The proverb will stay with you: "Bury me standing, I've spent my whole life on my knees,." See "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and their Journey," by Isabel Fonseca, Alfred A. Knopf 1995.
For a narrative account of gypsy life, contemporary, from true life, this book is excellent, see review at ://www.shira.net/bookrvws/bury.htm. It is appalling in the cumulative impact of persecution in gypsy life over the centuries. There is no better introduction to the topic of current gypsy life - more below.
Scope. Gypsy groups are in any country where immigrants have moved. The culture(s) stress group unity and self-identification with taboos and norms they do not usually willingly share, and so have survived and declined assimilation. Yet - look at the cost of that survival, in terms of the impoverishment and persecution that others inflict on them. That says more about us than them. Learn a little. Do people travel because they are never allowed to stay anywhere. In some cases, yes. In others, the travel is part of the life. For others, settlement happened centuries ago, and has worked, reasonably. If abundance is what you enjoy, rather than what you have, who has life more abundantly. See what is happening in countries now:
Eastern Europe: Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland-
Read the story of the experiences of Isabel Fonseca, in her book, "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and Their Journey," NY Vintage 1996. She lived with various groups, had her own translators, learned much of the language, researched history and records (the enslavement of Gypsies in Romania in particular was recorded in books not yet translated, in some cases).
Romania - a period of newspapers and other focus on the minority Gypsies, but the needs of the majority were so great, the minority again fell away, see p. 143. Government kept issue alive, perhaps as distraction from other issues. Civil rights issues. P. 143. Gypsies as "parasites against the socialist order." Read about the Czacky family, pp. 170 ff. Came back after being run off, status.
Hungary - Paper on "The Political Significance of the First National Gypsy Minority Self-Government, by Martin Kovats, UK at//www.ecmi.de/jemie/download/Focus11-2001Kovats.pdf; the role of Lungo Drom or the "long road" group, founded in 1990 by Florian Farkas, see "Race and Ethnicity, Critical Concepts in Sociology" ed.Harry Gouldbourne, a google book online, search for the Roma parliament.
Spain -"Practical Examples - Employability" at //www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=lungo+drom+Gypsy&btnG=Search
Customs referenced:
1. No euphemism, when someone mentally challenged. Physical disability same as mental. Life is life. Page 36: Candor not considered "brutal." "Among them it was recognized that truth in itself was not painful, only ignorance could bring suffering. Consequently, euphemism was eschewed -- except in (strenuously avoided) reference to bodily functions of any kind." See linguistic license granted to older women, and other use of idiom at p.59.
2. Many have no idea of the larger group of "gypsies" - even other Albanian groups. Little grasp of own history, even though their name in one instance meant "tent-dwellers." The past, unimportant. "As for the present, there was little to be said: there was no work, and they lived on the eggs of their ducks and their chickens, supplemented by the sunflowers and apricots that grew everywhere around." Page 75.
3. Dealings with outsiders restricted, to commerce. Like Jews, they worked for themselves in trade, not as employees of others, or in agriculture for wages. Page 98. The idea of their making a profit was threatening to others in the communist era who "under the communists, expressed their contempt or their despair by doing as little as possible in the jobs that were their birthright." Gypsies and Jews as migrant middlemen. But as to Gypsies, their work came to be valued, but they were also enslaved, like Blacks. Pages 98099.
3. Marriage - read at pages 134 ff, customs for separation, divorce, when permitted, how, and where the newly single or left woman goes.
4. Outsiders' reactions: the sedentary outsiders strongly against the itinerants, itinerant gypsies skilled at the Swindle, then moved on. No Gypsy would do fortune-telling for other Gypsies, only to get cash from outsiders ("gadje"). Hidden pockets in skirts, " 'Designed for stealing,'" Elena said admiringly." Page 137.
5. Governments settling Gypsies by force. See p. 167. Conditions of the new highrises, flats. Resulting deterioration of social life.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Genius of the Itinerant, Un-Propertied. Gypsy Survival - Rome falls, Roma survive
Cultural genius: a familiar concept. Each civilization has something.
This was a center for Mithraism, however, and parts of that survive in differing forms in Christianity and the Gypsies. See
And the taboos, customs, do not change. Enforcement of the group over the individual. Isolation and itinerance may also promote some health - customs, not to use others' utensils, care about absorbing into oneself contamination. Customs of washing in running water, drinking from running water, being on the move. Were the Gypsies hit as hard from plague? or cholera and other dangers of density, overpopulation, the pestilence brought by proximity. Read "The Ghost Map," by Stephen Berlin Johnson, //www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/2006/04/the_ghost_map, about sleuthing the causes and transmission of cholera in London 1848. Density, ingestion of others' contamination.
Perhaps travelling was not a help against plague - Gypsies were accused of transmitting it, //www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/_travellers/HistoryPre20thC.; and were accused of carrying plague, see timeline for 1496, at //www.florilegium.org/files/CULTURES/Gypsy-tmeline-art.
That moving about itself has been forcibly changed. Many countries by now have stopped by legislation the traveling of Gypsies, largely out of embarrassment at this uncivilized barbaric behavior, or for fear of them, see "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and Their Journey," by Isabel Fonseca, Alfred A. Knopf NY 1995. Ms. Fonseca lived with Gypsies in their communities.
2. Foregoing property accumulation. Claiming no real estate, accumulating no wealth other than as carried by wagon. Possessions now are accumulating, with the settling, for some.
3. Self-sufficiency in trade. Carry on a trade, but work for no other man. That is disappearing in areas with the stopping of the caravans and settlement in highrises. The traveling trades are not available.
4. Linguistic uniqueness. Many surnames have had to be changed to meet the ethnic assimilation efforts of the various governments.
5. Consanguinity. Control of who marries whom; marriage laws. Even with the abuses that can occur in relationships in any culture, the taboos and shame appear to be especially strong in controlling the choices and behavior of a woman in he culture. Is it true that a Roma woman would not turn to prostitution. Does that mean she has no escape at all, or is it a protection, and from what. Takes more thinking here.
6. The sum total: re what is behind the attacks on Gypsies through the years? Culturally, it is anathema. Why we can't we leave others alone. Why the drive to impose and reject or re-form others. The threat of difference must be overwhelming. We are becoming like Rome. Organize and force. Force fails, ultimately, but the wagon wheels - on and on, if allowed. Film to see: "Romani Kris - Gypsy Lore." Just saw it on a website.
What an affront to the West - who instead insist, settle down. Get a little land. Hoard. Get a job. Invest! No tolerance for those who chose another path. Genocide. And Gypsies have been and are targeted for it; all the while developing behaviors and maintaining belief systems that promote its own survival still. See ://www.geocities.com/~Patrin/genocide. Look at the timeline of persecution at this site, "Travellers in Leeds: A Permanent Site for Travellers, Gypsies and Roma" - a history of travelling and killing, banishment, imprisonment, and arranged by country - //www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/_travellers/HistoryPre20thC.html
This look at a cultural genius is not to romanticize the life of gypsies. It is hardship, abuses within and without, and on-the-brink living.
Still - Roma - succeeding where Rome did not. The genius is in survival.
- Egypt - Genius in monumental building;
- Athens and Greece - Genius in the arts, philosophy, government, sculpture, architecture.
- Rome - Genius in uber-organization and overcoming-overempiring those in their way.
Anything with that name still does it.
This was a center for Mithraism, however, and parts of that survive in differing forms in Christianity and the Gypsies. See
- America: Genius in founders of democracy, now in jeopardy.
- Gypsies: Perhaps the least changed in culture over a thousand years - is that true? How did they do it? How did they survive when Rome did not, and America may well not? Is that true?
And the taboos, customs, do not change. Enforcement of the group over the individual. Isolation and itinerance may also promote some health - customs, not to use others' utensils, care about absorbing into oneself contamination. Customs of washing in running water, drinking from running water, being on the move. Were the Gypsies hit as hard from plague? or cholera and other dangers of density, overpopulation, the pestilence brought by proximity. Read "The Ghost Map," by Stephen Berlin Johnson, //www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/2006/04/the_ghost_map, about sleuthing the causes and transmission of cholera in London 1848. Density, ingestion of others' contamination.
Perhaps travelling was not a help against plague - Gypsies were accused of transmitting it, //www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/_travellers/HistoryPre20thC.; and were accused of carrying plague, see timeline for 1496, at //www.florilegium.org/files/CULTURES/Gypsy-tmeline-art.
That moving about itself has been forcibly changed. Many countries by now have stopped by legislation the traveling of Gypsies, largely out of embarrassment at this uncivilized barbaric behavior, or for fear of them, see "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and Their Journey," by Isabel Fonseca, Alfred A. Knopf NY 1995. Ms. Fonseca lived with Gypsies in their communities.
2. Foregoing property accumulation. Claiming no real estate, accumulating no wealth other than as carried by wagon. Possessions now are accumulating, with the settling, for some.
