MUCHA TECNOLOGÍA Y POCA URBANIDAD

Ya saben ustedes que soy forofo, aficionado incondicional, de la tecnología y todo lo que ella conlleva. Sin embargo, y esto no es culpa de la tecnología, he notado que es más complicado contactar con personas o entidades desde que utilizamos correos electrónicos y páginas Web. Todo tipo de identidades, empresas, ministerios, comunidades autónomas, tienen páginas web para ofrecer información sobre sus servicios, sean de la índole que sean. Pues bien, sorprendentemente, la mayoría no ofrece dirección alguna de contacto, y si lo tiene, es infructuoso (mejor: pérdida de tiempo) enviar correo alguno. Simplemente no contestan. Mucha editoriales dan direcciones de correo postal, que en la actualidad hace la comunicación más complicada: tener recado de escribir (papel, sobre) y tener que ir a Correos. Fundaciones, Comunidades Autónomas en España, bancos, y demás, simplemente no contestan o envían un acuse de recibo para decir que escribirán. Pero no lo hacen. Creo que tiran piedras sobre su propio tejado. Hace un mes contacté con la Fundación BBVA y sigo esperando respuesta. Es un ejemplo de los muchos que pudiera aportar. Ganamos en tecnología, en rapidez, y perdemos en Urbanidad, que el diccionario de Seco (publicado en Internet por la FBBVA) define como: buena educación o buenos modales. En fin, tendré que echar mano de la ya muy manida frase latina: O tempora, o mores.

WHAT LANGUAGE DO I DREAM IN? A MEMOIR - A FLOP

Elena Lappin´s memoir What Language Do I Dream In, and John Gallagher´s review of it in The Guardian, are both disappointing. I have read the book because of my interest in languages and bilingualism only to find an autobiography of a person and her family who have had a thirst for travel. From Russia to Czechoslovakia, then to Germany and Israel, to continue to Canada, the US, and finally, to the UK. We are told about grandparents, parents, and relatives, with side escapades to odd people of many nationalities. In passing, Ms Lappin mentions the languages she has been exposed to in her wondering, in her world-trotting. All of us can write an autobiography. Lappin´s experiences might be of interest to her family and offspring but to nobody else. Her insights into languages show that although she speaks several languages, she´s no linguist. She says:  "To this day, my brother owes his perfect Russian accent to his extended stay in Moscow at the age of almost two." Really? At age two? I could write a similar account of my family and our different languages. I won´t. The worlds full of people who have gone from language to language and from country to country. Nothing to write home about.  

UN PAÍS PARA LEERLO

 

For those interested in Hispanic Language, Culture, and Literature, I recommend the RTVE2 educational program Un país para leerlo, which is piloted by the poet Raquel Lanseras. Every week, Raquel visits a different Spanish city, shows its sights, and interviews local authors and bookstores. Locals recommend books they are reading, and authors read excerpts from their publications while booksellers explain about their patrons and the titles they have. You can hear about the Spanish cultural scene straight from the horse´s mouth while admiring the beauty of Zamora, Málaga, Cuenca, or whatever city Raquel Lanseras is visiting this particular week. The slow, well-thought-out, and fluent Spanish will give you new insights into Spain´s contemporary literature. I watch Un país para leerlo every week and find it a joy. Again, to practice listening to good Spanish and watch eye-opening views of the cities of Spain, give the program a try. I am certain you will thank me for it.  

AN IMPORTANT PHRASE IN TWO LANGUAGES

Any port in a storm La necesidad obliga, en tiempos de guerra, cualquier hoyo es trinchera (y cualquier palo es fusil)

I do not like this way of getting out of the situation but any port in a storm No me gusta esta manera de salir de la situación, pero en tiempos de guerra, cualquier hoyo es trinchera

— “Said when one is in difficulty and some not particularly good way out offers itself; a last resource.” Ebenezer Brewer, Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 2001. US. 

La necesidad obliga Any port in a storm

En realidad, no quería un préstamo de él, pero la necesidad obliga I didn´t really want a loan from him, but any port in a storm

— “¡Qué remedio! La necesidad obliga, hijo.” Antonio Martínez Ballesteros, Pisito clandestino, 1990. Esp.

SOY LEXICÓPATA

 Siempre me vanaglorio ante todos de estar libre de patologías adictivas: no bebo, no fumo, no ingiero drogas... ¡hasta hoy! Me he dado cuenta de que soy lexicópata. He buscado la palabra lexicopatía en diccionarios y no está reseñada. Defino esta patología como "el afán desmedido de coleccionar, clasificar y analizar palabras y frases de uno o varios idiomas." El que está enganchado a la lexicografía, el lexicópata, emplea mucho tiempo añadiendo a su colección, habla constantemente de sus últimas adquisiciones, está alerta cuando oye conversaciones, pregunta sobre significados y consulta diccionarios constantemente. Al escribir estas líneas me ruborizo y sudo de pudor al admitir que soy un enfermo mental. Sufro de lexicopatía. Con frecuencia me digo que voy a pasar unos días sin trabajar en el diccionario, pero no me es posible apartarme de él. No salgo, no duermo, apenas como. Si estoy unas horas sin buscar o comprobar frases, me tiemblan las manos, se me corta la respiración, me suda la frente. ¿Qué puedo hacer? ¿A quién pedir socorro?

A QUOTATION FROM THOREAU

 

"But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before." 

DUBBING SIGOURNEY WEAVER INTO SPANISH

Spaniards talk and wonder about American actors and actresses they admire. Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, and... Sigourney Weaver who yesterday was awarded an International Award in Valladolid for her acting career. All foreign films are dubbed into Spanish and it is difficult to have access to original versions. Ms. Weaver was very thankful for the presentation and very kindly mentioned the Spanish actress who has been dubbing her into Spanish for 40 years, the voice Spanish movie-goers associate with the American actress. She mentioned 85-year-old María Luisa Solá, a dubbing actress since 1959 who has said that Weaver´s words have spotlighted her profession at long last. Moviegoers who applaud Sigourney Weaver as an actress forget that the voice they hear is not the actress´s but someone else's. Further, they forget that María Luisa Solá is mouthing the Spanish text translators have poured into Spanish. So, in the end, the actresses or actors Spanish audiences admire and love are people who only move back and forth in the film, and whose words and voices are not theirs at all. I am glad that Ms. Weaver has seen it fit to recognize the role of dubbing actors.      

SPELL CHECKERS, CORRECTORS AND AI

Spellcheckers, correctors, AI, are cracked to be the ultimate writers' aids. Being the cranky grouch I am, I find them very disappointing. A few minutes ago I was texting on X (Twitter) in Spanish "es más adecuado decir..." and the clever corrector shot back: "unknown word adecuado." Unknown word? Whatever. Better take those "aids" with a grain of salt, cum grano salis. I normally ignore their comments and suggestions.    

SLEEP, DREAMS, AND LANGUAGES

I own Freud´s Interpretation of Dreams but never read it. I never try to interpret my wild, crazy, wacky dreams. However, of late I have been dreaming and holding conversations in different languages. Last night, for instance, I was trying to convince somebody of something in Valenciano. I have not used the language since my mother died about 5 years ago. You have no idea how very well I was expressing myself! A week ago I was delivering a lecture about the nature of language in GERMAN! I was so pleased with myself! While I was discoursing in the Teutonic language I was thinking, in my dream, how proud Dr. Reinkraut, my teacher at Duquesne, would have been. Is my subconscious trying to say something to me? Dream-chatting in either English or Spanish is normal, but German and Valenciano? Is my brain going berzerk? What is the meaning of all this? And why can we speak languages fluently in dreams but not in wakeful life? I will read Elena Lappin, What Language Do I Dream In? A Memoir, which I have just bought from Amazon.   

THE SEEING BLIND... CIEGOS QUE VEN

-There´s none so blind as those who won´t see - No hay peor ciego que el que no quiere ver.

Los que que se niegan a ver la realidad - Do not turn a blind eye to reality.

PRONTO MADURA... SOON RIPE

- Fruta que pronto madura, poco dura - Soon ripe, soon rotten.

The implication is that things take time to come into their own and no rush is needed. En latín decían cito maturum, cito putridum y en inglés oímos early ripe, early rotten.  

HOMERO DORMITA ... HOMER NODS

-A veces dormita Homero - Sometimes Homer nods.

Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus: Horacio, Horace, Ars Poetica, 359. Everyone ca make a mistake, even Homer. Y cualquier escribano echa un borrón y el mejor maestro de espada muere de una estocada. 

 

KISS THE HAND ... BESAR LA MANO

- Many kiss the hand they wish cut off - Mano besa el hombre que la querría ver cortada.

Muchos rinden pleitesía a los que aborrecen y odian. Richard Burton, en su Anatomy of Melancholy nos dice: "To see a man protest friendship, kiss his hand, quem mallet truncatum videre, whom he would like to see decapitated".    

A WORD TO THE WISE...A BUEN ENTENDEDOR

-A word to the wise is enough. - A buen entendedor, con pocas palabras bastan.

Del latín/ from Latin: "Verbum sat sapienti est."

A los inteligentes, con una vez que se les diga basta. A los tontos hay que repetírselo muchas. En inglés decimos también que "a nod is as good as a wink."

 

CANDLEMAS - CANDELARIA

 

La Candelaria, 2 de febrero - 40 days after Christmas - 

- If Candlemas Day be fair and bright, winter will have another flight. If Candlemas it be shower and rain winter is gone and will not come again.

- Cuando la candelaria llora, ya está el invierno fora. Que llore o que cante, invierno atrás y delante. 

And in Valencia, y en Valencia: "Si la Candelaria plora, el hiver fora, I si es riú, estem en el estiú."

CAÑÓN EN DICCIONARIOS DE INGLÉS

En mi última entrada mencionaba yo que la lengua inglesa tiene manga ancha a la hora de aceptar vocablos foráneos. Esa plasticidad llega a puntos insospechados, hasta aceptar grafemas inexistentes en esa lengua. Por ejemplo, la /ñ/, que no sólo se acepta sino que entra en los diccionarios. En cualquier diccionario inglés-inglés encontraremos la palabra "cañón" escrita tal cual, con ñ.  Mi ejemplar del Webster´s New World Dictionary así lo reseña. Y mi Random House me dice de canyon:  "a deep valley with steep sides, often with a stream flowing through it. Also, cañon." Omite la tilde, eso sí. Y los anglohablantes no se rasgan las vestiduras.