easier than anything else – Švejk said –, because it does not move. The station always stands on its place, and you do not have to remind it that you want a friendly face…”
Тайна ВердемарЭль Сеньор дель Танго Карлос ди Сарли, был также известен современникам под грубой кличкой Эль Туэрто (Кривой). В БсАс считалось, что и он, и даже само его имя - жета (сглаз).
El enigma de VerdemarEl Señor del Tango, Carlos Di Sarli, fue también cruelmente conocido como «El Tuerto» en Buenos Aires, donde sus contemporáneos lo consideraban un yeta (un gafe).
The Mystery of VerdemarEl Señor del Tango Carlos Di Sarli, was also cruelly known as El Tuerto (the One-Eyed) in Buenos Aires, where he was considered a yeta, a jynx by his contemporaries.
Dissolving: October trains
Nothing to lose but their chainsLenin abolishing the prisons. Drawing by convict Mark Larionov, 27 year old. Convicted of four counts of theft, for the last time of two years of prison. A turner by profession.
The Kremlin as you have never seenOn the Kremlin which you will never see any more, because it was systematically destroyed in the 1930s together with a great part of old Moscow, you can create a picture for yourself on the basis of the photos of the last Tsar’s coronation ceremony in 1896.
Side and reverseThe second half of the 19th century passed both in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and in the neighboring countries by covering their own territory as well as those of the neighbors with detailed maps which were suitable for military tasks.
How clear was the world! How it opened up!Natalia Gorbanevskaya, a poet and an activist (to whom the verses cited in this post have been dedicated), recalls how she gasped when Senderov suggested her to give a talk on any literary subject as long as it was a tabooed subject.
The poetry of exaggerationOf abandoned places, factories, bunkers, pioneer camps, rust cemeteries we have enough in post-industrial, post-Cold War and post-Socialist Europe. Usually it is no great art even to penetrate there.
The villages of yesterdayI wanted to write just a short post on those villages in Kostroma province where the Black Ethnographer is gathering his photo findings in the abandoned houses.
Tashkent, 1956From the 1956’s Moscow Jacques Dupâquier flew on to Tashkent, the center of the Uzbek autonomous republic. It appears that there he enjoyed the same freedom in sightseeing and taking photos as in the capital.
Sunday morning
Moscow, 1926From Moscow in 1956 we step back thirty years. These are the views of Moscow in 1926, and not just any views: they are special both for what they show and how they show.
The Via dei FalegnamiThe Via dei Falegnami was such a narrow street that by looking out of the window of one of its poor homes, one could shake the hand of those who lived in the house opposite.
La Via dei FalegnamiLa Via dei Falegnami era una stradina talmente stretta che, affacciandosi dalla finestra di una delle sue povere abitazioni, si poteva stringere la mano di chi viveva nella casa di fronte.
Autumn
Moscow, 1956French historian Jacques Dupâquier digitized and put up on the net in 2009, one year before his death the color photos of his 1956 journey in the Soviet Union.
Past ChinasIt will be forty years ago within some months that in February 1972, after twenty-five years of diplomatic break, President Nixon visited Beijing.
HolidaysToday 69 years ago was published in Simferopol this German-Russian phrasebook, whose content, as the introduction says, “was determined by the practical needs of the German and Russian users who today are in close contact with each other.”
Romanian: Full Steam“With the return of a part of Transylvania to our thousand year old homeland, apart from our dear Hungarian brothers and sisters a significant Romanian minority has also returned. My book aims at the easy mastery of the language of this minority.”
Souvenirs de VarsoviaLa Segunda Guerra Mundial fue la primera guerra en que los soldados, especialmente los alemanes, tomaron fotos privadas de manera masiva.
Warsaw memoriesWorld War II was the first war in which soldiers, especially German soldiers mass-produced private photos.
Pictures of an eraIn Moscow’s Gorky Park, an open-air life work photo exhibition was recently organized for Viktor Akhlomov, the veteran photographer of the daily Izvestiya, “the living classic of Soviet photography”.
Russia is for everyoneThe walls of the exhibition Россия для всех – “Russia is for everyone” are all covered by the paper graffitis by the contemporary Russian artists Viktor Bondarenko and Dmitry Gutov.
Dissolving: Procession
Dissolving: The great leapMy first step for the Einem Cookie, late 19th c. The candy factory established in 1851 by Theodor Ferdinand von Einem on the Arbat moved in the late 19th century to the Moscow Island, where the little girl is jumping to.
A bleeding heartToday, when the world celebrates the fresh Nobel Peace Prize winners, let us remember for a minute about a great loser of the Nobel Peace Prize, too.
What did the tovarish say?The Hungarian Language and Science portal yesterday published a detailed analysis on a recently found Russian-Hungarian glossary, which was apparently compiled to facilitate the basic communication with the Soviet occupation forces.
The battle of BlosdorfThe commanders of the Tsar’s army held a last survey over their forces, and then, led by the mountain rifles of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, they marched to the monument of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers fallen between 1914 and 1918.
Mallorcan, Menorcan, Ibizan and FormenteranSome politicians and the media of the Balearic Islands from time to time – especially when elections are approaching – try to play out the card of the supposed linguistic problems of the autonomous region.
Mallorquín, menorquín, ibicenco y formenterenseAlgunos políticos y medios de comunicación de las Islas Baleares, de vez en cuando —especialmente cuando se acercan las elecciones— azuzan un presunto problema lingüístico en esta Comunidad Autónoma.
The Soviet CapaAt the same time with the London exhibition of early 20th-century Hungarian photography, in June opened and in October closed in the Crimean Sevastopol the exhibition of the photos made seventy years ago by Yevgeny Khaldei.
EyewitnessThe London Royal Academy of Fine Arts organized a large-scale exhibition between 30 June and 2 October, with the title “EYEWITNESS – Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century”.
A day in the life of an icon painter“My name is Sasha”, writes akortes. “I live in Moscow and I invite you to spend with me one of my normal working days.
The Tsar in Paris, 1896A hundred and fifteen years ago, on 5 October 1896 the first foreign trip of the new Russian imperial couple after the coronation celebrations led to France.
5772
Safe-conductThe armies of the Second World War sent letters and illustrated postcards not only to home. But also to the enemy.
Illustrated front postcardsBesides the “triangular letters” and the non-illustrated field postcards, several armies of the Second World War introduced the illustrated front postcard as well.
Triangular letterHowever, there was a time when this folding was not considered unusual at all, moreover the mails folded in this way were the most valuable the postman could bring.
The Battery GardensThe Battery is the point of Mannhattan at the confluence of Hudson and East rivers where the first Dutch settlers landed.
Sagrada Familiaon the outskirts of the Far Eastern city of Artyom, being built from construction waste.
Memories of othersNo, we could never see them like this, in this light evoking Flemish still-life paintings, in these calculatedly random and heroic compositions. Still we remember them exactly.
HonrasJust saw the light our edition of the Libro de las Honras de la Emperatriz María de Austria, a chronicle of the remarkable celebrations organized by the Jesuit college of St. Peter and Paul in Madrid.
HonrasAcaba de ver la luz nuestra edición del Libro de las Honras de la Emperatriz María de Austria. Es la crónica de las notables celebraciones que organizó el colegio jesuita de San Pedro y San Pablo de Madrid
Souvenir of HiroshimaI have been collecting old cameras for many years, and occasionally it happens that I receive the camera ordered via internet together with the last film left in it.
MüteferrikaEn el patio de los libreros de viejo del Gran Bazar de Estambul, donde en las miniaturas de los manuscritos médicos otomanos unos diablillos negros golpean con martillos de fuego los doloridos dientes, se encuentra el busto de un hombre con turbante.
MüteferrikaIn the yard of antiquarian books of the Istanbul Grand Bazaar, where black jinns are hitting with burning hammers the aching tooth from inside on the miniatures of Ottoman medical manuscripts, the statue of a turbaned man is standing.
They have comeToday began in Moscow the XIVth Congress of the Russian Communist Party for the peaceful political takeover.
Silent movie
Ivan Boldyrev: Don Cossacks, 1875-76Ivan Vasilevich Boldyrev was born in 1850 in a Cossack family, in the village of Ternovskoe along the Don. Since his mother died early and his father served in the Tsar’s Cossack division, he grew up almost as an orphan in his grandfather’s house.
Russian landscapeIt has been several years now that the photo competition and outdoor photo exhibition “Russian landscape” is being organized between early September and mid-October in Moscow, on the Red Square.
Little town KichThe six thousand strong Kichmengsky Gorodok, simply called by its inhabitants Little Town Kich, is located in the historical Russian region’s northeasternmost province Vologda, and namely in its easternmost district.
Bike crazeIn the 1890s, with the appearance of the “safety bicycle”, the bike, for the very first time, ceased to be a caprice of young sportsmen, and became an everyday transport tool and – with the development of railroads – even a kind of a one-man branch-line for commuters.
SapaSapa, laying two thousand meters high among the North Vietnamese mountains, is one of the most romantic regions of the country. In the inaccessible valleys a large number of little peoples and particular languages have survived from before the Chinese and Vietnamese conquests.
AmistadEn el mapa de Lwów pueden verse claramente los letreros de la librería más grande de la ciudad anunciando sus productos en varios idiomas.
FriendshipOn the map of Lwów, at the southern end of the long Freedom Square you can clearly see that the signboards of the largest bookshop of Lwów announce its goods in several languages.
Thank you and good byeIt is quite refreshing to read a wartime conversational dictionary whose single message is apparently this: “Thanks for having liberated us!”
Johannes Hähle: Kharkov, Lubny, Baby YarTen photos have been published in these days on the Russian net, on several sites within a short time, ten rather faded color photos from October 1941, on the Baby Yar mass murder, two weeks before the seventieth anniversary of Baby Yar.
Sakhalin, 1894-1905The following one hundred and twenty photos are from the first “Russian” period of the island, from between 1894 and 1905, at least they are spreading with this indication on the Russian web..
Photo findings from Kostroma“When traveling in the North, one often meets villages which are living the last years of their lives… Many of them look back on a rich history, and they happily share it with whom they can…”
MarketIt is not easy to photograph the market. It is hard to overcome the allure of genre scenes, the charm of exoticism, the commonplaces of orientalism, the temptation to grasp this whole buzz at once, and in the end nothing remains in our hands.
Thank youExactly two weeks have passed since we have asked our readers to help us to collect the minimum amount of 1,500 euros necessary to our friends in Szék/Sic (Romania) to move before the coming winter in the new house.
Shooting dictators is a great fun– wrote James Abbe in his memoirs, and he just had to know: he shot them all, from Franco through Mussolini and Hitler to Stalin.
Drohobycz and the worldThe gently waving hills of eastern Galicia, still green at the end of August, are even more softened by the afternoon light. This light and this air are the protagonists of the first book by Bruno Schulz, The Cinnamon Shops.
Drohobycz y el mundoEl paisaje de colinas suaves de la Galitzia oriental, todavía verde a finales de agosto, es más dulce con la luz de la tarde. Esta luz y este aire son los protagonistas del primer libro de relatos de Bruno Schulz, Las tiendas de color canela.
Message on the wall
MarcaLwów es quizás la única ciudad de Europa donde todavía se pueden ver por la calle inscripciones en yidis.
BrandLwów is perhaps the only city in Europe where you can still see Yiddish inscriptions on the streets.
La memoria de los muros
Quiviesa RiverThe road along the river runs through 23 settlements and is an important link between the coastline Camino de Santiago and the Camino Francés.
Río QuiviesaAgrupa unos 23 núcleos habitados a lo largo del cauce del río y es un paso de enlace importante entre el Camino de Santiago de la costa y el Camino Francés.
God is great and I’m notBut this formula, when the little man increases the greatness of the figure by his own smallness, and draws safety and support for his smallness from the greatness of the figure, was fertile only for some decades.
Serra de ses FigueresThe schematic profile of Cabrera to the south of the island of Mallorca in the beautiful Kitab-i Bahriye (Book of Navigations, 1526) only marks the bays where to cast anchor.
Serra de ses FigueresEl esquemático perfil de Cabrera al sur de la isla de Mallorca, en el precioso Kitab-i Bahriye (Libro de las materias marinas, 1526) apenas marca las ensenadas donde fondear.
A new beginningAfter the Bartholomew’s Day commemoration we climb up to Felszeg to see the houses that fell into ruin in last July, and then descend to the market place to see how our friends proceed with their new house.
Paganos vinieron, oh Señor, a tu heredadYa hemos escrito que el 24 de agosto, día de San Bartolomé, es un día de luto no sólo para los calvinistas de Francia, también para los de Szék (Sic, en Rumania).
Pagans came, o Lord, in thy inheritanceWe have already written, that 24 August, St. Bartholomew’s Day is a day of mourning not only for the Calvinists of France, but also for those of Szék (Sic, in Romania).
Royal DoorsThe royal doors of the former Greek Catholic wooden church of Kurimka (in Rusyn Havryanets) in Bardejov, in the Šariš Icon Museum.
CrocodilesA Russian version of the very newspaper of the National Socialist Party, the Völkischer Beobachter was distributed in a large number of copies in Moscow several years before the invasion of the Soviet Union.
The Deva riverAccording to some authors, it was not in Africa, in the Near East or in any other place of the world, but here in Cantabria where humanity originated.
El río DevaSegún más de uno, cae por aquí y no en África, Oriente Próximo, ni en ningún otro sitio del mundo, el lugar donde tuvo origen la Humanidad.
Busy TownFlood of the Kura in Tiflis in 1893, when Iosif Dzhugashvili arrived at the town to start his studies in the Orthodox seminary.
On the wings of fameWe have just received the news that our readers have nominated our blog for the 2011 Golden Blog of Hungary contest, and once it happened so, we cannot but face the challenge with honor.
A litle sheet or scrow of paperOh, wonderful gift of languages, a superior skill of idioms, which translates so fluently even such marginal words not only to Hungarian, but to Polish, and perhaps, if necessary, even to Chinese!
Heavenly placeThe small town of Sebezh lays in a westernmost tip of Russia, at the Russian-Latvian-Belorussian border, in a wonderful setting, between lakes, on a peninsula reaching deep into the lake.
A fine feast for refined readersFour hundred years ago was published Sebastián de Covarrubias’ Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, the first monumental Spanish thesaurus and etymological dictionary.
¿Tylko we Lwowie?«¡Sólo en Lwów!» Este fue el título de una canción cuyas letra y música escribieron Emanuel Szlechter y Henryk Wars, figuras muy conocidas de la vida literaria de pre-guerra en Lwów.
Tylko we Lwowie?– “Only in Lwów!” This was the title of a song, whose text and music were written by Emanuel Szlechter and Henryk Wars, well-known figures of pre-war literary life in Lwów.
“…but I’m not happy”To Liébana one arrives as to an island, and the elder locals also speak about it like that.
«…pero no estoy contenta»A Liébana se llega como a una isla, y así suelen referirse a ella los habitantes más viejos.
El Petőfi rusAvui fa cent seixanta-dos anys que Sándor Petőfi, el famós poeta va ser vist per últim cop, el 31 de juliol de 1849 a les sis en punt a la tarda.
The Russian PetőfiIt does matter who translates a poet for the first time to a certain language. The genius of Pasternak has certainly contributed to the Russian readers’ feeling Petőfi their own.
LeópolisLwów, Львів, Lemberg, לעמבערג, Լվովի, Львов, Liov, Ľvov, Lvov, Лвов, Lavov, Leopolis, Léopol, Leopoli, Ilyvó. Pocas ciudades europeas comparten el privilegio de oír su nombre en tantos idiomas distintos.
LwówLwów, Львів, Lemberg, לעמבערג, Լվովի, Львов, Liov, Ľvov, Lvov, Лвов, Lavov, Leopolis, Léopol, Leopoli, Ilyvó. Only a few European cities – Venice, Rome, Paris, London – have their own names in so many languages.
The Nazi elephantThat the unexpected appearance of elephants on the streets of big cities is a concomitant of great political earthquakes is proved by many examples of twentieth-century Russian history.
Fever“In this mortal frame of mine which is made of a hundred bones and nine orfices there is something, and this something is called a wind-swept spirit for lack of a better name…”
Fervor«En mi forma temporal, la de cien huesos y nueve orificios, hay también algo que, a falta de una denominación más adecuada, podría llamarse duende volátil…»
555…years ago, on 22 July 1456 the Hungarian and Croatian defenders of the fortress of Belgrade after three weeks of siege fought off the Ottoman army led by Sultan Mehmed II.
In the valley of LiébanaNo, this is not Berlin after the Allied bombing, this is the town of Potes in the heart of the Valley of Liébana, Cantabria, in 1937, one year after the beginning of the Civil War.
En el valle de LiébanaNo es Berlín después de los bombardeos aliados, es el pueblo de Potes, en el corazón del Valle de Liébana, en Cantabria, en 1937. Hacía poco más de un año que había empezado la Guerra Civil.
The unbearable maskThe 120 woodcuts that make up the volume of Les songes drolatiques de Pantagruel appeared without almost any text in 1565.
El disfraz insoportableLas 120 imágenes que componen el volumen de Les songes drolatiques de Pantagruel se publicaron en 1565 sin apenas explicaciones.
Rust in peaceItalian poetry is mainly divided into two types: the incomprehensible on the one hand and the boring on the other, because there is missing, on the side of the authors, the passion of being read.
Moscow 1900-1960In recent years, a lot of surprisingly rich archival photo series has been published on Moscow and on Russia in general.
Retrospective
No One Writes to the ColonelSince Language Hat has quoted our post on Soviet kommunalki, the commentaries of the readers have made it clear that as for housing, Anglo-Saxon countries had it hard too at Stalin’s times.
Romualdas PožerskisIn 1992 I started to take photos on the smallest (90 cm high) man in Lithuania, the farmer Alfons Mickus, whose life was rich in both sad and happy events.
The Lithuanian schoolA few months ago opened in Moscow the photo exhibition “The Lithuanian school. Western photography in the Soviet Union”.
In a different wayIt was three years ago that we published a colloquial dictionary for the Soviet army which prepared the soldiers for the speech situations of a victorious attack advancing in Germany.
Bees against honeyToday I want to show you how Afghan police destroys poppy fields. Quite by accident I have hit upon one of these operations.
KommunalkiLos timbres de los pisos colocados sin orden en la puerta de un antiguo piso burgués, todos distintos pero lentamente igualados por la mano del tiempo, reflejan bien la naturaleza de los kommunalki.
KommunalkiThe apartment doorbells packed without a plan on the door of the old bourgeois flat and slowly assimilated to each other by the layers of time faithfully reflect the nature of the kommunalki.
DoorbellsTo unique courtyards, unique doorbells. The domofons below were photographed by Ksusha Maevsky in Lwów.
Courtyards of Lwów
Balance of a hundred yearsThe Art historia blog offers one more photo by Nicolae Ionescu, but in a separate post, as do we.
Shadows in BucharestWe have already written, that between the two world wards Bucharest was micul Paris, “little Paris”, the city of luxury and of an exaggerated desire for life. And as usual, light had its shadow.
The Hungarian and his bearThis photo was sent by Wang Wei from the mountains of Cantabria, the valley of the monastery of Liébana where the magical Beatus manuscripts were copied a thousand and three hundred years ago.
Black people in the zooSeventy-five years ago, in 1936 closed the last of the zoo houses in Europe – notably in Turin, and one year before that the penultimate one in Basel – where black people were presented to visitors.
The Museum of CensorshipI get to know late about the best exhibitions. Just now I’m reading that in the Museum of Censure they closed four days ago this overview of the political cartoons of Europe between 1940 and 1950.
The banality of crimeThe circumstances of Federico García Lorca’s death were surrounded by uncertainty and legends over a long time. A few weeks ago appeared Miguel Caballero Pérez’s The thirteen last hours of Lorca’s life.
Blessing and peace
GastarbayterIf there’s nowhere to go, people go to Moscow. They escape the bad life, go for the money, love, luck – Moscow has it all.
LighthousesAt each end of the Serra de Tramuntana there stands a lighthouse. To the north, that of Formentor. To the south, that of Sa Mola in Andratx.
FarosEn cada extremo de la Serra de Tramuntana hay un faro. Al norte, el de Formentor. Al sur, el de Sa Mola, en Andratx.
A killer game
Excursion“Excursion to Paris. See you on the Boulevard!” (David Welch: Germany, Propaganda and Total War, 1914-1918, 2000)
A summary“Look, the tiger of Ussuri came this year to pull us out of every evil plague, to devour the American crisis, to distribute happiness and love to all, to bring all kinds of riches in this Happy New Year!”
Paper MuseumI liked simple-minded paintings, pictures over doorways, stage sets, carnival backdrops, billboards, bright-colored folk prints; old-fashioned literature, church Latin, erotic books full of misspellings…
Such hugeМосква’s commentary to the previous post: “…and I guess you know what happened after they tied the angler's wrists together, so that he couldn’t exaggerate anymore?”
The big fishWhile we are cycling upstream along the Danube, we do not want to leave our readers out of the pleasures of wild waters either. Fedor Telkov somewhere in Russia asks the fishermen about how big was the biggest catch of their lives.
On a sea of wordsIn the preface of the first European Atlas by Gerhard Mercator (1512-1594), whose author did not live to see the complete publication of his great work, a warning is borrowed from Saint Isidore of Seville.
En un mar de palabrasEn el prefacio del primer Atlas europeo, el de Gerardo Mercator (1512-1594), cuyo autor nunca llegó a ver completamente impreso, se lee una advertencia tomada —sin mencionarlo— de San Isidoro.
JuegoEn la estación, una pareja de gitanos con tres niños espera a mi lado. Tienen unos veinticinco o treinta años.
GameAt the terminus a Gypsy man and woman with three children stood next to me. They were around twenty-five or thirty year old.
The German KharkovKharkov, then Ukraine’s largest city and the third largest industrial cities in the Soviet Union was occupied by the German army in very heavy fighting on 24 October 1941.
DanceThe previous post also evokes an older series by one-way, selected from American public photo collections, with the same attention to the details of the pictures and to the span of their succession.
Singing is forbiddenprohibido el cante, this was written in several suburban pubs in the Franco era. And this is the title of the exhibition which the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo of Seville dedicated in 2009 to the forbidden song, the flamenco.
With joint forcesThe picture book With joint forces against drunkenness, as its introduction writes, was published with the purpose of agitation for Gorbachev’s alcohol ban in 1989.
Peace and conflictSlow, round-shaped seals are hiding between the pages of library books, like fossils between rock layers, witnesses of the prosperity and transformation of remote, exotic and unlikely geologic eras.
The enemyIt is for several years now that this picture has been on the wall of the old Swabian house along the Danube to where traditionally around this time, the end of June the birthday cycling tour starts.
应门但迎扫，畏有山僧来四年以来，辋川边上的槐树愈发的茂密，树下的幽径也越行越远。十二个世纪以前王维和裴迪闲暇各赋的游戏，我们起初用英语，用西班牙语，用匈牙利语继续下去，后来，邀于所览之地，惠于同行其人，就又增加了意大利语、俄语、加泰罗尼亚语、阿塞拜疆语和土耳其语，更不用提摘译的篇章残句了。
Wang Wei vuelve a casaDurante cuatro años las sóforas han crecido a lo largo del río Wang, y el camino se ha ido alargando a su sombra.
Wang Wei comes homeDuring four years the sophora trees grew large along the Wang river, and the road runs ever farther under their shadow.
Oblique rainA friend from Portugal has sent us this photo of a group of «indignados» from the Praça do Rossio in Lisbon. Suddenly a late spring rain forced them to find shelter under the large canvas banner they were displaying.
Chuva oblíquaUn amigo nos manda desde Portugal esta imagen del grupo de «indignados» de la Praça do Rossio de Lisboa. De pronto un chaparrón de fin de primavera les obligó a guarecerse bajo una de las lonas que utilizaban.
Frescoes rediscoveredHe was clutching a piece of black bread he smuggled home and had a passport in the pocket to flee the country.
Gli affreschi ritrovatiStringeva una forma di pane nero che portava di nascosto a casa, e in tasca aveva un passaporto per fuggire dal Paese.
On the way to VelikoretskoyeIn 1383 along the northeastern borders of the then Russian principalities, near the town of Hlynov – later Vyatka, today Kirov – a peasant found an icon along the river Velikaya.
Tales of the AmurAs we have seen, it was the railway which brought the world fame to the Nanai tribes fishing and hunting in archaic circumstances along the Amur and its tributaries.
D-dayThe above picture was sent by Kinga a few minutes ago from London, accompanied by the following letter. “About this photo I have a story, obviously not brand new, so you might know it, but maybe not.”
“If they ask me where the Paradise is”Milenium – written with one l – is the name of the shop, because the owner is called Milen. People have realized that Milen takes care of bikes like nobody.
«Si me preguntan dónde está el Paraíso»Milenium —escrito así— es el nombre del taller, porque el dueño se llama Milen. La gente se ha dado cuenta de que Milen cuida las bicicletas como nadie.
This was brought by the railwayIn the village where I live, the railway arrived at the same time with the 20th century. However, the preparations and the development of the plans already begun a decade earlier.
European VisionI doubt if two years ago anybody would imagine that a country with such a hard-to-pronounce name will win Europe’s most watched song contest.
Russkaya dorogaIt was hundred and twenty years and three days ago, on 31 May 1891 that the Russian crown prince, later Czar Nicholas II in Vladivostok placed the foundation stone of the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
Kerchiefs, kerchiefs, kerchiefsin all quantities, sizes, shapes, colors. The very first thing one encounters when exiting the Istanbul airport is the poster of the Armine fashion company showing a pretty young woman with a kerchief.
The Orthodox CrimeaThis is the title of the unpublished photo album of Yuri Gladky from Simferopol, about which the author writes this: One more book that was composed but not published because of the crisis.
A question: gapi.plusone.goIn the present English version of the blog the javascript pop-up windows have ceased to work since yesterday, while in the Hungarian version they work merrily on.
World history in local viewOne would not think that Csömör, this small dead-end village surrounded by forests in the outskirts of Budapest was sixty-six years ago the strategic hub of Hungary.
PaleocyclistsOne thing is missing from the picture chronicle of the paleocycle: a photo album of paleocyclists.
ClavileñaIn omaggio alla serie delle biciclette, una piccola, modesta macchina poetica con un motore a due tempi che opera alla perfezione solo con i componenti originali alla base del suo meccanismo.
ClavileñaAs a tribute to the bicycle thread of the past days, voilà a small, modest poetry machine with a two-stroke engine which works perfectly only with the original components underlying its mechanism.
Cause they go like madThe first picture is published on the Old Picture of the Day blog. Its caption leaves no doubt as to what we see: the traffic police fines the irresponsibly racing velocipedist. After all, we do not live in the jungle!
The photographic nightIs it possible to take photos of the darkness? In the latest edition of the Spanish Babelia Antonio Muñoz Molina writes about the photo historical exhibition Night Vision: Photography After Dark, recently opened in the Metropolitan Museum.
La noche fotográfica¿Se puede fotografiar la oscuridad? En el último Babelia Antonio Muñoz Molina escribe sobre la exposición de fotografías que con el tema Night Vision: Photography After Dark se inauguró hace poco en el Metropolitan Museum.
ΚύκλωψΠᾶν γνήσιον ἀντίτυπον φέρει τὴν κάτωθι ὑπογραφὴν καὶ σφραγίδα: each authentic copy bears the following signature and seal.
ΚύκλωψΠᾶν γνήσιον ἀντίτυπον φέρει τὴν κάτωθι ὑπογραφὴν καὶ σφραγίδα: ogni copia autentica reca la seguente firma e il sigillo.
Gentili Sigg.Mi scuso e ringrazio per l’invito ad una così importante Esposizione d’Arte, ma ci ho ripensato. Non credo che l’Italia abbia bisogno di me per essere rappresentata, e io mi sentirei come un gatto ad una esposizione canina, o viceversa.
Dear SirsI apologize and thank you for the invitation to such an important Art Exhibition, but I’ve given it some thought. I don’t believe Italy needs me for being represented, and I’d feel like a cat at a dog show or viceversa.
Grand couleurHowever, Boris Indrikov can command much more than just two wheels at once, that lay on the shore of a Zone which was left behind not so much by an apocalypse but rather by a traveling circus.
FietswinkelFietswinkel (Bicycle corner). Open Wednesday to Sunday from 3 pm to 9 pm. • Fietswinkel (Angolo della bicicletta) Aperto da mercoledì a domenica dalle 15:00 alle 21:00 • Mahlowerstr. 9, Berlin/Neukölln.
Dandy horseIt is not unusual in the history of civilization to discover one thing twice, either because it fell into oblivion, or because the initiates deliberately kept it in secret. This happened to the bike as well.
YesterdayOn the occasion of the Eurovision Song Contest the Rénhírek and Nyelv és Tudomány has also taken over our post written last year on the Buranovskie Babushki, the “Grannies of Buranovo”.
Великие великиВы ещё помните таинственный орден рыцарей Солнца и Луны, которые со времён Gesta Romanorum выходили на двух колесах впереди армии и были похоронены со своими любимыми велосипедами под стенами Шато-Гайар?
Velikie velikiDo you still remember the mysterious Order of the Knights of the Sun and the Moon who since the centuries of the Gesta Romanorum went on two wheels in front of the army?
Come on, Kathy, the hurdy-gurdy’s playingThey believe that hurdy gurdy must be just turned, but no, it is exactly like the “manual piano”. If you have no practice and no feeling inside, then there is no “Takt”, and the song does not make any sense.
Acercáos hasta Óbuda…para probar una rica pasta con queso suave — se cantaba con una melodía de moda antes de la II Guerra Mundial. Y era justamente así.Porque el suburbio barroco de Óbuda era el paraíso de los pequeños restaurantes bohemios.
Come out to Óbuda…for a good pasta with soft cheese – sang the pre-WWII hit. And deservedly so. Because the baroque suburb of Óbuda in the northernmost outskirt of Budapest was the paradise of little bohemian restaurants.
Old world gamesI can still remember as we set out in the asphalt jungle of Józsefváros, looking for horseshoe nails. We knew that they are sometimes lost by the industrious horses of Pest off their legs covered with gamashes of hair.
Playing with bonesIn the Mallorca of our childhood (and, with small differences, in all the other islands) there were two games that we practiced with knucklebones, astragali or jacks.
Jugar con huesosEn la Mallorca de nuestra infancia (y en todas las otras islas, con pequeñas diferencias) hay dos juegos que practicábamos con huesecillos —astrágalos o tabas—.
Five stonesThis story could be recounted chronologically, beginning at the beginning and ending it at the end, but also in the order as its details gradually emerged through the comments of the past few days.
Rabbit in the moonWhat a pity that three months ago, when writing on the New Year’s Eve dinner of the Year of the Rabbit we did not yet know the Japanese New Year’s postcards of the Boston Fine Arts Museum.
КатюшаМай запомнился на Poemas del río Wang как месяц нескольких записей, наполненных духом Второй Мировой Войны: Маленькие люди о детях войны, Граффити, рассматривающая надписи на стенах павшего Берлина…
The sea“In fact, I do not find anything more fitting to explain certain spiritual things than water.”
Children’s GamesThe opening image provides an understanding of why we post this fin-de-siècle children’s games series after the previous post on child carriages. But these photos are also related, for example, to the “heads or tails” played in Siberia.
StrollerThe historical antecedent of today’s baby carriage was, as its name suggests, the horse carriage scaled down to child size.
PeterhofAfter (or before) Moscow and Tsarskoe Selo, Bernard DeCou also made a series in the garden of the Summer Palace of Peterhof, of which hitherto twenty-five glass slides have been foun.
Transylvanian flavorsThe descriptions of the plants are printed in five languages, and besides the Romanian and Bulgarian versions the Hungarian one was also made by a native translator.
Tsarskoe SeloThe thirty photos made of the former imperial residence in Tsarskoe Selo are particularly valuable, because exactly ten years after DeCou’s visit the German army invaded the palace.
Mañana de lunes en Farafra / Monday morning in FarafraTo the west of the oasis of Farafra there is only sand. The Great Sand Sea of Libya.
Tengri, the blue skyThe theme of Lenin statues had already been raised several times here on the blog, for example in connection with labor movement songs, the children’s cult of dictators, or recycled pedestals.
IconsThe crumbling walls of Saint-Petersburg, whose sinking back to mere matter is documented by Sasha Terebenin, are used as new basic material by Vadim Bo to create modern icons.
Lucca, Sunday afternoonRecently we recounted how the Pisans, invading in 1114 the Muslim Mallorca, took from the mosque of Medina Mayurka – today’s Palma – the two red porphyry columns which today adorn the front door of the Baptistery of Florence.
Tarde de domingo en LuccaHace poco contábamos cómo los pisanos, en su ataque a la Mallorca musulmana del año 1114, se llevaron de la mezquita de Medina Mayurqa las dos columnas de pórfido rojo que hoy adornan la puerta principal del Baptisterio de Florencia.
Changing lifeThe surfaces grow old in their own way, take on fascinating autumn colors, create a particular aesthetics. Of this process is an objective and epic chronicler Sasha Terebenin from Saint-Petersburg.
Next year in JerusalemE. Schiller’s The First Photographs of Jerusalem and the Holy Land was published several decades ago, and by now it has become a much sought-after rarity for collectors.
Moscow, 1931We have already published some photo galleries of Moscow from the 1980s and 1960s. Now a great leap follows back in time, to the beginning of the 1930s.
ExodusIn the opposite direction from the sea, in the Western Desert, only 1.5 km from the Temple of Hibis lays one of the oldest Christian cemeteries, Bagawat.
ÉxodoEn dirección opuesta, en el Desierto Occidental, solo a 1,5 km del Templo de Hibis se encuentra una de las necrópolis cristianas más antiguas, Bagawat.
El drama de la PasiónLos habitantes de Oberammergau, en Baviera, hicieron en 1633 una promesa: si sobrevivían a la peste, todo el pueblo cada diez años por Viernes Santo representaría la Pasión de Cristo.
Passion playThe inhabitants of Oberammergau in Bavaria in 1633 made a pledge: if they survive the plague, then every ten years on Good Friday they hold a passion play involving the whole town.
Armenian church in SingaporeThe oldest church in Singapore is the Armenian Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator. Today, a listed National Monument, it is no longer in active use as a church.
Scout cardsThis post is connected to several previously touched themes. Postcards from the bottom of the shoebox, at the crossroad of WWII, Easter and propaganda.
Soviet photo, 1926Eighty-five years ago, in April 1926 appeared the first issue of the journal Советское Фото – Soviet Photo which was “dedicated to the problems of amateur photography and photo-reportage”.
Manitou’s GiftViera Bombová (1932-2005) was a master of the dreamlike Slovak book illustrations of the 60s and 70s.
Three generations
Casual writingsJust some days ago I finished the Hungarian translation of Umberto Eco’s collected conference papers – or, as he calls them, “casual writings”: Costruire il nemico, “Constructing the enemy”.
Saul Wahl, king for a nightAs a compensation for the few images, let me tell you who was Saul Wahl, the wealthy Jew of Brest, who was elected king of Poland for a night.
De/from el-Bahari a/to Medinet Habu
LanguageWe have already written about the Estonian-Russian military dictionary of 1940, the Russian-German military dictionaries of 1941 as well as the Russian primer made for German soldiers in 1942.
Əsəd Bəy kim idi?Keçən əsrin 30-cu illərində bir çox dillərə tərcümə olunmuş bir neçə kitabın müəllifi və dövrün tanınmış ziyalılarının dostu, əsrarəngiz “Azərbaycan şahzadəsi” Əsəd Bəyin şöhrəti bütün dünyaya yayılmışdı.
Who was Essad Bey?During the 30s of the last century, the fame of the mysterious “Azerbaijani prince” Essad Bey, author of several volumes and friend of renowned intellectuals of the time spread all over the world.
Quién fue Essad Bey?Durante los años 30 del siglo pasado, Europa y el mundo vieron la fama del misterioso príncipe azerbaiyano Essad Bey, autor de best-sellers internacionales y amigo de intelectuales muy notables de su época.
Chi era Essad Bey?Durante gli anni ’30 del secolo scorso, l’Europa e il mondo conobbero la fama del misterioso principe azero Essad Bey, autore di best-sellers internazionali e amico di noti intellettuali dell’epoca.
Entrada en Luxor, la dulceCon tiempo, los lugares visitados adquieren un nuevo sentido en la memoria / Over time, the places visited acquire a new meaning in the memory.
Wang Wei (699-761): De vuelta al Río Wang谷口疏鐘動，
漁樵稍欲稀。
Una campana lejos, al entrar en el valle.
Los pescadores y los leñadores se marchan.
Wang Wei (699-761): Returning to Río Wang谷口疏鐘動，
漁樵稍欲稀。
a distant bell on entering the valley
less and less fishermen and woodmen
Santiago de BakuSebastián Alarcón entered the film school at the University of Chile in 1968, at the age of 19. In 1970 he was sent by way of a state scholarship program to study in Moscow.
Santyaqo de BakuSebastyan Alarkon Çili Universitetindəki kino məktəbinə 1968-ci ildə, 19 yaşı olarkən daxil olmuşdur. 1970-ci ildə o, təhsilini davam etdirmək üçün dövlət təqaüdü ilə Moskvadakı Kinematoqrafiya İnstitutuna göndərilir.
Santiago del BakuSebastián Alarcón entrò nella scuola dell’Università del Cile nel 1968, a 19 anni. Nel 1970, grazie ad una borsa di studio statale, continuò la propria formazione a Mosca.
Santiago de BakuSebastián Alarcón entró en la escuela de cine de la Universidad de Chile en 1968, a la edad de 19 años. En 1970 gracias a un programa estatal de becas fue enviado a proseguir los estudios en Moscú.
Wine cardIn Azerbaijan mainly the Georgian wines dominate the shelves: Khvanchkara, Kindzmarauli, Pirosmani, the classical varieties and reliable quality known from the times of the empire.
Noruz, green grass grower / Novruz, göy otları göyərdenIn the core of the old city, the 15th-century Shirvanshah Palace a spring-greeting children's drawing exhibition has been opened on the occasion of Noruz.
Novruzun qayıdışıAzərbaycan 1991-ci ildə müstəqilliyini yenidən əldə edəndən bəri Novruz burada rəsmi bayram kimi dövlət səviyyəsində qeyd olunur.
Return of NovruzIn Azerbaijan Novruz is celebrated as a public holiday on a state level since regaining independence in 1991. But it was prohibited to celebrate it openly for a long time during the Soviet rule.
Equinox / EquinoccioMehr ve mâh, مهر و ماه in Persian means the sun and the moon, and in a figurative sense the day which is equally shared by the sun and the moon: the equinox, 21st of March, the day of the Spring New Year that is Noruz.
A cemetery in Üsküdar / Un cementerio en ÜsküdarErecting a grave post in a mosque garden in the 16th and 17th century was just as a privilege as at us to be buried inside the church, next to the altar.
HoşgeldinizIn vain I try to post the first photos: Río Wang is unavailable in Istanbul. Instead, this message appears in large red letters: “Bu siteye erişim mahkeme kararıyla engellenmiştir.”
Поручик Владимир АстафьевМы предполагаем, что поручик Владимир Астафьев был навигатором, потому что на обратной стороне постамента написано “поручик корпуса флотских штурманов”.
Lieutenant Wladimir AstafiewWe surmise that Lieutenant Wladimir Astafiew was an officer navigator, for on the plinth reverse is written “поручик корпуса флотских штурманов”, that is, “Lieutenant of the Corps of Naval Navigators”.
İstanbul sırlarıBu yazıya ilk olarak “Bana bir sır söyleyin” adı vermek istedim, ama sonra düşündüm ki, başlığında şehrin adı olunca hedefe aldığım okuyucuların - İstanbullular ve İstanbulu sevenlerin dikkatini daha çok çekir.
Istanbul’s secretsI originally intended to post this call with the title “Tell me a secret”, but then I thought that with the city’s name in the title it would raise more the attention of the target audience: the inhabitants and lovers of Istanbul.
To write, to liveIt was quite a few time ago that we reported about having found on the last page of an old printed book one of the most perfect expressions of satisfaction.
Escribir, existirComentamos hace un tiempo que en la última página de un libro impreso habíamos encontrado, manuscrita, una de las exclamaciones de satisfacción más rotundas que hemos visto.
This was seen by OppenheimThe photos were made by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont (1863-1931) in the 1920s. Their themes follow the standard models of the Egyptian Grand Tour of the period.
Gods stitched upBaron Max von Oppenheim (1860-1946) was primarily a diplomat and a secret agent, a womanizer and a bonvivant, an Oriental traveler as well as an amateur archaeologist and ethnographer.
BasketBrumi was born five years ago in January, the first of eleven puppies. For her mother Vidra this was the first litter, so she almost had no milk.
Dubious qualityJosh Eaves sent me a link to a terrific and interesting website called Poemas del río Wang, but I’ll be damned if I can really explain what it covers.
A crackI did cross by ferry from Europe to Asia, but at that time the proportion of beauty per second made it clear that I was crossing the border of two continents at a bargain price of forty euro cents.
Ideal citiesThe question of the previous post on how an earlier generation of photographers wanted to present their Moscow was replied by this link showing Moscow in the 60s.
FarewellValkorn, that is Moscow-based designer and photographer Vladimir Korneev recently also published a series on Moscow as it looked thirty years ago.
Bear ceremonyThe secretary of the ethnic organization “Saving Yugria” has already said that they would hold a demonstration with tents and shaman dances in Moscow, in front of the Russian parliament.
DissolvingRoman bridge above the Wadi al-Murr near Mosul, Iraq. Photo by the German archaeologist Max von Oppenheim researching the ancient city of Tell Halaf, 1920s.
¿Pirata, corsario o filibustero?Consideremos primero los difusos límites entre piratería, corso y filibusterismo.
Pirate, Privateer or Freebooter?We consider first the blurred boundaries between piracy, privateering and freebooting.
Snail’s houseThe little Gothic courtyard opening from Carrer dels Lledó is a jewel box not only in a metaphoric sense. But the jewel shop and exhibition room Atelier Hàbit is just as hidden within it as the house itself.
Pictures from the boxThe Italian soldier who is on guard against nothing and commenting on himself in the caption is Carlo Manfrini, nineteen years old at that time. Manfrini’s Russian photos have been kept for many years in his home near Bologna.
Fuori dalla scatolaIl soldato italiano che monta la guardia al nulla e che ne offre un commento nella didascalia è Carlo Manfrini, allora diciannovenne. Le foto di Manfrini sono state conservate per molti anni nella sua casa di Dozza.
Off the mapMedina Mayurqa was wiped off the map a couple of times. One of the greatest destructions is associated with the Pisan and Catalan armies in collaboration with Florence.
Fuera del mapaMedina Mayūrqa fue arrasada un par de veces. Un episodio especialmente devastador fue el que protagonizó la armada organizada por pisanos y catalanes, con la colaboración de Florencia.
The pyramids of NubiaThese pyramids reminiscent of inverted icicles or Surrealist paintings have already appeared twice here at Río Wang.
A trip“In the northern part of our region – writes photographer Ed Khitry from the Ukrainian Rovno – there is Europe’s longest narrow-gauge railway, affectionaly nicknamed «the cuckoo» or «little train».”
After siege 2.Robert Capa and John Steinbeck in their beautiful report book A Russian Journal wrote impartially and with great warmth on the everyday life of the inhabitants of a resurgent Russia.
After siege 1.Sixty-six years ago the siege of Budapest came to an end. When journalist Zoltán Horváth asked a Soviet soldier about the conditions, he answered “it is worse than Stalingrad”.
Good wishesWe have already seen that the short but intense period of the Soviet-Nazi liaison gave to the world not only such long-term achievements as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Sant LlorençThe Ermita de Sant Llorenç was built as a chapel in the 13th century on the most important point of Mallorca’s northwestern corner, along the road coming from the sanctuary and pilgrimage site of Lluc.
Year of the rabbitDuring the great wave of Chinese immigration to Hungary in the early 90s you could not find a single Chinese into whom a single Hungarian dish could be spoon-fed.
The seaThe little child walking all over the seashore
always finds one among the pebbles
which has belonged to him since ever
and could have never belonged to anyone else.
Chanson de la merThe following commentary to the above image was written by the Occitan musician Miquèu Montanaro originally in French, accompanied by the Hungarian Ghymes from Slovakia and the Serbian Vujicsics from Hungary.
Holy mountainIn Mallorca it snows once in twenty years, and the fine snow settling on the jagged rocks and graceful Mediterranean vegetation within minutes changed the mountain range into Chinese.
ErmitaThe hermitage, named after the Trinity, is rather just visited by the people from the neighborhood on Sunday mornings, when a Mass is held in the chapel.
BalanceGood marriages are made in heaven, but lasting ones must be made on earth. This was well known by Ivan Afanasevich Kurzhupov, when to his marriage ad he also included the balance of his property
Quatre NacionsThe building next to the Bacardi passage, the Hotel Quatre Nacions also owes its present to Francesc Daniel Molina i Casamajó.
Passatge BacardiThe Passatge Bacardi, which connects the Rambla with Barcelona’s secret heart, the Plaza Real was built by the same Molina i Casamajó, chief architect of the town’s urban planning, who also designed the whole Plaza Real.
GamblingIt’s almost a hundred years now that these people have been staring fixedly at the lens of the long-destroyed camera. And what a hundred years!
EscorcaIn the mountain inns of Mallorca you still often find such kind of curiosities, trophies of mountain goats, stuffed black vultures, the photo galleries of the monsters born in the surrounding manors.
EscorcaEn algunos restaurantes de la montaña de Mallorca encontramos cosas como esta cabra o un buitre negro disecados que, junto a la pequeña galería de monstruos más o menos domésticos.
Prison cardsThe following deck, published in the catalog of the Petersburg Card Museum, was actually drawn in the prison for the purpose of playing, perhaps sometime between 1967 and 1981.
Restoration
Room with a viewThe first piece of Matteo Pericoli’s series launched in the Guardian with the title “Rooms with a View” is, and with good reason, Orhan Pamuk’s wonderful view on the Bosphorus in Istanbul.
In defenseDo you remember when a year ago we presented an open letter written by the vice-president of the co-governing right wing party of Slovakia in defense of the Slovak language which she felt to be in a serious danger?
DefensaQuizá recuerden que hace un año presentamos una carta abierta de la vicepresidenta del ala derecha nacionalista gobernante por entonces en coalición en Eslovaquia, donde defendía la lengua eslovaca por verla seriamente amenazada.
In defenseRecorden que ara fa un any vam presentar una carta oberta de la vicepresidenta de l’ala dreta nacionalista governant en aquells dies en coalició a Eslovàquia on defensava la llengua eslovaca perquè la veia seriosament amenaçada?
Mr. PresidentIf You are called Dmitry Anatolyevich, the Google translator will automatically call You Mr. President.
Under the skinBut the most peculiar feature of his work are these skulls. Skulls and skeletons and more skulls and more skeletons. They are the prevalent images of José Guadalupe Posada.
Debajo de la pielPero lo peculiar son estas calaveras. Calaveras, esqueletos y más calaveras y esqueletos dan la imagen más extendida de José Guadalupe Posada.
A year has passedIt is one year today that on the night from 2 to 3 January the Muromtsev dacha was burnt down in Moscow’s Tsaritsyno district.
ValcerOne-way, as if a New Year’s greeting, has posted some beautiful old pictures on violin players, thus giving me an excuse to publish some long-preserved photos as well as the most beautiful song I have ever heard on a fiddler.
Double exposureThe name of Ilya Ilf, if known to anybody, is mainly known from the two acclaimed satires of the 1920s and 30s, Twelve chairs and The little golden calf.
One year of gardenLate in the autumn of 2009 Algeier Wendy, the editor in chief of the prestigious Hungarian Kertbarát Magazin (The Garden Lover’s Magazine) wrote me to congratulate to my gardening blog.
El-QasrBefore arriving to Mut, the most populous center of the oasis of Dakhla in the Egyptian Western Desert is the little medieval jewel of El-Qasr.
Al-QasrAntes de llegar a Mut, el centro más poblado del Oasis de Dakhla, en el Desierto Occidental de Egipto, está la pequeña joya medieval de Al-Qasr.
Two seriesTime’s Chariot (Ehsan Amini) passes through the main square of Isfahan disguised as a tourist cab, between the familiar scenery and the always cheerful and sociable Isfahanians.
It’s winterOne of the finest examples of the winter metaphor comes from Iran, from one of the greatest Iranian poets of the 20th century, Mehdi Akhavan Sales (1928-1990), of whom we have already translated some poems.
A piece of historyTo be Transylvanians means to be Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Armenians, Calvinists, Lutherans, Jews and Unitarians; it means to be cheek by jowl Romanians, Hungarians, Slavs, Saxons, Armenians.
Un pezzo di storiaEssere transilvani vuol dire essere ortodossi, cattolici romani e armeni, calvinisti, evangelici, ebrei, unitaristi; vuol dire essere gomito a gomito romeni, ungheresi, slavi, sassoni, armeni.
Old Christmases
The seaThis was the title of the book from which, more than thirty-five years ago, I first learned what the sea is.
Cartes de visiteThe complex ritual of the visiting cards became an integral part of the etiquette of the European aristocracy in the 18th century.
Origins“Others talk about “roots”. I do not use this word. I do not like the term “roots”, even less the image. Roots penetrate deep into the earth, wiggle in the mud, they fulfill themselves in the dark.”
Wisława Szymborska: Possibilities
Cards as literatureThe novel written in the form of a deck recalls some other games in which cards and literature meet each other.
Szék24 August, St. Bartholomew’s Day is a day of mourning not only for the Calvinists of France, but also for those of Szék (Sic). It was on this day that the Tartars burned the town in 1717.
Interior castleToday, on the feast of Saint John of the Cross we have completed the Hungarian translation of the Interior castle by Saint Teresa of Ávila, the greatest work of Christian mysticism.
Linguistic recordFifteen years ago when we came to this village, the old people still spoke among themselves in Slovak, or as they told, in “Tót”.
Door on the Grodzka
Red sludgeTwenty-one years after the change of regime the Ministry of Justice discovered a great number of Communist-themed works of art in their warehouses.
HomewardThe windows of the recently opened second floor auditorium of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences overlook the Danube and the Castle of Buda. The scene is a serious competitor of the lecturers.
AlterAlthough Ivan Olbracht (1882-1952) was born in Northern Bohemia, he was the most significant writer of Subcarpathia between the two world wars. Between 1931 and 1936 he lived in these mountains.
Dissolving“Byale (Biała Podlaska, Lublin province), 1926. Father and son. To protect himself from the Evil One, Leyzer Bawół, the blacksmith, will not say how old he is, but he must be over one hundred.”
Hurdy-gurdyAlter Kacyzne (1885-1941) was born in the Kresy – the eastern region of Poland which after WWII was annected by the Soviet Union – just like Kipnis. He was also a writer, poet, journalist, and photographer.
“How deep is the ocean”The compound title, Leviathan, or, The Whale, seems to refer to those two aspects that man has always seen in this animal: a monster which is as terrible as unfamiliar, or a mere object of business.
«How deep is the ocean»El título disyuntivo, Leviatán, o la ballena, parece remitir a los dos aspectos que el hombre ha visto en el animal siempre que se le ha acercado: un monstruo tan temible como desconocido, o un puro objeto comercial.
A rose from SóllerMaryam Akhondy: ساکی (The wine-waiter, by Rumi). From the CD سرمست Drunkenness (2010)
AbracadabraLa etimología de este ensalmo que abre puertas y revela secretos indescifrables, al menos en los cuentos fantásticos, es tan incierta como sujeta a numerosas interpretaciones y teorías.
AbracadabraThis spell is used to open up arcane doors and to reveal hidden secrets, at least in works of fiction. Its etymology is uncertain, although it has plenty of theories.
Mare nostrum in NovemberThe Bellver Castle, as seen from the coast of Can Perantoni, still manages to dominate a city which has systematically devored the old neighborhoods.
Nuestro mar, en noviembreEl Castillo de Bellver aún consigue dominar una ciudad que ha devorado los antiguos barrios de El Terreno, Santa Catalina, Es Jonquet y la dársena de Can Barbarà.
OrigamiThe ruined concrete coasts of the Black Sea reminded Komaváry of the coasts of the Japanese sea ruined by the concrete.
Black Sea of concrete“The first thing you notice by the sea is the concrete. Kilometres of grey blocks sometimes painted in blue and yellow – the national colors of Ukraine.”
Estampitas“Estampitas” literally means “small prints”, but in everyday life it is used for the popular little holy images used as bookmarks in prayer books or distributed by the priest after the Mass to the altar boys.
I did not say thatThere was a king who had a horse that he loved so much. The horse fell ill, and the king called the surgeon to tell whether the disease could be cured.
Yo no lo he dichoEsto era un rey que tenía un caballo al que quería mucho. El caballo cayó enfermo y el rey llamó al veterinario para que le dijera si la dolencia que sufría se podría curar.
Unde malum?The very first morning of the twentieth century found Sándor Kégl at his writing desk in the mansion of Szentkirálypuszta.
BicyclesWe have already written that nobody is more sensitive than the Iranian photographer. Perhaps only the Iranian female photographer.
Stone at the end of the worldEach time we go to Galicia we admire the granite of the buildings, the strength of the rough stone cut into large blocks, giving a feeling of weight and eternal stability to the constructions and pavements.
La piedra del fin del mundoEn todas las ocasiones en que vamos a Galicia nos admira el granito de los edificios, la solidez de la piedra áspera que, cortada a grandes bloques, da una sensación de peso y aposentamiento eterno a las construcciones y los pavimentos.
An Ottoman shoeboxDeniz Kızı (“Mermaid”) Eftelya (1891-1939), legendary singer of Istanbul: Kadıköy’lü.
Slaves of the momentThe Mexican Agustín Víctor Casasola, with the intermittent help of his brother Miguel, began to set up around 1900 one of the most important photographic archives for the history of a country.
Esclavos del momentoEl mexicano Agustín Víctor Casasola, con la ayuda intermitente de su hermano Miguel, empezó a recoger, al filo de 1900, uno de los archivos fotográficos más relevantes para la historia de un país.
Chronicler of the CaucasusFor now, however, we start the story along the less known Russian thread, with the masters who started taking pictures in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and also reached Persia and Anatolia.
День мертвыхДачный поселок Матяшфелд был основан в 1887 году, тогда еще за пределами Будапешта, представителями крупной буржуазии – ассоциацей дачевладелцев города.
The day of the deadThe summer colony Mátyásföld was founded in 1887, at that time still beyond the boundaries of Budapest, by the upper middle class cottage owner’s association of the city.
Images of the EastOn 28 October 1839 the five-language – Turkish, Armenian, Greek, Arabic and French – Istanbul newspaper Takvim-i Vekayi announced the discovery of photography to the peoples of the Ottoman empire.
A questionIt had been well known since the works of St. Augustine and St. Isidor of Seville that every language came from the Hebrew Ursprache of the Paradise which was divided only after the enterprise of Babel.
Una preguntaEs algo que llega hasta el Renacimiento repitiéndose desde los textos de San Agustín y San Isidoros de Sevilla: todas las lenguas derivan de una Ursprache hebrea hablada en el Paraíso.
Clan towersWe have recently reported on the newbie blogger President General Yunus-bek Yevkurov’s having invited to Ingushetia the cream of Moscow’s bloggers who then published fascinating illustrated reports.
Good to eatIn Lubbock we ate rattlesnake. There they take the maximum advantage of these reptiles: they make boots, belts, jackets, shirts and amulets of their skin, and paperweights of their heads.
Bueno para comerEn Lubbock comimos serpiente cascabel. Allí se aprovecha absolutamente todo de estos reptiles: con su piel se hacen botas, cinturones, cazadoras; llaveros con el crótalo, amuletos y pisapapeles.
WaysIf you do not want to go by flight from Istanbul to Tehran, the simplest means is the train or the bus which covers the distance of 2700 kilometers in three or one and half days, respectively.
Man with a catSándor Kégl already at high school read all literature in the original – Latin, Greek, German, English, French, Italian – languages, and he also acquired Russian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Spanish and Portuguese.
Un hombre con un gatoSándor Kégl ya en el instituto podía leer a los autores en sus lenguas propias –latín, griego, alemán, inglés, francés, italiano–, y más tarde aprendió ruso, holandés, danés, sueco, español y portugués.
Fugit hora
The day that I leaveCarlos Di Fulvio (*1939): The chacarera, on a Quechua melody, sung by Sebastiano Solís. From the CD El Gaucho, el Inca y la Nueva Música (1982).
Khaled Nabi’s cemeteryThis has reminded us of another peculiar cemetery with unusual gravestones in Northern Iran, also left behind by an unknown people.
Reality showIn recent days, a major political drift took place in the Russian capital. Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has come into conflicts on several occasions with President Medvedev.
Ingush reportA new fellow blogger has joined the most popular Russian blog network ЖЖ. Then new blogger is none but the Ingush General Yunus-bek Yevkurov, Hero of the Russian Federation and President of Ingushetia.
Pollença
Lwów, un otoñoHace un año, hacia el 22 de septiembre recordábamos la extraña parada militar conjunta de los ejércitos nazi y soviético que tuvo lugar setenta años atrás, en 1939, en la ciudad polaca de Brześć.
Autumn in LwówA year ago around September 22 we wrote about the military parade held seventy years earlier, in 1939 by the Nazi and the Soviet army together in the recently occupied Polish city of Brześć.
A borI have the luck to be in that privileged moment of learning a foreign language in which, crawling like a baby, for the very first time you explore a totally unknown environment.
A borHo la fortuna di trovarmi in quella fase privilegiata dell’aprendimento di una lingua straniera in cui, gattonando come i bambini, si esplora per la prima volta un ambiente totalmente ignoto.
Odessa, the city of marvelsOdessa, the ghost city was recently revealed at Río Wang through the photos of Vsevolod Vlasenko. The genial Ilya Varlamov, that is Zyalt now discloses us another, rather living Odessa.
Tbilisi“If Georgians had enough force and wish, they could transform their city into one of those Medieval Dutch or German towns on the Christmas cards. What a pity they do not have them.”
Солдатские могилыТеперь и я хотел бы сделать свой вклад в эти сведения сообщением о двух советских солдатских кладбищах в Венгрии, о которых знают только те, кто живут неподалёку, а может не знают даже они.
Soldier’s gravesNow I would like to contribute to these data with the presentation of two Soviet soldier’s cemeteries in Hungary, only known by those living nearby – or neither by them.
Iron and fireAlthough it was Sunday, the 77 year old blacksmith Vladimir Khutaba and his eldest son Daur opened the shop for the guest’s sake, and began to prepare the most important iron piece in a traditional Abkhaz household.
FilantropíaAdolf Hitler murió, sin la menor duda, y está bien enterrado. Concretamente bajo una losa vertical en el cementerio judío de Bucarest desde el 26 de octubre de 1892.
PhilanthropyAdolf Hitler has in fact died and has been buried. In the Jewish cemetery of Bucharest, on October 26, 1892.
Veritas filia Dei 4. Daughter of GodFritz Saxl in his essay quoted in the previous chapter, discussing the story of the Renaissance topos of Truth revealed by Time, devoted special attention to the occurrences of the motif in England.
Smoke“Dov’è gran fuoco, è gran fumo”, where there is great fire, there is also great smoke, asserts Paolo Giovio in the motto of the emblem of Odet de Foix.
Veritas filia Dei 3. Time and TruthThis poem presents another Renaissance face of Truth. It does not describe the Truth that shines by itself like the sun, but the hidden or oppressed Truth which has to be revealed by Time.
Faces from the pastWe have spent seven days of masterclass by taking photos in Uglich and around – writes Nikolai Gontar –, and in the outskirts I came across this unambiguously historical building in sharp contrast to its surroundings.
Veritas filia Dei 2. The naked TruthAfter the overview of the edition history and context of Ithika ieropolitika (1712) let us return to the image that first caught our attention: the representation of Truth.
TantourAccording to the Al Mashriq site, this headdress was worn by the married women of the Druze villages around Deir el Qamar, who usually received it of their husbands on the day of their wedding.
Damascus annoDamascus in the 19th century was a sleepy provincial town of the Ottoman empire. It was endowed with some importance only by the meeting of the two main roads of Meccan pilgrimage coming from Anatolia and Persia, respectively.
Quod erat demonstrandumDesde los inicios del siglo XVI la anatomía fue uno de los instrumentos —al lado de los mapas con retícula, la perspectiva central, el derecho romano…— que contribuyeron a homogeneizar el mundo.
Quod erat demonstrandumBeginning with the 16th century, anatomy was one of the tools – along with world maps with graticule, central perspective or Roman law – that contributed to the homogenization of the world.
Veritas filia Dei 1. The IthikaSome years ago in Moscow, while browsing among the bookstalls on the street, a strange image attracted our attention.
The first day in the school…in Persia, Mazandaran province near the Caspian Sea. Photos by Hamed Khurshidi.
Come with us to…
Atlantis
Bestiary
Bohemia+Prague
Books, exhibitions, music, film
Brave old world
Caucasus
Cemeteries
Crimea
Get to know the
Images of the East
Lightwriting
Lwów/Lemberg
Mallorca
Message on the wall
The Museum of Propaganda
Odessa
Paper Museum
Persian letters
The Jewish heritage
2 comentarios:
This "back door" display and presentation is beautifully designed and extremely useful.
I too have had this problem with long posts and short pages, Studiolum. Had I your genius I would probably attempt to copy your solution to the problem. But this winter our weatherbeaten front steps have collapsed, and I hate to even consider trying to pick my way through the ruins round to the back door.
Alas, I do not possess your genius, thus admire it all the more.
Thank you for your kind words, Tom, but I’m sure that no genius is needed to tailor this back door to the size of your cottage. If you agree, I send you the scheme with a short explanation of the changeable parameters, and will be happy to assist you in installing it.
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