Re: A question and introduction

On Wed, 12 Jun 2002 01:15, Steg Belsky wrote:
<snip>
> Sorry, just a little nitpicking...
> Naomi asks her townspeople to call her "Mara" meaning 'bitter'.  "Naomi",
> her original name, comes from the root N3M, meaning 'pleasant'.  I don't
> remember the scroll giving any indication that people listened to her,
> though.  :P  .  I'm not sure about your conclusionss, though.  Biblical
> Hebrew names are generally pretty transparent in meaning, and even when
> they aren't, with important figures the text a lot of times gives an
> explanation of the name.  I don't remember that happening in the Scroll
> of Ruth, though.
Nitpick all you like. :)  I last read that ages ago, and my memory is full of
holes, it seems.  In relation to transparency of names, my parent's town in
the North Island of New Zealand is named Tauranga after the place where the
Mataatua canoe came to stay (Tauranga = Resting Place), but most people
gleefully mispronounce it without thinking of the meaning.  I suppose I could
write a story where the name has meaning owing to the main character's loved
ones being buried in such a Resting Place's cemetary.  Oh, and one of the
other towns an hour's drive away, is called Whakatane after the story of
Muriwai - according to some traditions, and I've forgotten the other name - a
noblewoman, either resting in the canoe while the menfolk were busy exploring
the area, or ashore herself in another tradition, took command of the
Mataatua canoe, a task she was not ritually permitted, in order to either
prevent it being driven onto the rocks (one story), or being swept out to sea
(another tradition), and declaring her right to do so with the immortal
words, "Kia whakatane au i ahau!" - "Let me be/act as a man!"

Of course, one of Tauranga's major features is Mount Maunganui.  "Mount" is
redundant; "Maunga" is Te Reo Maori for Mountain; and furthermore the full
Maori name is Mauao te maunga.  So what it is called is not its name, what
its name is called is another thing altogether, etc (read the appropriate
part of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" or "Alice Behind the
Lookingglass" for the actual mind-fuck.)

Wesley Parish

>
>
>
> -Stephen (Steg)
>  "where you die, i will die, and there will be buried."
>      ~ ruth to naomi
--
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."

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