Re: Tsema means "like"; was Verimak.

On Wed, 12 May 1999, Sally Caves wrote:

>
> Bear with Sally... political heat in my department has intensified towhite
> hot, and what with that and the graduation ceremony I
> think I'm going to spontaneously combust, this week.  I won't
> have that translation ready for public consumption until next
> week.  Even so, I am debating the form in which I want to present
> it.  It is SO frank (yes I asked for it) that I might want to publish
> the English translation of it separately from the Teonaht translation.
> Not that I'm a prude,  <G> it's just that the Teonim prefer to put
> things, shall we say, a little more circumlocutionally, while my
> American tendency is to let it all hang out.... so to speak.  I'm
> debating with myself just how to do this.   I know this sounds
> like a tease, but I really am torn by duties in the department,
> and torn by poetry in the listserv.
>
Oh, I don't want to push you, or hurry you! I'm slowing down a bit
myself, so I don't think I will attempt Nizzemfom. The thing to remember
with the Denden song is that while it is frank, it is not coarse. The
Charyans can be circumlocutionary too, if they want too, just for the
fun of playing with imagery. Charyans would be rather surprised by
James's grouping of sex with war and weapons, instead of with love, joy
and peace. Of course, having enough food is still more important in
their view.

> Meanwhile, have you guessed the author of  Nizzemfom?
> I'm practically ready to post the authentic thing and hand
> out prizes.
>
Well, I dimly remembered two or three poems about bells,
the Yeomans wedding song by Maria X. Hayes, which it couldn't
be on account of the author, and a bit by Poe about bells,
which it wasn't either. And then there's this song 'Mundanga
was as feat as Jade', which also has a lot of ding-dongs in it,
but firstly is anonymous, and secondly is not as much about the
bell as about the clapper. So I think I give in - I'm not
going to plough through Byron, Shelly or Keats again, and I
don't really suspect Clark Ashton Smith - he's not famous.

No, I give in. My only consolation is that when I say
'Een nieuwe lente, een nieuw geluid', only the Dutch members
of this list, and probably all of them, can name the
poet...

Boudewijn Rempt  | www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt