The 14th century Marathi woman poet and saint Janābāi wrote these verses.
Marathi is yet another language I have to learn. It's actually one of the longest standing languages on my list, ever since I made a friend back in university whose mother language was Marathi. I've been adulterous, chasing after other languages.
In another news, I tried out for the Etxepare video contest held conjointly with the 21st Korrika campaign.
Korrika is a race criss-crossing all of the Basque Country. It begins on the 4th of April and lasts until the 14th. The start is Gares in Navarra and the endpoint is Gasteiz.
The aim to promote the Basque language and raise funds for the Basque immersion language schools, the ikastolak. Thousands of people will run for their language. It is literally one of the most important cultural events in the Basque Country. It was the first of its kind when it got started in 1980 and has since been copied for numerous other languages in the world:
Ar Redadeg - Breton Correllengua - Catalan Correlingua - Galician La Passem - Occitan Lefkantun - Mapuche Sprochrenner - Alsacien Ras yr laith - Welsh Rith - Irish
This year is also special in that the Korrika pays tribute to Txillardegi, a Basque linguist and author who was one of the key impulsors behind the creation of the unified Basque dialect, Euskara batua, which celebrates its 50th birthday. So much progress has been made since those days. Some much more needs to be done.
He was also one of the co-founders of what would become the terrorist organisation ETA. A brief word about Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (the Basque Country and Freedom). It was originally an underground student organisation known as Ekin, created during the darkest days of the Franco dictatorship. The youth who formed Ekin looked at the PNV (the Nationalist Basque Party) in exile in France and was frustrated by its political irrelevance. It aimed to do things like kale borroka - direct action in the streets. After their mostly peaceful activism got met with a brutal crackdown from the state, their direct action soon degenerated into killing police officers, soldiers, politicians and innocent people. One of these days, I will say more about ETA. And the response. It was during the democracy that the Spanish government created paramilitary death-squads to fight ETA and terrorise the Basques in return.
Me and other people learning Basque at the Basque conversation class made and submitted a video. If we win, we will be able to study for free at a barnategi, an intensive immersion school. I don't have much hopes for winning, but it was fun to make. And I can't deny that it would be a dream of mine to go study Basque in the Basque Country. I'll let you know what happens...
Years ago, I read the Theaetetus in my Greek class and this passage has always stayed with me. To me, this is the ideal of being a good teacher. Helping the student give birth to what is already inside them. To the Socrates of Plato, what is already inside of the students is the truth, so a teacher cannot really teach anything. And claiming to be able to do so is mere charlatanism.
By the way, I'm very sympathetic to the Sophists who Plato's Socrates excoriates, and who have thus been reviled by the Western philosophical tradition for millennia. Unjustly in my opinion, let's read more of the Sophists! More on this later.
To be a good language teacher, however, might mean giving students the tools so that they themselves can learn the language on their own. So that the student can look at their language and croon 'my baby'.
All that is true of the midwives, is also true of my art of midwifery in all other respects, except I practice midwifery on men, not women, and in that I do the rounds when their souls are in labor, not their bodies. But the greatest aspect of my art is that it can examine in every way whether the mind of the the young man is birthing a mere image and false, or one that is fruitful and true.
Because I have this as well in common with the midwives. I am sterile in terms of wisdom, and on this point many have already criticised me: I ask everyone else, but I don't express my views on anything, due to not having any wisdom. And they criticise with good reason. But the cause of my behaviour is this: God forces me to practice midwifery, but has forbidden me from giving birth.
I am not at all wise then, neither do I possess any discovery, like a son born from my own soul. But my associates, though some may seem unlearned at first, all of them (to whom God grants it so) make great advances as our company goes on. And not only they think so, but everyone else as well. It's clear that they did this, not by ever learning anything from me, but because they have found many beautiful things in themselves, and birthed it themselves. The delivery however is by God and me.
Acadians seem stuck between Charybdis and Scylla, the daily war to save their language and culture from being assimilated into the English speaking majority, but also between a suffocating normativity that haunts their conscious : do we speak 'good' French or 'bad' French? I'm glad that many have abandoned this fetishism of the norm and embraced the creative, liberative power of their native dialects. And what beautiful French they speak...nothing more beautiful than a person who is confident and proud of who they are.
I have also been listening to an Acadian podcast, Ju dans un mess.
Article 3 of the Spanish Constitution (1978) states that:
El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. Todos los españoles tienen el deber de conocerla y el derecho a usarla. Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas de acuerdo con sus Estatutos. La riqueza de las distintas modalidades lingüísticas de España es un patrimonio cultural que será objeto de especial respeto y protección.
Castillian is the official state language of Spain. All Spaniards have the duty to know it and the right to use it. The other languages of Spain will also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities, in accordance with their Statutes of Autonomy. The richness of the different linguistic modalities of Spain is a cultural patrimony which will receive special respect and protection.
Now compare this to the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country (1979). Article 6 says:
Euskara, Euskal herriaren hizkuntza propioa, hizkuntza ofiziala izango da Euskadin, gaztelania bezala, eta bertako biztanle guztiek dute bi hizkuntzok jakiteko eta erabiltzeko eskubidea.
The Basque Country's own language, Basque, will be the official language in Euskadi, like Castillian, and all of its inhabitants have the right to use and to know these two languages.
Curious the difference no? The Basque Country's legal framework does not say that inhabitants have the DUTY to speak Basque, whereas all Spanish citizens are told that they have a duty know Spanish in the Spanish Constitution. Why?
The only exception to this general discriminatory state of affairs is the Statute of Autonomy of 2006 of Catalonia.
And it is very important. It was one of the important flashpoints in the rise of Catalonian independentism among the general public in Catalonia.
Many of its proposed articles were struck down as unconstitutional. This one wasn't, thank God, although it was vigorously challenged. Section 2 of Article 6 states that:
El català és la llengua oficial de Catalunya. També ho és el castellà, que és la llengua oficial de l'Estat espanyol. Totes les persones tenen el dret d'utilitzar les dues llengües oficials i els ciutadans de Catalunya tenen el dret i el deure de conèixer-les. Els poders públics de Catalunya han d'establir les mesures necessàries per a facilitar l'exercici d'aquests drets i el compliment d'aquest deure. D'acord amb el que disposa l'article 32, no hi pot haver discriminació per l'ús de qualsevol de les dues llengües.
Catalan is the official language of Catalonia. Castillian is also the official language, which is also the official language of the Spanish State. All people have the right to use the two languages, and the citizens of Catalonia have the right and the duty to know them. The public institutions of Catalonia must establish the necessary measures to ease the exercise of these rights and the fulfilmment of this duty. In according with article 32, there can be no discrimination for the use of any of these two languages.
Obviously, I think it should be the DUTY of every person who lives and resides in the Basque Country, Galicia, Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, to KNOW Basque, Galician, Catalan. If it is a duty to learn Spanish, it should be the duty to learn the other official language. Is one language more official than the other?
Although I personally think that Article 6 of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia (2006) is a massive step forward, it is still within the framework of the original Constitution of 1978, and consequently it is restricted by Article 3: Spanish is THE official language of the nation-state. Other articles of the Catalonian Statute were struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court such as the Section 1 of Article 6, which stated that:
La llengua pròpia de Catalunya és el català. Com a tal, el català és la llengua d’ús normal i preferent de les administracions públiques i dels mitjans de comunicació públics de Catalunya, i és també la llengua normalment emprada com a vehicular i d’aprenentatge en l’ensenyament.”
Catalonia's own language is Catalan. As such, Catalan is the language of normal use and the preferred language of the public administrations and the media in Catalonia. It is also the language normally used as a vehicular language of learning and education.
That word, preferred, was declared to be in conflict with Article 3 of the Spanish Constitution...which itself is the basis for making Spanish THE preferred language of the entire Spanish nation! Personally, in a fight between two preferences, one preferring the overwhelmingly majority language and one preferring the minoritised language, I choose always the minoritised languages.
I don't want (this) Spain to exist. Spain is a constitutional monarchy that emerged organically out of the Franco dictatorship. Said constitution establishes the indivisibility of the Spanish nation and was literally forged with the army waiting in the wings, making sure things wouldn't go 'bad'. Ideally, I would like Spain to exist as a Republic, a federation of nations that freely choose to be in this federation. Given the difficulties involved in that actually happening - the Spanish political scene does not seem like it will shift anytime soon - I'm completely sympathetic to the independentists who would break up Spain altogether, and go for independence of Galicia and the Basque Country and the Catalan speaking nations. "Goodbye Spain, see you later!"
He also has an interesting proposal, that in a future independent Catalonian Republic, the only official language of the state should be Catalan (he doesn't mention what would happen with Aranese), just as the only official language of the Spanish state is Spanish. Tit for tat?
Luis Cernuda (1902-1963) was a Spanish poet. He fled Spain after the Spanish Civil War for his Republican beliefs and his homosexuality. He died in exile in Mexico. This poem is taken from 'Los placeres prohibidos', a collection of poetry that he wrote in 1931.
Si el hombre pudiera decir lo que ama,
si el hombre pudiera levantar su amor por el cielo
como una nube en la luz;
si como muros que se derrumban,
para saludar la verdad erguida en medio,
pudiera derrumbar su cuerpo,
dejando sólo la verdad de su amor,
la verdad de sí mismo,
que no se llama gloria, fortuna o ambición,
sino amor o deseo,
yo sería aquel que imaginaba;
aquel que con su lengua, sus ojos y sus manos
proclama ante los hombres la verdad ignorada,
la verdad de su amor verdadero.
.
Libertad no conozco sino la libertad de estar preso en alguien
cuyo nombre no puedo oír sin escalofrío;
alguien por quien me olvido de esta existencia mezquina
por quien el día y la noche son para mí lo que quiera,
y mi cuerpo y espíritu flotan en su cuerpo y espíritu
como leños perdidos que el mar anega o levanta
libremente, con la libertad del amor,
la única libertad que me exalta,
la única libertad por que muero.
.
Tú justificas mi existencia:
si no te conozco, no he vivido;
si muero sin conocerte, no muero, porque no he vivido.
If man could say what he loves If man could raise his love to the sky Like a cloud in the light;
If like walls that crumble down, To salute the truth that rises up from their midst He were able to demolish his body Leaving behind only the truth of his love, the truth of himself, which bears not the name of glory, fortune or ambition but love or desire, I would be that man who I imagined; That man who with his tongue, his eyes and his hands Announces before men the scorned truth, the truth of their true love.
Freedom, I know not except the freedom of being prisoner to another Whose name I cannot hear without shivering; Someone because of whom I forget this miserly existence Because of whom, day and night are whatever he wishes And my body and spirit float in his body and spirit Like wayward driftwood that the sea drowns or lifts Freely, with the freedom of love The only freedom that glorifies me The only freedom for which I die.
You justify my existence. If I do not know you, I have not lived. If I die without knowing you, I do not die, because I have not lived.
I said in a post while back that I wanted to talk about the musical connections between Galicia and Scotland and Ireland.
There was the awakening to a 'Celtic national consciousness' in the 19th century that took place in a variety of regions in Europe. Galicia, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Isle of Man, Cornwall, Brittany and a number of other places discovered or invented a kind of Celticness for themselves around this time. Don't let the word invented be interpreted pejoratively. All nationalisms are invented. Catalan nationalism arose pretty much at the same time, invented by a rising Catalan bourgeoisie.
Galicia is interesting because a Celtic language is not spoken there. The continental Celtic language spoken there died long ago, leaving some loanwords and topography and hydronyms in the Galician language. Of course there is an archaeological legacy left behind as well. But is that enough to be 'Celtic'? Is Galicia a Celtic nation? It's a topic of debate.
What is not up for debate however is that musicians from the north of Spain form an important part of the musical interchange between all these nations. Irish, Scottish, Breton, Welsh, Galician and other musicians play together, study with each other and visit each other's countries.
Port is a production of BBC Alba, the Scottish Gaelic channel from Scotland. It is also played on TG4, the Irish channel from Ireland. The objective is to explore traditional music from these countries, but for a change, they have gone to the European continent for three episodes.
The first episode is to Brittany, the second to Asturias, the third to Galicia. You will hear Breton, Asturian, Galician, Scottish Gaelic, Irish being spoken by the musicians as well as French, Spanish, English. The subtitles are in English.
The presenters are renowned musicians in their own right. Julie Fowlis, who grew up in the Outer Hebrides and whose first language is Scottish Gaelic. She came into the notice of the mainstream public after singing for the Disney-Pixar movie Brave, but she has been a titan of Scottish music for years before that. And Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, an Irish flautist whose first language is Irish. I'm less familiar with her but I'm sure she has an equally lustrous musical pedigree.
Brittany
29:00 The disput that Annie Ebrel and Erik Marchand sing is a genre of oral improvisation, a kind of spat going back and forth between two parties. Not only does it require master singers, it requires perfect fluency in Breton. Luckily you have the two things here.
48:00 The binioù (a bagpipe) and the bombard (double-reed pipe) are traditional Breton instruments, usually accompanying each other. They are gloriously loud.
52:30 Elsa Corre. She learned Breton as a child - thanks to the complete interruption of familial transmission - through the Diwan system of schools. Her song Hor Bro 'our Country' is a stirring song, even though I don't know what it means because I don't know Breton...
Incidentally, Elsa Corre travelled to Galicia and lived and studied music there. She also learned Galician. She forms a duo called Duo du Bas with Hélène Jacquelot, who comes from the Basque Country. Their most recent project was interviewing and recording the songs of immigrant women who came to the Breton port town of Douarnenez. Which they then sung themselves and released as a CD called Casseroles. There are 12 languages, including Spanish, Norwegian, Arabic, Portuguese, Réunion Creole. Definitely worth a look!
Robardig is the Breton song they sing here, it is the first song shown in the Port episode, led by Annie Ebrel. It belongs to the musical genre of gwerz, epic poetry that sometimes goes on for hundreds of verses.
I'll be honest, I am frustrated that I don't know Breton and that I can only have second hand access to this language through French. But I wouldn't have it any other way! Not being able to enjoy the culture without learning the language is the perfect motivator to learn any language. But I can't learn Breton at the moment, I have my hands full with Catalan, Galician and Basque and putting time into any other language will take away from these three.
A couple of days ago, I went to a calçotada. Now a calçoltada is not actually Mallorcan, it is not part of the culinary tradition of the island. It is a Catalan dish, to be specific, from the valley of Valls in the region of Tarragona. But it has become wildly popular everywhere. Including Mallorca.
A calçot is a kind of scallion. The name of the vegetable comes from the action of calçar, which is putting soil over the plant during its year long growing process. At least three times during the year. The point of doing so is that the sprout grows long and white, and it is this part that is eaten in the calçotada.
What does the calçotada involve? It involves stringing the calçots together end to end with a wire, then making a fire with wood and if possible, the branches of a wine growing vine, then braising the calçots over the fire.
They are eaten while still hot. You pull on the leafy end, and the burned sheaf just falls away, leaving the hot, white soft centre, which you dip into the sauce which you prepared before hand, called romesco. Our romesco sauce was home-made of course, the day before.
I was told before hand that 'sa calçotada és un menjar brut, no se pot menjar sense embrutar-se'. You can't eat it without getting dirty. You hoist the dipped calçot up into the air and lower it into your mouth.
Afterwards, you have botifarres (sausages) and for desert, oranges.
This was pretty much exactly how we did it, according to the tradition, except for not having vine branches to make the fire, we made do with firewood.
We had ice cream at the end which is made in a factory in my town. There is no one specific shop where it is sold, but this factory sources all the shops in my town and the surrounding towns, and it's delicious.
We had lots of wine, beer and music to accompany us of course.
One of the guests I got to talking to is a history teacher who retired last year after 45 years of teaching. She is Menorcan but now lives in Palma. I had a lovely discussion throughout the evening with her about her island, I got some excellent tips about what to eat and what to visit. Menorca is on my to visit list, every Mallorcan, Ibizan and Formenteran I have met raves about this island, how it is the last pure place, how beautiful it is, how good the food is. And something of the history as well. She is in her 60s and has more energy than I have at half her age. Her eyes sparkle with good-natured humour. Clearly retirement suits her. When I asked her what she was doing in her free time, she listed 'writing a book, dancing, music'. I wish I had her as a teacher. She has seen her students become parents become grandparents.
She grew up in the second half of the dictatorship. The first half was extremely harsh for Spaniards, as Spain was isolated diplomatically and economically after WWII and isolationist of its own choosing. Millions of Spaniards emigrated. The second half of the dictatorship, the Americans decided that a ultra-conservative anti-communist authoritarian dictatorship was a good ally in the Cold War and thawed relationships with Spain. At the same time, the Falangist old guard was replaced by Opus Dei technocrats. And in order to improve its image, the dictatorship loosened its grip on censorship, prisons, executions. To a limited extent of course.
It was during this time that she grew up. When she could not open a bank account. When she could not be in control over her finances, because her husband or father would do it for her. When at school, girls would learn to be useful wives for their husbands with classes of knitting and sewing. All this she told me whilst we were stuffing our faces with calçots.
Here is a culinary and nutritional program from IB3, Fred i calent, where the process of calçotada is explained for a Mallorcan audience from the beginning to the end.
It's curious to note that IB3 is packed full of shows that have to do with food or agriculture or fishing or artisanry, things that have something to do with the traditional cultures of the islands. Up until recently, if you wanted to hear the real Catalan of the islands and you did not know someone from the islands, these shows were your only recourse.
And that was a serious problem. Don't get me wrong, I love learning about the traditional cultures. In fact, I revel in it.
But it is also true that IB3 has historically, and suspiciously so, focused only on these traditional, homey aspects. Until recently, you would not have 'modern' shows dealing with modern issues being filmed in the colloquial Catalan of the islands.
I say suspiciously so because as I have previously talked about, it was in the previous governments' interest to folklorise the culture and the language and to promote Spanish as a language of employment and tourism. It was in their interest to show Catalan as suitable for farming, but not for say, solving a crime.
Thankfully that is changing. There is the crime procedural show Treufoc that is entirely in colloquial Mallorcan Catalan. There is Mai Neva a Ciutat, a show made by and for millenials and dealing with such ordinary topics such as existential angst, sex and living in a big city like Palma.
It's great that there are shows that valorise pig farming, but that's not going to be something that young people in the cities are going to be tuning in to watch. IB3 is the channel for the entire autonomous community, not just people over the age of 50 or 60. So let's see some more programming variety. So that not only do we see on TV Mallorcan or Formenteran or Ibizan Catalan being used to talk about how to cook a delicious dish, but also how to deal with just as ordinary but serious issues like 'how to solve global warming' and 'how do we advance feminism'. For more on this line, read this and this article.
I've talked before about a group of Mallorcan enthusiasts of the Occitan language. Thanks to them, I signed up to an Occitan class to begin shortly next month. Aside from the time and the place, I still don't know much about it. The teacher is a researcher from France, she has recently moved to Mallorca. I expect that the language of instruction will be in Occitan, given the linguistic similarities between Catalan and Occitan, and that we will be taught Languedocien. My real interest is in Aranese and Gascon, but I have no problem with learning a central dialect however. Any Occitan is better than no Occitan...
A curious song from Gatibu, a Basque band that is known more for rock than this kind of pop song. Still, it's quite catchy!
What's great about Gatibu is that they do NOT use standard Basque, they use the dialect of where they come from, Biscay. To be exact, they come from Gernika. I have bolded Biscayan forms and added standard equivalents as well as some notes that I thought might be interesting.
Suziri bi baño ez gara gu bata bestien aurrien. Melodi bat entzuten da urrunien
We are nothing more than two rockets One in front of the other A melody is heard far away
bi - in standard Basque, the number two is almost always found before the noun, not after. Biscayan dialect has it after. bata bestien aurrien - in Biscayan, you will see the vowel combination /ea/ in word final position become /ie/. bata bestien aurrien would be in standard Basque, bata bestiaren aurrean. urrunien - urrunean.
hurbiltzen zara esanez: gaba deike dekogu ta bere sekretuek geu bixontzat dire ie, ie, ie gabien.
You draw near, saying: The night is calling us And it's secrets, Are for us two At night.
gaba - gau deike - deitu dekogu - daukagu bixontzat - biontzat dire - dira gabien - gabean (gauan)
Suaren inguruen gorputz bi bat eginda bata bestearena ze polittek garen dantzan biluzik ta izerrak.
Around the fire Two bodies become one Each becoming the one of the other How beautiful we are Dancing naked And the stars
inguruen - inguruan polittek - polittak. In Biscayan, the distinction between ergative and nom-accusative collapses in the plural.
Burue bero begixek gorri zu eta ni gau txori bi ez dago katerik.
The head is hot. The eyes red You and me Two night birds There are no chains.
burue - burua begixek - begiak
Nahi dogunien nahi dogulako aske maitte aske bizi bizitza zoro hau.
When we want Because we want Loving freely Living freely This crazy life
dogunien - dugunean dogulako - dugulako
A ze gozoa zaren izerditan ur gazi zaporie. Eta ze ondo nagoen izerran ganien zugaz kantetan dodanien, gabien.
Ah, how good you taste Sweating The taste of salty water And how good I feel Above the stars When I sing with you At night
zaporie - zaporea izerran - izarren ganien - gainean zugaz - zurekin. In Biscayan, -az replaces -ekin in singular. It is -akaz in plural. dodanien - dudanean gabien - gauean
Suaren inguruen ixil-ixilik gaba, itzal bi ikusten dire Venuserako txartela elkarregaz hartunde.
Repeat chorus
Around the fire, An utterly silent night Two shadows can be seen A ticket to Venus We take it together
ixil-ixilik - Basque is one of those languages where duplication reinforces the intensity of the adjective or adverb. A silent-silent night. Venuserako - Venus is of course the morning star, and it seems appropriate that after a night of partying, the video ends in the morning!
