Mi estas loĝanto en ĉi tiu loko.

2005-11-10

Mi estas loĝanto en ĉi tiu loko.

Many's the night I've lain awake and thought to myself, "Self, do you think there's any way Noh could narrow its audience even further than it already has?" Today, I found the answer: Noaj Komedioj -- en Esperanto kaj la japana.

I don't want to get all hyperbolic, but I think this might be the best webpage devoted to Esperanto translations of Noh and Kyogen that I've ever seen. It even has complete plays in mp3 format. To follow Statu-metiisto as it is read aloud to you goofily -- surely this, my friends, is what the Internet was invented for.

(If your appetite for parallel Esperanto-Japanese texts remains unsated, the current issue of Midnight Press magazine includes three poems by William Auld, translated by USUI Hiroyuki (臼井裕之).)

Popularity factor: 4

amida:

I bet OOmoto Kyou is involvd in this somehow. They seem to have a history of promoting Esperanto as well as, of course, traditional Japanese arts.

Matt:

And they would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for us meddling bloggers.

It makes a lot of sense to translate cultural treasures into a "universal language" -- it's certainly more efficient than translating them into a hundred different languages of the regular kind -- but of course it doesn't work if the universal language isn't actually universal, or spoken by anyone. (Yes, yes, I know, thriving community etc. Don't worry, Esperantists, I'm just kidding.)

Mark S.:

Outstanding! I'm reminded of how, around a century ago, some scholars in Asia became so frustrated with the difficulties of learning to read and Chinese characters that they proposed simply dropping written Japanese and Chinese and replacing them with Esperanto! And how, during the 1930s, an Esperantist was jailed in Japan for "advocating language reform." I wonder if the judge would have added a few more years if he'd known such things as Noh plays in Esperanto were to come.

amida:

Details on the Oomoto/Esperanto connection here:http://www.oomoto.jp/enDokon/htmls/t305.html

2005-11-10