3. Self-sufficiency in trade. Carry on a trade, but work for no other man. That is disappearing in areas with the stopping of the caravans and settlement in highrises. The traveling trades are not available.
4. Linguistic uniqueness. Many surnames have had to be changed to meet the ethnic assimilation efforts of the various governments.
5. Consanguinity. Control of who marries whom; marriage laws. Even with the abuses that can occur in relationships in any culture, the taboos and shame appear to be especially strong in controlling the choices and behavior of a woman in he culture. Is it true that a Roma woman would not turn to prostitution. Does that mean she has no escape at all, or is it a protection, and from what. Takes more thinking here.
6. The sum total: re what is behind the attacks on Gypsies through the years? Culturally, it is anathema. Why we can't we leave others alone. Why the drive to impose and reject or re-form others. The threat of difference must be overwhelming. We are becoming like Rome. Organize and force. Force fails, ultimately, but the wagon wheels - on and on, if allowed. Film to see: "Romani Kris - Gypsy Lore." Just saw it on a website.
What an affront to the West - who instead insist, settle down. Get a little land. Hoard. Get a job. Invest! No tolerance for those who chose another path. Genocide. And Gypsies have been and are targeted for it; all the while developing behaviors and maintaining belief systems that promote its own survival still. See ://www.geocities.com/~Patrin/genocide. Look at the timeline of persecution at this site, "Travellers in Leeds: A Permanent Site for Travellers, Gypsies and Roma" - a history of travelling and killing, banishment, imprisonment, and arranged by country - //www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/_travellers/HistoryPre20thC.html
This look at a cultural genius is not to romanticize the life of gypsies. It is hardship, abuses within and without, and on-the-brink living.
Still - Roma - succeeding where Rome did not. The genius is in survival.
Monday, November 12, 2007
In Folktales and Song - and Johnny Faa
The name of Johnny Faa recurs - see the section here, and add this one: site for him at //www.scottishgypsies.co.uk/famous.html.
The name also appears as Fall, Falla (President Roosevelt's little scotty dog?), Failey and Faw, says the site. It also mentions Baillies. If Mitt Romney also turns out to have Gypsy heritage, will he take an interest in the plight of the downtrodden minorities among us? See Romney, Rom'nie as Gypsy surname. Perhaps. Perhaps there is no connection. Need the geneologists here.
1. Gypsies and Folktales. See Gypsy Stories Old and New at The Journal of Mythic Arts News and Reviews at entry dated January 12, 2007. Site at ://endicottstudio.typepad.com/endicott_redux/myth_folklore_fairy_tales/index.html
2. Gypsies in Song. "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies, O!"
Hear this fine lady who said Nuts to her own lifestyle and what it offered. She ran off with them and is very happy there, thank you, and you can take your goosefeather bed and stuff it. Rough summary. See //www.kinglaoghaire.com/site/lyrics/song_350.html. It has a dark side - read at//www.hisdarkmaterials.org/srafopedia/index.php/Faa%2C_John, about her fate - the hanging of Johnny Faa by her aristocratic husband, and then her own imprisonment overlooking the gallows site. How much of this is fiction? Need to check.
3. Hear the Raggle Taggle Gypsies, O!" These are Scots Gypsies. The photo is a glen in Scotland. Imagine a caravan just down that road. Moving.
GO HERE AND THE MUSIC STARTS ON A CONCERTINA AND YOU CAN SING RIGHT ALONG- WITH THE RAGGLE TAGGLE GYPSIES, O!
Music site and its sub-sites:
//www.contemplator.com/child/wraggle.html. This also provides a history from the 18th Century about the ballad. This is the way to teach history - find a ballad, listen to it, look it up, find the references.
Her is a variation, called "Johnny Faa" * at://www.contemplator.com/child/johnnyfa.html; and another variation called "The Gypsy Laddie" at //www.contemplator.com/child/gypsylad.html
Francis J. Child in the late 1800's catalogued British ballads, Irish, Scots, etc., and you get more music here at http://www.contemplator.com/history/epedia.html#child
4. This site includes a verse not included in the earlier ones: a fair use quote - and perhaps the first no-fault divorce when one rides east and the other rides west, one rides high and one rides low. See it at ://www.celticnots.com/music/raggle.html. It is also here: ://www.iol.ie/~murphypj/christy/Raggle.txt. Now that I am looking, I do see it elsewhere.
"Often you rode east when I rode west
You rode high when I rode low
I'd rather have a kiss of the yellow gypsy's lips
Than all of the cashier's money, O."
5. This site excludes the verse with the kiss, oh my, The Baldwin Project, "A Child's Own Book of Verse" - redacted and sterilized according to the author's fears, at http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=skinner&book=verse2&story=raggle.
For adults: When money doesn't do it. Hear the echoing, ancient and very real lure of a midnight mystique attributed to a minority, and when then becomes threatening. Is that a universal? And the magnet of a lifestyle different from one's own - not regimented (in the same way) as the mainstream culture - and what may happen when one rides east and the other is riding west, regardless of money. Another universal?
6. The last verse is excluded here as well - do these exclusions mean, and must there always be, a sexual fear about minorities?? see //www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=skinner&book=verse2&story=raggle
Listen and view on YouTube - here they are and I just haven't time to go on with this particular exploration - ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsMWvuuiEY8
....................................................
* Johnny Faa - this site says he was a Gypsy in Scotland when the Gypsies were banished in 1624, he disobeyed the order and was hanged. See ://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiWRAGYPSY;ttWRAGYPSY.html
The name also appears as Fall, Falla (President Roosevelt's little scotty dog?), Failey and Faw, says the site. It also mentions Baillies. If Mitt Romney also turns out to have Gypsy heritage, will he take an interest in the plight of the downtrodden minorities among us? See Romney, Rom'nie as Gypsy surname. Perhaps. Perhaps there is no connection. Need the geneologists here.
1. Gypsies and Folktales. See Gypsy Stories Old and New at The Journal of Mythic Arts News and Reviews at entry dated January 12, 2007. Site at ://endicottstudio.typepad.com/endicott_redux/myth_folklore_fairy_tales/index.html
2. Gypsies in Song. "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies, O!"
Hear this fine lady who said Nuts to her own lifestyle and what it offered. She ran off with them and is very happy there, thank you, and you can take your goosefeather bed and stuff it. Rough summary. See //www.kinglaoghaire.com/site/lyrics/song_350.html. It has a dark side - read at//www.hisdarkmaterials.org/srafopedia/index.php/Faa%2C_John, about her fate - the hanging of Johnny Faa by her aristocratic husband, and then her own imprisonment overlooking the gallows site. How much of this is fiction? Need to check.
3. Hear the Raggle Taggle Gypsies, O!" These are Scots Gypsies. The photo is a glen in Scotland. Imagine a caravan just down that road. Moving.
GO HERE AND THE MUSIC STARTS ON A CONCERTINA AND YOU CAN SING RIGHT ALONG- WITH THE RAGGLE TAGGLE GYPSIES, O!
Music site and its sub-sites:
//www.contemplator.com/child/wraggle.html. This also provides a history from the 18th Century about the ballad. This is the way to teach history - find a ballad, listen to it, look it up, find the references.
Her is a variation, called "Johnny Faa" * at://www.contemplator.com/child/johnnyfa.html; and another variation called "The Gypsy Laddie" at //www.contemplator.com/child/gypsylad.html
Francis J. Child in the late 1800's catalogued British ballads, Irish, Scots, etc., and you get more music here at http://www.contemplator.com/history/epedia.html#child
4. This site includes a verse not included in the earlier ones: a fair use quote - and perhaps the first no-fault divorce when one rides east and the other rides west, one rides high and one rides low. See it at ://www.celticnots.com/music/raggle.html. It is also here: ://www.iol.ie/~murphypj/christy/Raggle.txt. Now that I am looking, I do see it elsewhere.
"Often you rode east when I rode west
You rode high when I rode low
I'd rather have a kiss of the yellow gypsy's lips
Than all of the cashier's money, O."
5. This site excludes the verse with the kiss, oh my, The Baldwin Project, "A Child's Own Book of Verse" - redacted and sterilized according to the author's fears, at http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=skinner&book=verse2&story=raggle.
For adults: When money doesn't do it. Hear the echoing, ancient and very real lure of a midnight mystique attributed to a minority, and when then becomes threatening. Is that a universal? And the magnet of a lifestyle different from one's own - not regimented (in the same way) as the mainstream culture - and what may happen when one rides east and the other is riding west, regardless of money. Another universal?
6. The last verse is excluded here as well - do these exclusions mean, and must there always be, a sexual fear about minorities?? see //www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=skinner&book=verse2&story=raggle
Listen and view on YouTube - here they are and I just haven't time to go on with this particular exploration - ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsMWvuuiEY8
....................................................
* Johnny Faa - this site says he was a Gypsy in Scotland when the Gypsies were banished in 1624, he disobeyed the order and was hanged. See ://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiWRAGYPSY;ttWRAGYPSY.html
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Contemporary authors, writers, songs, sites - and roots of bury me standing
Meet people and resources today - in addition to the "Zoli" website itself at ://www.colummccann.com/books/zoli.htm - Colum McCann, author.
1. Blog. An adult woman, NE US, on "Zoli" - a blog at //www.gypsygirlpress.net/gypsynews/labels/Zoli.html
2. Book, "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and Their Journey," by Isabel Fonseca, NY Vintage 1996 - from the Gypsy saying, apparently, "Bury me standing, I've been on my knees all my life."
See review at ://www.indiastar.com/wallia2.htm. Says that, as of 1996, 12 million Gypsies worldwide, 8 million in Europe. Fonseca is described as a journalist, American, had been asst. ed. of the "Times Literary Supplement."
3. See this Ratdog CD, a protest song, So - "Bury Me Standing" has legs. Lyrics at the Grateful Dead Lyric & Song Finder at //www3.clearlight.com/~acsa/introjs.htm?/~acsa/songfile/BURYMEST.HTM
4. Tales and Stories. Ilona Lakova, at the Journal of the Mythic Arts, News and Reviews, at Endicott, site at ://endicottstudio.typepad.com/endicott_redux/myth_folklore_fairy_tales/index.html
That site also lists as artists and story sources
1. Blog. An adult woman, NE US, on "Zoli" - a blog at //www.gypsygirlpress.net/gypsynews/labels/Zoli.html
2. Book, "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and Their Journey," by Isabel Fonseca, NY Vintage 1996 - from the Gypsy saying, apparently, "Bury me standing, I've been on my knees all my life."
See review at ://www.indiastar.com/wallia2.htm. Says that, as of 1996, 12 million Gypsies worldwide, 8 million in Europe. Fonseca is described as a journalist, American, had been asst. ed. of the "Times Literary Supplement."
3. See this Ratdog CD, a protest song, So - "Bury Me Standing" has legs. Lyrics at the Grateful Dead Lyric & Song Finder at //www3.clearlight.com/~acsa/introjs.htm?/~acsa/songfile/BURYMEST.HTM
4. Tales and Stories. Ilona Lakova, at the Journal of the Mythic Arts, News and Reviews, at Endicott, site at ://endicottstudio.typepad.com/endicott_redux/myth_folklore_fairy_tales/index.html
That site also lists as artists and story sources
- "The Roads of the Roma," ed. Ian Hancock, Siobhan Dowd and Rajko Djuric
- Louise Doughty
- Margriet de Moor
- "The Road That Has No End: Tales of the Traveling People" - article in the Endicott Archives
Slovak Law 74- Forced Settlement. The Gypsy "great halt" in the book, "Zoli".
A search for "the great halt" is not productive, so perhaps the phrase is fictional. The circumstance is not. The caravans came to a stop. Forced. "Zoli" refers to the great halt as following Law 74, passed in 1959. See Law 74 an an overview of the Gypsy community in Slovakia, and continuing bias at all levels against them, and suggestions for remedy, at ://www.slovakia.org/society-roma.htm. In the book, see references p. 121, 125. How it was done: the burning of the wheels of the caravans and wagons, at p. 123, 125, the sparks, the reddening iron hoops, the melting nails, the drunken outsiders watching, cheering. It took just three days. Horses shot or driven, requisitioned.
This forced settlement had a huge impact on some groups, others had already settled, most in their own shantytowns. There is one near Levice. See Slovakia Road Ways - Levice, Roma.
Read about the nomadic Vlach heritage, however, and this law and its effect on them, at "Vlach-Roma (Vlachi) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia at //romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/ethn/groupscz/cz-vlax.en.xml. That site also points out that there is a difference in complexion between the Vlachi origins and the other, India-Pakistan likelihood. Would like to know more about when and where this started.
In "Zoli," her people refused to be resettled, had to be forced. Zoli at 179. Later, some accepted, probably, but see Zoli at 192, where she says so, being ironic, lying to meet the need of an inquisitor
This forced settlement had a huge impact on some groups, others had already settled, most in their own shantytowns. There is one near Levice. See Slovakia Road Ways - Levice, Roma.
Read about the nomadic Vlach heritage, however, and this law and its effect on them, at "Vlach-Roma (Vlachi) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia at //romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/ethn/groupscz/cz-vlax.en.xml. That site also points out that there is a difference in complexion between the Vlachi origins and the other, India-Pakistan likelihood. Would like to know more about when and where this started.
In "Zoli," her people refused to be resettled, had to be forced. Zoli at 179. Later, some accepted, probably, but see Zoli at 192, where she says so, being ironic, lying to meet the need of an inquisitor
Poet, Bronislawa Wajs, Papusza, Papuscha, inspiration for "Zoli"
Papusza. Romany for "doll." Born 1910, give or take, died 1987. Read the brief summary of her life at "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and their Journey," by Isabel Fonseca, Alfred A. Knopf NY 1995 at 3-16. Title from Gypsy proverb, "Bury me standing, I've spent my whole life on my knees."
Papusza is the inspiration for the book, "Zoli," a novel about person who happened to be a woman, happened to be Gypsy, and happened to live at a time when her very talent set her apart, and enabled her to be exploited - and her people "settled" forcibly, much sooner. Probably. See //romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/pers/papusza.en.xml
Here is one of her songs, translated from the Polish. Branislawa Wajs was born in Poland, see rough overview of her life at ://www.answers.com/topic/bronis-awa-wajs-1, and "Zoli" is from Slovakia. The translator from the Polish is by Polish artist and poet Yala Korwin*- at //www.thehypertexts.com/Bronislawa%20Wajs%20Papusza%20Poet%20Poetry%20Bio%20Picture%20Gypsy%20Poet%20Romani%20Poetry.htm
For a regular person's overview of Bronislawa Wajs' life, see //www.answers.com/topic/bronis-awa-wajs-1
....................................................
* Yala Korwin - I never knew.
See her art at ://home.thirdage.com/Art/y2723k/.
See her photgraph, and her holocaust poetry, bio and more of her art at //www.thehypertexts.com/Yala%20Korwin%20Poetry%20Picture%20and%20Bio.htm.
Her website is at www.yalakorwin.com. Be sure to click on her doodles.
Papusza is the inspiration for the book, "Zoli," a novel about person who happened to be a woman, happened to be Gypsy, and happened to live at a time when her very talent set her apart, and enabled her to be exploited - and her people "settled" forcibly, much sooner. Probably. See //romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/pers/papusza.en.xml
Here is one of her songs, translated from the Polish. Branislawa Wajs was born in Poland, see rough overview of her life at ://www.answers.com/topic/bronis-awa-wajs-1, and "Zoli" is from Slovakia. The translator from the Polish is by Polish artist and poet Yala Korwin*- at //www.thehypertexts.com/Bronislawa%20Wajs%20Papusza%20Poet%20Poetry%20Bio%20Picture%20Gypsy%20Poet%20Romani%20Poetry.htm
For a regular person's overview of Bronislawa Wajs' life, see //www.answers.com/topic/bronis-awa-wajs-1
....................................................
* Yala Korwin - I never knew.
See her art at ://home.thirdage.com/Art/y2723k/.
See her photgraph, and her holocaust poetry, bio and more of her art at //www.thehypertexts.com/Yala%20Korwin%20Poetry%20Picture%20and%20Bio.htm.
Her website is at www.yalakorwin.com. Be sure to click on her doodles.
Zoli's cities, areas. Zilina, Poprad, Presov, Martin, Spisska Nova Ves
Spis Castle, SlovakiaTouring with her poetry, and singing.
Zoli at p. 118.
Get an idea of the parallel cultures in Slovakia - The Gypsies, some settled in their own shanty towns at the time, some traveling in caravans. Now see the other culture - the castle, the middle ages, the commercialism, the life that they kept themselves apart from.
Photos from the Zilina area, mountainous, with valleys good for caravans, following rivers. Castles on the ridges.
Here is the huge 13th Century Spis Castle, near the town of Spisska Nova Ves, on a great plain. See ://www.tanap.sk/spiscastle.html. This castle enabled the area to hold off the Tartars, at least for a while. Read about the Tartars, also known as Tatars, from the Russian perspective at the time, at //www.logoi.com/notes/russia/tartar_invasion.
We spent time at Bojnice Castle, not far from the Zilina-Presov area, because it had a ghost festival going on at the time, an annual event complete with a narrative-drama tour of the castle, and a street fair with fabulous food - see Slovakia Road Ways, Bojnice Castle.
Haluski - Cabbage and Noodles
"Cook haluski with hot, sweet butter." Zoli at 47 and many places (p.37, ex) referring to haluski. Delicious: here is a composite of the many recipes online for Slovakian haluski - Take a head of cabbage and slice it into strips, not like cole slaw, but some two inches long and an inch wide. Chop two or three onions, two large or three medium, roughly. Use a stick and a half of real butter, and a package of noodles, medium size, or make your own.
Salt and pepper.
Some add an egg; some use well-rinsed sauerkraut instead of cabbage, some mince the cabbage, some add potatoes. This one makes little drop-dumplings, forcing a batter through holes of a colander or haluski maker, see://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1726,155187-240196,00. Here is bacon, eggs/ flour/ and potatoes that you make into a mush for the batter, for the little finger size dumplings, and the sauerkraut
Salt and pepper.
Some add an egg; some use well-rinsed sauerkraut instead of cabbage, some mince the cabbage, some add potatoes. This one makes little drop-dumplings, forcing a batter through holes of a colander or haluski maker, see://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1726,155187-240196,00. Here is bacon, eggs/ flour/ and potatoes that you make into a mush for the batter, for the little finger size dumplings, and the sauerkraut
Runic Signs - Finding your way in the woods
"We followed signs -- a knotted wishbone to turn left, a broken twig for a right fork in the road, a white cloth for a friendly farmhouse where we could water Red (the horse) and fill our canteens." Zoli at 29.
Runic signs. Look them up at ://www.symbols.com/index/wordindex-r.html. They appear in Germanic, Celtic and Slavic cultures. See ://www.zielarze.pl/runes.htm. "The Cambridge Ancient History," book by Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, and Averil Cameron, is online as an ebook. I did a search for runic signs and the book came up. It says the signs originated about the second century, spread, show connections to various cultures, used probably first as invocations, to increase efficacy of a weapon, for example; but also the kind of wood inscribed was significant - birch for fertility, or the rune for the now-extinct auroch, for strength.
Do an images search for rune signs or runic signs to see them.
While traveling, a band of Gypsies:
"...maintained contact with other convoys of the same clan moving along separate routes. They would leave signs at crossroads - a bunch of twigs tied with a red rag, a branch brokein in a particular way, a notched bone - the signs called shpera* among the Polish Gypsies (and patrin,** or leaf, everywhere else, from Kosovo to Peterborough. Fearing the devil's spawn, villagers steered clear of these markers."
Fair use quote from "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and their Journey," by Isabel Fonseca, NY Vintage 1996 at 3.
..................
* Shpera - road sign or marking, see Roma-English glossary at www2.arnes.si/~eusmith/Romany/glossary.
** Patrin - marker, leaf, see "The Patrin Web Journal, Romani Culture and History" at www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=patrin, and the meaning of "patrin" as "leaf," and further linguistic offshoots at www.languagehat.com/archives/001314.php
Runic signs. Look them up at ://www.symbols.com/index/wordindex-r.html. They appear in Germanic, Celtic and Slavic cultures. See ://www.zielarze.pl/runes.htm. "The Cambridge Ancient History," book by Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, and Averil Cameron, is online as an ebook. I did a search for runic signs and the book came up. It says the signs originated about the second century, spread, show connections to various cultures, used probably first as invocations, to increase efficacy of a weapon, for example; but also the kind of wood inscribed was significant - birch for fertility, or the rune for the now-extinct auroch, for strength.
Do an images search for rune signs or runic signs to see them.
While traveling, a band of Gypsies:
"...maintained contact with other convoys of the same clan moving along separate routes. They would leave signs at crossroads - a bunch of twigs tied with a red rag, a branch brokein in a particular way, a notched bone - the signs called shpera* among the Polish Gypsies (and patrin,** or leaf, everywhere else, from Kosovo to Peterborough. Fearing the devil's spawn, villagers steered clear of these markers."
Fair use quote from "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and their Journey," by Isabel Fonseca, NY Vintage 1996 at 3.
..................
* Shpera - road sign or marking, see Roma-English glossary at www2.arnes.si/~eusmith/Romany/glossary.
** Patrin - marker, leaf, see "The Patrin Web Journal, Romani Culture and History" at www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=patrin, and the meaning of "patrin" as "leaf," and further linguistic offshoots at www.languagehat.com/archives/001314.php
Small Glossary - "Zoli" terms - Lady of Cachtice, Chapbookce, Other References - Zoli
Chapbook - a small, self-published booklet or pamphlet, perhaps of poems. See //msms.essortment.com/whatisachap_rlmn. Even you could do one for yourself. Zoli at 94.
Cachtice - Zoli was given a book as a child, "The Lady of Cachtice." Soli 54. We think that here is the Castle Cachtice, Slovakia - its location and outline match those that are affirmatively identified - we passed by at that location, looked up and there was this splendid ruin. Do an images check for Cachtice, see the same tower placement, general shape. This may be in better shape, however, so just might not be it. Many castles on clifftops.
Correction - this site shows another side of the castle, and this does not look like it - see://www.slovakheritage.org/Castles/cachtice.
At least this castle gives you an idea of what things were in the area and interested even a Gypsy child growing up - like anyone else.
This one looks closer, but I think it is Spis Castle, not Cachtice.
Now - if only we had known - Cachtice has a gory history. The Lady is 16th Century's The Bloody Lady of Cachtice, serial killer Elizabeth Bathory, and her portrait is on a mousepad even now being sold on eBay.
She tortured people and invented the Iron Maiden, so they say. Read it at Wikipedia and other sources from a search for her.
Further Cities of "Zoli" - Slovakia: Bratislava, Banska Bistrica, Kosice
Continuing our interest in "Zoli" - by Colum McCann
the novel roughly based on the 1930's Roma singer, Papusza *
Places in Slovakia mentioned or central to the book.
See section entitled "Slovakia 2003" in particular
the novel roughly based on the 1930's Roma singer, Papusza *
Places in Slovakia mentioned or central to the book.
See section entitled "Slovakia 2003" in particular
Bratislava, Slovakia: Castle view, from the DanubeOverall country: see Slovakia Road Ways.
Bratislava.
Here is Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It is near Vienna - at the western section of Slovakia, just down river on the Danube, and tour boats stop here. See map at ://www.gov.mb.ca/trade/country/images/maps/lo-map.jpg. The tour boats' next stop is Budapest, Hungary. There is the castle on the hill. The old town is right there where the cruise ships are, with its warren of old streets and walls. Gypsies were resettled here, and other towns, in large apartment building blocks, canyons of them, outside the picture's range; and the wheels of their caravans burned so they could not move about any more. See Zoli p______ on the "Great Halt."
The Park Kultury here hosts annual jazz events - very successful. See mention of park, beside the Danube, at Zoli p. 94. And the Tatra Hotel, Zoli at 114, is still there. See //www.hotelclub.net/hotel.reservations/Tatra_Hotel_Bratislava.htm. The Carlton Hotel, Zoli at 115, is now a Radisson. See ://www.bratislava.info/hotels/hotel-carlton/
Banska Bistrica, Slovakia: Town SquareThe town of Banska Bistrica, Square of the Slovak National Uprising.
Note the Marian or Plague Column in the center, in gratitude for being spared in the epidemics, especially I believe the dreadful one in 1715.
Zoli mentions this town at p.___. Have to get page.
Kosice, Slovakia: car showKosice.
Kosice, Slovakia. This is at the far eastern section of Slovakia. This street leads to the square with its large St. Elizabeth Cathedral. The town is at an old trade-route crossroads.
Here is a modern car show, girls, band and all. The Square and street connecting to a lower square are pedestrianized, and this was one of the features that day.
Kosice, Slovakia: St. Elizabeth's Cathedral While we are here, see the splendid landmark cathedral in the main square. St. Elizabeth's Cathedral. Fourteenth Century, named after Elizabeth, the daughter of Charles of Anjou.
It is the largest Gothic Cathedral in Slovakia.
.............................
* "Zoli" by Colum McCann, Random House 2007; Papusza lived in Slovakia, before and during the time of the Fascists. Some reviews stress the plot of the novel as a love story. To me, that was secondary to the life of the person. Here is a collection of reviews: at http://www.amazon.com/Zoli-Novel-Colum-McCann/dp/0812973984/
Monday, November 5, 2007
Roma in Slovakia: Push-cart
This family was deferential in movement, going around our car, downcast eyes. They had a heavy push-cart, with children and belongings on it. This is in Slovakia. No other persons were like them there, although there was a shantytown down the road - just no people visible. It is as though noone wastes time on the road. We finally saw one other man, head averted, was walking a ways past.
There were armed guards at the main entrance of this modest mall area, with a supermarket and gas station there.
See details at Slovakia Road Ways, Roma pos.
The caravans are large enough for living and sleeping. We saw some parked, but not on the roads.
There were armed guards at the main entrance of this modest mall area, with a supermarket and gas station there.
See details at Slovakia Road Ways, Roma pos.
The caravans are large enough for living and sleeping. We saw some parked, but not on the roads.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Further Western Lit and Gypsies: John Updike
Gypsies in Literature, Gypsies in Arts
.With many sites focusing on well-known Gypsies, such as Charlie Chaplin, here at Montreux, Switzerland, welcome to a longer background narrative.
.
Charlie Chaplin, Gypsy (Roma), Montreux, SwitzerlandA review of John Updike's book, "Drawn to Gypsies, