CHUH CHOW

Going through a buncha Italian videos on YouTube. They're a bit basic, but the speaker (20 year old college student) usually signs off by saying "Cu-ciao" (can't seem to find it spelled anywhere, phonetically for an English speakers it's "chuhchow." Guess it's analogous to "bye-bye" in English.) Dunno why, I just like it. Probs something I should know, but it's never turned up in anything I've seen, heard or read.

UPDATE:
Actually, it's just "ciao ciao" said together (there was a little floaty text thingy on the end of a video). But the way she says it sounds like when American speakers schwa bye-bye to buh-bye.

VICO AND NOT MUCH ELSE

Still reading a bit of Vico's Scienza Nuova ogni giorno. Greeted by the promising title Del diluvio universale e de' giganti, and it delivers: Vico describes the devolution of the descendants of Cam, Giafet and Sem (i.e. Ham, Japheth and Shem) into "uno stato affatto bestiale e ferino" (a state truly bestial and wild). Basically, Vico says that after Noah's death his sons renounced the "vera religione del loro comun padre Noè" and reverted to a sort of primal state, roaming the "gran selva della terra" which -- and this is Vico in a nutshell -- grew so abundantly after the Flood that man's progeny "crescere vigorosamente robusti, e sì provenire giganti" (they grew vigorous and robust, and became giants) because of their rough-and-tumbles lives in a jungle "che per lo fresco diluvio doveva esser foltissima." He also mentions Caesar and Tacitus' comments on Germanic gigantism, before finally embarking on an extended discussion of Greek and Latin philology that apparently support the existence of these post-diluvian man-giants.

That's Vico for you.

I'd also like to know where the "great forest of the earth" motif first appeared.

UN PO' D'ITALIANO, A SMATTERING OF GREEK, AND VICO

First up, some more Italian gems grazie a Using Italian: A Guide to Contemporary Usage.

1.) la mangiasoldi - lit. money-eater, actually, a slot-machie.

2.) acquascooter - jetski. This word is awesome. Apparently there's a such thing as a "water-scooter," but if all English-speakers referred to jet-skis as acquascooters, the world would be a better place.

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Just a quick link to an interesting article on learning ancient Greek vocabulary, specifically how the unusually small number of high-frequency words makes the Wortschatz easier to learn at a beginner/intermediate level. He claims 1,100 lemmas make up 80% of lemmas in ancient Greek (comp. 80% of English = 2,200-2,300 lemmas). The article's doubly fantastic because it includes lists of the said lemmas w/ English definition (50% list and an 80% list). Once I get over my current Italian binge I may proceed to this, circumstances allowing --- though I could start memorizing 10/day while bagging ice. That shouldn't be hard.

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And, last but not least, a brief update on my current reading of Giambattista Vico's Scienza Nuova. In a nutshell, this book is awesome. It's on par with Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in that it weds artistry with analytical investigation to such an extent that you can't tell whether it's more poem or more treatise. Vico himself refers to it as "nostra mitologia istorica" and it's basically that: a grand cyclical vision of history across three ages and a final transition in which society reverts back to it's original (or slightly more advanced-than-original) state. But it's the vast amalgamation of stories, anecdotes, myths, legends and linguistic speculation that thrusts the Scienza Nuova into the realm of cosmic epic (like, we're talkin Ovidian, Tolkienian, Homeric, Joycean epic epic). And, lest we forget, Vico was one of the first to argue that myths could be a legitimate historical artifact: an idea that has grown especially fashionable of late (Robert Darnton (of the Great Cat Massacre fame) springs to mind as a fairly well-known example). He also has an interesting-looking bit on Homer in the third bird (Discoverta del vero Omero) but I haven't reached that point yet. More to come surely.*

Toodle pip!

*And of course if some of this sounds familiar, Joyce definitelyprobably used it as a framework for Finnegans Wake. I'll address that at some length eventually. Probablydefinitely.

Thor's Night, Magic, Words and Ode on a Grecian Urn

§1 (p. 318) Maimonides refs Ibn Wahsiya's On the Nabataean Agriculture, which apparently features the fable of a millenia-long dispute between an althea and mandragora, among the assorted talismanic or otherwise magical properties of various plants, as well as a small reference library of sympatheticmagic practices from Babylonian times. In other words, alaka-ZAM, mofo. Unfortunately, it appears that it has not been properly Englishified to date (excepting this partial translation w/ a skyscraping price-tag). Found this unfamiliar but nifty-looking website w/ some more information. I'll put this one in my ancient husbandry/falconry practices research backlog.

