Re: A Charyan Brothel Song in Teonaht

On Wed, 26 May 1999, Sally Caves wrote:

>
> Yssytra tells me that she is very grateful to have this bit of
> information
> about Mandein as putative author only... she has asked me to forward her
> suggestion that the Charyan brothels were perhaps not limited to women
> courtesans.  "Considering in the poem the expertise of the male lover,
> it is possible that there were patronesses as well as patrons, male
> prostitutes as well as courtesans, yes?"
>
Yssytra must be a very astute woman as she is, again, spot on. In fact,
from certain sources (diaries, administration of the Pleasure Tax
levied by the Chief-Eunuch on brothels and so on, sources that
formed the inspiration for the story about Tiscim on my webpage),
we know that during the reign of emperor Rordal Twuindal Sedom'chewir
in the best brothel of Broi, the Andmas'andvayn or 'birds' head', the
madam Murxao Galar'yalstai employed the following people:

Dainam, man, 17. Apprentice specialising in female clientele
Gingtan, 22, man
Qunquon, 30, man, specialised in singing.
Snowdrop, woman, 18, still apprentice
Rose, woman, 24, specialised in female clientele and singing
Aster, 23, a young woman
Columbine, 37, one of the best courtesans of the city, specialised in male
clientele.

Murxao's daughter, Yisili was not allowed to entertain patrons upstairs,
on account of being too young, but she sang, danced and played the
nine-stringed lute, and officiated as bath attendant.

It's perhaps superfluous to note, but none of these people were slaves.

>
> Issytra looks very much forward to that, she says.  <G>  She wonders if
> you will rhyme it. :)  She is a little worried that your version will
> supplant hers, as you give it below.  I told her not to worry; I didn't
> think that any other conlanger was going to take either of these on in
> public.  Someone may call my bluff, though!  <GGGGGGGGGGG>  Should I
> direct people to my darned straightforward translation of the Denden
> that I put on a page last week?  You've borrowed some of its vocabulary,
> I notice, in your version below!
> <GGGGG>
>
Does <G> mean growl or grin? Anyway, I'd never even made an interlinear
version of the song before, and I wanted to present one when Issytra
had finished her translation, so I gratefully acknowledged your superiority
as a native speaker and decided not to rack Rogets for words he probably
wouldn't have included in his thesaurus. Most words come from the lexicon,
though. And I don't think I will make the translation rhyme...

> Where do I get one of those blue "free-speech" ribbons?
I wouldn't know - I just say what I want, and if netnanny bans my webpages,
so be it! And the translation of colourful song of literary and ethnic
interest is a scholarly endeavour, so I'm sure everyone approaches it
with a sufficiently detached mind ;-).

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt