The American soldier

We have already seen, that some countries, which in times of peace so hardly give the passport to their own citizens, in time of war liberally distribute it even to the enemy, promising conditions worthy of man in the voluntary captivity, and return to their families after the war.


We 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. But it is certain that they knew well the two things which arouse the interest of the U.S. military.

Quyêṫ thâṅg = Certain victory. An U.S. military operation launched in March-April 1968

It was already the innovation of the Vietcong that for the conditions worthy of American man they also requested some military training in exchange.




We do not know how many U.S. soldiers took advantage of the tempting option, and to what extent their transferred knowledge contributed to the victory of the Vietcong. In fact, to be honest, we do not even know whether these life-saving passports, which in recent months have been seen around the American net, reached them at all. Indeed, in a Russian site publishing the last document on the basis of a U.S. source, the first commenter calls the attention that the picture of the girl is identical with the third photo of a contemporary Thailandese beauty site. And although we know that Far Eastern women long retain their youth, nevertheless it is almost forty years that these passports have become obsolete.


We also do not know, if the passports are contemporary counterfeits, whether they were made by Vietnamese to mock the Americans’ greed, or by the Americans, built on the topos of Asian prostitution.

But in order we should not leave completely empty-handed, here you are at least the song of Bulat Okudzhava on the American soldier, a tangible historical document, with an actual historical past, almost contemporary to the above passes.


Bulat Okudzsava: Song on the American sodier

Возьму шинель, и вещмешок, и каску, В защитную окрашенные окраску, Ударю шаг по улочкам горбатым… Как просто стать солдатом, солдатом. Забуду все домашние заботы, Не надо ни зарплаты, ни работы – Иду себе, играю автоматом, Как просто быть солдатом, солдатом! А если что не так - не наше дело: Как говорится, родина велела! Как славно быть ни в чем не виноватым, Совсем простым солдатом, солдатом.

I put on the jacket, helmet, backpack, the camouflage-colored camouflage, I beat up the crooked streets with my steps: how simple it is to become a soldier! I forget all troubles at home, I don’t worry for salary and job, I go alone, playing with my machine-gun: how simple it is to be a soldier! And if something goes wrong – not our business: as they say: the homeland ordered it! How beautiful, not to be guilty of anything, only a soldier, a simple soldier.

However, the philologist wakes up in you, and after some research he reveals that the title of the song was originally just Song on the soldier. On the soldier, which in the Soviet Union of course meant the Soviet soldier. But the Soviet soldier is not like that. The Soviet soldier fights for the freedom of peoples. Thus the Soviet cultural policy banned the song. However, Okudzhava’s audience still wanted to hear it, and they shouted to the anxious master in the stage: “Let’s hear the song about the American soldier!” Consequently, the song got the green light.

However, on the American soldier we still know nothing.

The joys of Polish

We have already seen, that Leo Rosten’s The Joys of Yiddish pays special attention to the interjections – aha! oyoyoy! feh! hoo-ha! nu! –, distinguishing up to fifteen or eighteen shades of meaning of them, and illustrating each with a fitting joke. For example, the word aha:

Mr. Sokoloff has had dinner for twenty years in the same restaurant on the Second Avenue. This evening, as always, he orders bouillon. The waiter brings it, and wants to go back, but Mr. Sokoloff addresses him: “Waiter!” – “Yes, please?” – “Be so kind to taste this soup.” – “But Mr. Sokoloff, you have come here for twenty years and you have never complained.” – “Please”, repeats Mr. Sokoloff obstinately, “taste this soup.” – “But what is the matter, Mr. Sokoloff?” – “Please taste it.” – “All right”, the waiter says. “But… a moment. Where is the spoon?” – “Aha!”, says Mr. Sokoloff.

In the same post we have also seen that The Joys of Yiddish, this magical little book is able to inspire authors even without reading it, such as Tamás Raj, the chief rabbi of Budapest, to write his 100+1 Yiddish words. Now we can see another example of this from the Polish grammar of the Assimil publisher, written by Barbara Kuszmider:

1. Proszę pana. Może pan pozwolić na chwilę? 2. Słucham, czym mogę służyć? 3. Czy może pan spróbować tej zupy? 4. A co, niedobra? Może podać inną? 5. Po prostu, proszę jej spróbować. 6. Nie smakuje panu? 7. Niech pan sam spróbuje. 8. Mamy inne dania. Zaraz podam kartę. 9. Nie, dziękuję. Nie chcę nic innego. 10. Polecam panu doskonały bigos. 11. Prosze tylko, żeby pan spróbował tej zupy. 12. No dobrze, skoro pan nalega… Ale jak mam spróbować, przecież nie ma łyżki!

1. Waiter, may I disturb you for a moment? 2. Of course. What can I do for you? 3. Would you please taste this soup? 4. Oh, is it not good? May I bring you another one? 5. No, simply taste it. 6. Don’t you like it, sir? 7. Just taste it, please. 8. We also have other dishes. I bring you the menu. 9. No, thanks. I do not want anything else. 10. May I suggest you a perfect pasta? 11. No, just be so kind to finally taste it. 12. Well, sir, if you insist so much… But how could I taste it, since there is no spoon!

It is just the punch line, the aha! perfectly closing the original dialogue, which is missing here. Although emotion words are not lacking in Polish either.


(The start-up photo represents the elegant Odessite Café Fanconi, a favorite restaurant of the Jewish businessmen at the turn of the century. The enlarged photo covers today one wall of the Jewish museum in Odessa. The spoon hanging on it is the only piece remaining from the original tableware, sent to the museum by the heirs of one of the café’s regulars from America; all the rest got lost during the revolution of 1917.)

How I became the Spanish translator of Eco

“The last time the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote about Río Wang”, I would begin so, with eyes modestly lowered watching for the effect.

But the problem is that the FAZ has not written about Río Wang. At least not with the name and URL.

Thus I begin by saying that in the FAZ literary supplement I came across the review on Umberto Eco’s new German book by Andreas Platthaus entitled “Wissen stinkt nicht” – “Knowledge does not stink.” I began to read it with excitement, as the review started with the title of a book – and dedicated half of the article to it – which caused me several hours of research two years ago when I was translating Eco’s The history of ugliness. It was La polychrésie de la race allemande, “The exaggerated need of defecation of the German race”. In fact, Eco quoted this title with polychesie which means nothing. At that time I came to the result that he had not seen the book, and he erroneously quoted its title from a catalog. The review of the FAZ now reported that the Spanish translator of Eco had encountered this problem, too, and he also went into the matter. I got extremely curious of his results.

Dieser Titel wiederum trieb den spanischen Übersetzer Ecos zu einer aufwendigen Internetrecherche an, weil er seinen Lesern im Gegensatz zu Eco eine Übersetzung des französischen Titels bieten wollte, diesen aber unverständlich fand. Schließlich bekam er Auskunft von einem russischen Kollegen über die richtige Schreibweise, und tatsächlich stieß er sogar noch auf einen weiteren Antiquariatskatalog, in dem die bislang einzige bekannte ausführliche Wiedergabe des Bérillon-Aufsatzes zu finden war: „La polychrésie de la race allemande. Das übertriebene Darmleerungsbedürfnis der deutschen Rasse. Superlienteria germanica. – Extrait des Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société de Médecine de Paris, séance du 25 juin 1915. P., Maloine & fils, 1915. 24 × 16 cm, 20 p. Broché.“ Seitdem, so beklagt der spanische Übersetzer, sei dieser Eintrag aber wieder aus dem Netz verschwunden. Die Geschichte der Suche nach dem in mehrfacher Hinsicht verderbten Titel hätte Umberto Eco gefallen – und mutmaßlich kennt er ihr Ergebnis auch, denn in der gerade erschienenen Übersetzung seiner 2006 auf Italienisch publizierten Textsammlung „La memoria vegetale e altri scritti di bibliofilia“, die im Original noch von „La polychesie“ sprach, steht nun korrekt „La polychrésie“.

This title led also the Spanish translator of Eco to an exhaustive internet search, because he, in contrast to Eco, wanted to offer to his readers a translation of the French title which was incomprehensible to him. Finally he got information from a Russian colleague about the correct spelling, and then he even found another antique catalog including the hitherto only known detailed description of the title of Bérillon’s essay: “La polychrésie de la race allemande. Das übertriebene Darmleerungsbedürfnis der deutschen Rasse. Superlienteria germanica. – Extrait des Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société de Médecine de Paris, séance du 25 juin 1915. P., Maloine & fils, 1915. 24 × 16 cm, 20 p. Broché.” Since then, the Spanish translator complains, even this entry has disappeared from the net. The story of the search for the in many ways corrupt title would have delighted Umberto Eco – and presumably he even knows its result, as the recently published translation of his Italian anthology La memoria vegetale e altri scritti di bibliofilia of 2006 has now the correct “La polychrésie” instead of the original “La polychesie”.

To my greatest surprise I had to realize that this Spanish translator was – me. Platthaus must have been misled by the Spanish title of the blog – Poemas del río Wang – that led him to consider me a Spaniard. So far, so good. However, all the rest of his information is mistaken, too. The “Russian colleague” I found by chance did not know the correct spelling either, he only coined a genial false etymology in support of the wrong one. The catalog entry with the correct polychrésie was suggested to me first by a French linguistic quiz, and then a search for the words “Berillon+race allemande”. All this was written down in my post schwarz auf weiss, citations and live links included.

Platthaus gives the subtitle “Lohnende Internetrecherchen” – “Internet research pays off” to the short summary of my research. However, his article illustrates the fact that superficiality, transmission of half-understood information and hints to his sources without name and reference also pay off. Unwissen stinkt nicht?

Los molinos de Dios

Ha pasado algún tiempo desde que la edición húngara de GEO Magazine, en aras de una altruista difusión popular de la sabiduría –ya saben: lo que importa no es quién escribe, «basta con que la narración no se aparte un punto de la verdad»– ofreció un ejemplar ejercicio de corta-y-pega en su artículo sobre Aurel Stein, el gran explorador húngaro de la Ruta de la Seda, a partir de las imágenes y textos del web que preparamos en Studiolum sobre el fondo que el propio Stein legó a la Colección Oriental de la Academia Húngara de Ciencias. Omitieron cuidadosamente el nombre de Studiolum y el de la Academia, quizá para evitarnos cargar con los errores de bulto que cometieron en su artículo.

En el transcurso de dos meses, dos cartas del Jefe de la Colección (de tono muy educado) y luego otras dos del Director de la Biblioteca (un poco más encendidas) se enviaron infructuosamente al registro de entrada de la versión húngara de la revista, seguramente algo similar a la imagen de arriba. Las cartas solo pedían al equivalente de la señora de la foto que en el siguiente número de GEO fueran tan amables de publicar el nombre de la Biblioteca donde se guarda el único archivo gráfico relevante de Stein.

Pero todos tenemos un jefe. Y fue desde la sede principal de GEO en Hamburgo donde, tras un breve silencio estupefacto al oír la historia, acabaron tomando cartas en el asunto. A la mañana siguiente, llegó la respuesta del editor jefe de la edición húngara.

La causa de esta incómoda situación no puede explicarse apelando al inminente cierre de la publicación de la revista, por tanto no puedo ni excusarlo.

No, por Dios. La revista ha tenido dos cierres de redacción desde la primera carta. Qué desastre de acto de contrición.

La edición de agosto de la revista acaba de llegar a los quioscos. Una nota al final de las cartas dice:

Para reparar nuestra falta, corregimos ahora esta información: Colección Oriental de la Biblioteca de la Academia Húngara de Ciencias. La web de esta institución es: http://dunhuang.mtak.hu

La página principal de la institución es, en realidad, http://www.mtak.hu, mientras que la dirección de arriba es justamente la de las páginas de Stein. Esto remata definitivamente lo innecesario de leer el artículo de GEO: mucho mejor es ir en su lugar a las páginas originales (en inglés y español), ya que GEO ha sido tan gentil de publicar su dirección de internet. Pronto aparecerá, además, una edición ampliada con el material completo de la exposición fotográfica de Hong-Kong que abarca toda la vida de Aurel Stein.

La fuente de la ilustración que encabeza esta entrada es la edición de agosto de 2008 de la versión húngara de GEO Magazine.

Mills of God

It was already a long while ago that the Hungarian edition of the GEO Magazine, in the sign of altruistic popular instruction – the point is not who wrote it, only that it should be true – cut and paste their article about the great Hungarian discoverer of the Silk Road Aurel Stein from the images and text of the site prepared by Studiolum about the legacy of Stein preserved in the Oriental Collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. They have only omitted the name of Studiolum and of the Academy, perhaps in order we should not be charged with the superficiality and gross misunderstandings of the article.

In the course of two months, two letters from the Head of the Collection (in a very polite tone) and then two more from the Director of the Library (somewhat more irritated) finished in some registrar’s office similar to the above one at the Magazine, although they only asked of the local equivalent of this lady to be so kind to publish subsequently, in the next edition the name of the Library where the uniquely valuable archive photos of Stein are preserved.

But everyone has a boss, and in the Hamburg mother editorial office of GEO, after a moment of stunned silence, they promised immediate action. In the next morning a reply arrived from the editor in chief of the Hungarian edition.

The emergence of this uncomfortable situation cannot be excused by any reference to the imminent deadline of the magazine, therefore I do not even apologize.

No, no, for God’s sake. The more so as the magazine has seen even two deadlines since the first letter. I do not even wish it to my enemy.

The August edition of the magazine has just arrived to the newspaper stands. The disclaimer at the end of the letters of the correspondents ends like this:

In order to remedy our fault, now we correct this oversight: Oriental Collection of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The homepage of the institution is: http://dunhuang.mtak.hu.

The homepage of the institution is in the reality http://www.mtak.hu, while the above address belongs to the Stein site. This illustrates well why it is not worth to read the article of the GEO. Read the Stein pages instead (in English and in Spanish) if already GEO was so kind to publish the address. Soon an enlarged edition will come out as well, with the complete material of the Hongkong photo exhibition embracing the whole life of Aurel Stein.

The source of the illustration of our post is the August 2008 edition of the Hungarian version of the GEO Magazine.

Discreción

Hemos encontrado una prueba irrefutable de la popularidad de las publicaciones de Studiolum: la edición húngara de junio de 2008 de GEO magazine, dedicado a La Ruta de la Seda, incluye un artículo de dos páginas sobre Aurel Stein, ilustrado con tres fotos extraídas de la página sobre este personaje (http://dunhuang.mtak.hu) que preparamos entre Studiolum y la Biblioteca de la Academia Húngara de Ciencias, exactamente de la primera y la segunda página.

Lástima que este artículo no contribuirá a la bien merecida fama de nuestra página porque solo nosotros sabemos de dónde proceden las imágenes. En efecto, el autor del artículo Péter Erdély Eszkimó olvidó con todo cuidado mencionar su fuente.

Y ¿cómo podemos estar seguros? Muy simple. Las dos primeras imágenes eran inéditas hasta que fueron publicadas por nosotros, mientras que la tercera, el retrato de Aurel Stein, es en realidad una foto en grises que nosotros convertimos en sepia para darle ese aire de fotografía antigua. Además, las únicas copias de las dos primeras están guardadas en la Colección Oriental de la Academia. Habría sido un bonito detalle mencionarnos, aunque solo fuera en un pie de foto con tipografía menor.

Discretion

The popularity of the publications of Studiolum is indicated by the fact that the printed Hungarian version of the June 2008 edition of the GEO magazine, dedicated to the Silk Road, also included a two-pages article on Aurel Stein, illustrated with three photos taken over from the Stein page (http://dunhuang.mtak.hu) prepared by the Studiolum and the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, right from the first and the second page, respectively.

What a pity that this article will not contribute to the growth of the well-deserved popularity of our page, for only we know where these images come from. In fact, the author of the article Péter Erdélyi Eszkimó carefully forgot to indicate their source.

And where do we know it from? Very simple. The first two images out of the three were published by us for the first time, while the third one, the portrait of Aurel Stein is in the reality just as black as the other two: we have converted it into this sepia tone for the sake of an old-fashioned impression. By the way, the only copies of the first two ones are preserved in the Oriental Collection of the Academy. At least this much should have been fair to be mentioned in a caption in small print.