§2 Another fun paronym: baleno/balena = lightning/whale.

Also, I move to replace the word "balloon" in the English language w/ the infinitely more delightful palloncino.

§3 1024. Here's a go at Spode on Phoe'cian Bern. Puts total at 80 lines (Donne's The Rising Sunne (30) + Ode on a Grecian Urn (50) since ... whenever I started. A few weeks ago, if memory serves.)

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time
sylvan historian who canst thus express
a flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme
what leaf-fringed legends haunt about thy shape
of deities or mortals or of both
in tempe or the dales of arcady
what men or gods are these what maidens loth
what mad pursuit what struggle to escape
what pipe and timbrels what wild ecstasy

heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
are sweeter, therefore, ye soft pipes play on
not to the sensual ear, but more endearin
pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone
fair youth beneath the trees thou canst never leave
thy song nor ever can those trees be bare
bold lover never never canst thou kiss
though winning near the goal, yet do not grieve
she cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss
forever wilt thou love and she be fair

a happy happy boughs that cannot shed
your leaves nor ever bid the spring adieu
and happy melodist unwearied
for ever piping songs for ever new
more happy love more happy happy love
for ever warm and still to be enjoyed
for ever panting and forever young
all breathing human passions far above
that leave a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd
a burning foreheard and a parching tongue

who are these coming to the sacrifice
to what green altar, o mysterious priest,
leadst thou that heifer lowing at the skies
and with all her silken flanks in garlands drest
what little town by river or sea-shore
or mountain-built with peaceful citadel
is emptied of its folk this pious morn
and, little town, thy streets forevermore
will silent be, and not a soul to tell
why thou art desolate, can e'er return

o attic shape! fair attitude. with brede
of marble men and maidens overwrought
with forest branches and the trodden weed
thou silent form dost tease out thought
as doth eternity cold pastoral
when old age shall this generation waste
thou shalt remain in midst of other woe
than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st
beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all ye know
on earth --- and all ye need to know. [Q.E.D.]

 

Odin's Day: Maimonides & Italian

With just the rare deviation, Maimonides follows a progression from philology to philosophy to theology/exegesis to mysticism (a peculiar brand-blend of intellectual mysticism to boot).


Fun w/ Italian paronyms (courtesy of Using Italian: A Guide to Contemporary Usage):

Impazzire - to go mad.
Impazzare - to run wild.

Forca - hay-/pitchfork
Forcina - hairpin
Forcone - dung-fork, pitchfork
Forchetta - fork (for eating)

See auch Der Geisterfahrer over atl Constanze's bog.

Nothing Much, or, Doldrums of the Friday Night Mind

a. There's a certain dignity that comes w/ hard physical labor w/ optional shaving. Today my gloves, pants, overshirt and socks were all different shades of green.

b. È venerdi, grazie a Dio. Stanotte dormirò come un ghiro.

Stavo sognando ad occhi aperti...NaNoWriMo?

c. Gonna start Vico's Nuova Scienza in the next couple o' days. Read a bit of Maimonides this evening, but nothing terribly interesting, and really just vado a dormire.

This is the Doldrums of the Friday Night Mind.

1024. Slowly working thru Grecian Urn. Lessee if I can write it out while listening to this:

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness

Thou foster child of silence and slow time

Sylvan historian, who canst thus express

a flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme.

What leaf-fringed legends haunt about thy shape

of deities or mortals, or of both

in Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

What men or gods are these? what maidens loth?

what mad pursuit? what struggle to escape?

what pipes and timbrels? what wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

are sweeter, therefore, ye soft pipes, play on

not to the sensual ear, but more endearing,

pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.

fair youth beneath the trees thou canst never leave

thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare.

bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss

though winning near the goal, yet do not grieve,

she cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss

forever wilt thou love, and she be fair

oh happy happy boughs......and my memory stutterspluttertripfall....

Oh, let's go with this. Had it stuck in my head all day at work. Buona notte, cybervuoto. I'll have something more interesting to say later when I'm not nodding off.