Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Dec 01, 2019 1:21 am

This week.

Ancient Greek
I finished Book 8 of The Histories of Herodotus with the help of Bowie's Green and White Commentary. The reading was more difficult that I expected.
Now I'm reading Appian's History of the Spanish Wars (Rome, Carthage, etc). Relatively easy, for Ancient Greek, anyway.

Spanish
I fell in love with Isabel Allende reading one of her short stories. Too far back to remember the story. Something about a judge, I think. Gradually I fell out of love with her, and even gave up on her. But something possessed, or nagged, me to buy another copy of El Amante Japonés and give it a try. Maybe Allende's sense of humor has always been there and I just missed it. But it definitely shows up in El Amante Japonés, making the novel a pleasure to read. Just 64 pages so far (out of 347).

French
Slow but steady going with La Grande Guerre des Frençais by Jean-Baptiste Duroselle. He writes of finances and alliances and politics, adding an interesting dimension to the longish, 450 page book.
Turns out I have an Audible version of Victor Hugo's Contemplations bought some time ago and then forgotten. I discovered listening to/reading it works better for listening practice than Easy French on Youtube, so voilà.

Latin
Puer Romanus is written in easy Latin. But it is rather long and I put it into LWT, which means painstakingly plowing through it marking known works known and so on. A tedious process, but I'm more than half way through. The authors incorporate lots of snippets of Latin poetry. Including one by Catullus that even I liked.
7 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Dec 14, 2019 11:39 pm

A private matter has taken up time and energy.
I have not read or listened to much, but I did make a decision about Ancient Greek moving on, and I made a wish list of works I want to read. I'll list just the authors, not works:
Appian, Arrian, Dio Cassius, Dio Chrysostom, Diodorus Siculus, Diogenes Laertius, Dionysus of Halicarnus, Epictetus, Herodotus, Marcus Aurelius, Nonnus, Plato (Republic Book 1), Plutarch, Polybius, Procopius, Quintus Smyrmaeus, Strabo, Xenophon (lesser works).
Will take a long while, obviously. ;)

Thursday in the supermarket I heard a member's name mentioned. A woman shopping and talking on her phone used the expression "No manches." :)
8 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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cjareck
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby cjareck » Sun Dec 15, 2019 12:55 pm

I am impressed by the list. I remember most names from my studies. Good luck with that! On the other hand I remember your LWT statistics and they are working in two ways for me. First - I will never start Antient Greek and second - I have to work harder with my languages in LWT :)
3 x
Please feel free to correct me in any language


Listening: 1+ (83% content, 90% linguistic)
Reading: 1 (83% content, 90% linguistic)


MSA DLI : 30 / 141ESKK : 18 / 40


Mandarin Assimil : 62 / 105

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Sep 12, 2020 11:27 pm

This week I watched a couple documentaries and a couple of old Sherlock Holmes movies on Youtube.
The documentaries were Spanish DW productions about prehistoric stone formations stretching west from the Near East:
Part 1:
Part 2:

The movies, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, were La Clé:
and Le Train de la Mort:

Over the past few weeks some bits of Ancient Greek:
A sketch of shepherd life from Daphnis and Chloe iii 3-11
An account of the Athenian lawgiver Solon from Aristotle, Athenian Constitution, 2,3 5-12
A brief biography of the Athenian Themistocles from Thucydides’ Histories i.128-138
Aeschylus’ account of the Battle of Salamis in Persians 290-470
Alexander the Great in Anabasis by Arrian: Battle with Porus, Mutiny of the Macedonians, and the death of Alexander.
The last schemes and the death of Julius Caesar in Plutarch Caesar 56-69.
Appian The revolution of Tiberius Gracchus. i. 7-17.
Diodorus Siculus The First Slave War. Diodorus 34 (extracts).
Athenaeus, Slave Wars in Chios. Athenaeus vi. 265.
Climate and the Races of Mankind. Hippocrates, De aere aquis et locis, last chapters.
Apollodorus ‘The Seven against Thebes.’ Apollodorus. Bibl. iii. 57-73.

These all stem from a post in Textkit - Wilamowitz about a Greek Reader compiled by the Prussian scholar Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff

I'll say more about Wilamowitz and his Greek Reader in the Classics Resources.
7 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Sep 20, 2020 12:00 am

This week from the Greek Reader, Strabo on Rome and its environs (5.3.2-8), and Plutarch on the death of Pericles.
Not a part of the Greek Reader, the first few dozen lines of Andromache by Euripides (c. 480 BC - c. 406 BC)

An offshoot of my beginning to read and listen to Andromaque by Jean Racine (1639-1699)
The first scene of the first act of Andromaque went well on Safari on the iPod. Safari lacks the ability to remember where it was. I do have mp3s of two presentations on Youtube, and I will try to coordinate listening to one of them with watching the play.

On stage performance:

A group reading only:

A reading by just one reader:


So far Racine's version is pretty far from Euripides' version, but we will see.
7 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Sep 26, 2020 4:31 pm

Using Aeneas, I created an mp3 of Andromaque with subtitles. It works quite well, and is very convenient in VLC.
As an amusing side-effect, the subtitle file persists even if I close VLC and appears in any other file that VLC plays.
Finally, after about 500 lines I chucked out Euripides' Andromache. The bizarre and bitter confrontation between Andromache and Menelaus stretched the bonds of the suspension of disbelief.

Lovers of Spanish lit and El ministerio del tiempo may share my liking of Lope contra Cervantes en Atención Obras (La 2)

29:56 minutes, Castilian accent
Entrevistadora: Cayetana Guillén-Cuervo.


I researched some classical Spanish drama to make mp3s with subtitles as I did with Racine, but the play I found make too many cuts and the audiobooks I found had lifeless readings. The next candidate will be Bodas de sangre.

In Ancient Greek, I hope to read more of Plutarch's biographies. "Caesar" was quite good.
6 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Fri Oct 02, 2020 11:56 pm

I dropped Plutarch for the moment and switched to the Greek Anthology. So far in LWT I'm about half way through Vol 1, Book 5
I made an mp3 with accompanying text for Plato's Ion based on a recording in reconstructed Ancient Greek by Ioannis Stratakis. Stratakis has a web site of his readings, but they are not free: Podium-Arts.

There's another for Ramon J. Sender's Spanish story "Requiem por un campesino español" based on a recording by Joan Mora:

There is also a movie about Sender's story that I have not watched yet:
6 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

User avatar
MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Oct 11, 2020 7:23 pm

Ancient Greek: My last post was misleading. I am reading only Volume1, Book 5, of The Greek Anthology. And by "reading" I mean only the first pass, which consists of looking up unknown words. There have been a lot of them. This morning I finished poem 246. There are about 80 more to go.

French: Knowing little about French poetry, I did some research on the schools and prominent poets of the last 200 years, from say Hugo to Éluard, and downloaded about half a dozen collections from archive.org and a couple of files of audio. Youtube has readings of French poetry as well.

One poem that intrigues me, because it is incomprehensible, is "Le cimetière marin" by Paul Valéry.
Here is a reading of the poem, followed by an explanation (which I'm still working through, though at least I now know how apt is the photo of the reading):


7 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

User avatar
MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Oct 17, 2020 7:52 pm

In Ancient Greek, I finished looking up unknown vocabulary for The Greek Anthology. In the amount of about 1,000 unfamiliar words. On a roll, I finished looking up unknown vocabulary for Plato's Protagoras, which is the last major work in Ancient Greek I plan to read. The first two thirds or so were already done, when for whatever reason I stopped. By now I have read enough Plato and enough Ancient Greek that I knew or could figure out most of the words the LWT marked as unknown. Perhaps here is a place and time to log all the Plato that I have read.

Apology, Euthydemus, Euthyphro, Gorgias, Hippias Greater, Hippias Lesser, Ion, Laches, Lysis, Meno, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Republic Book 1 and Book 10 595α-611β, Charmides, Crito and Symposium.

The easiest of these I would say is the Euthydemus. The most interesting is the Symposium, in part for its picture of how the upper class adult men of Athens spent their leisure; and because it is laden with historical ironies, Book 1 of the Republic.

In French, determining who are "important" French poets and locating and organizing audio versions of their poetry. I limit myself to the 19th and 20th centuries. Hugo and his Contemplations are a good beginning. There is a complete reading--at least, I think it is complete--of Les Contemplations, the Gallimard paperback edition of which is almost 400 pages, not counting introduction and notes. Another important body of poetry is Les Fleurs du mal by Baudelaire. Since however I am still in the process of finding and organizing, it's hard to say whom else I have.

And there is also Roy Lewis' On Reading French Verse: A Study of French Form. Crucial for me, because French verse just does not work like English verse.

In Spanish, I'm still just getting started with getting audio together, though my starting point will be Rubén Darío, the good and influential poet from Nicaragua. As my guide I have Janet H. Perry's hardback edition of The Harrap Anthology of Spanish Poetry. Though I've had it for ages and bought it used for $1.98, the publishers put it together with care so that it has well withstood dozens of openings and closings. It is light on Hispano-American poetry, and I'm looking for something similat to Perry for that.

Finally, a "poem" of my own, addressed in part to a frequent LLORG topic:

To read:
Extensively or intensively.
To live:
10 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

DaveAgain
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Re: Mork the Fiddle's 2019 Log

Postby DaveAgain » Sun Oct 18, 2020 6:50 am

MorkTheFiddle wrote:
In French, determining who are "important" French poets and locating and organizing audio versions of their poetry. I limit myself to the 19th and 20th centuries. Hugo and his Contemplations are a good beginning. There is a complete reading--at least, I think it is complete--of Les Contemplations, the Gallimard paperback edition of which is almost 400 pages, not counting introduction and notes. Another important body of poetry is Les Fleurs du mal by Baudelaire. Since however I am still in the process of finding and organizing, it's hard to say whom else I have.

And there is also Roy Lewis' On Reading French Verse: A Study of French Form. Crucial for me, because French verse just does not work like English verse.
France Culture did one programme of a dramatic reading of some of Apolllinaire's poems, "Poèmes à Lou".
C’était en mai 2003. Jean-Louis Trintignant, fou de poésie, créait le spectacle Poèmes à Lou d’Apollinaire avec sa fille Marie Trintignant. Quelques mois plus tard, Marie Trintignant mourait à Vilnius dans des conditions dramatiques. C’est un document exceptionnel que nous vous proposons de redécouvrir ce soir : l’enregistrement à Nanterre des poèmes à Lou par le père et la fille. C’est tout simplement bouleversant car quelques semaines plus tard, Marie ne serait plus là. Plus tard, en 2005, Jean-Louis Trintignant a repris ce spectacle seul, en hommage à sa fille.
Voici donc pour terminer cette soirée un long fragment des Poèmes à Lou de Guillaume Apollinaire. Daniel Mille accompagne à l’accordéon cette lecture.
1 x


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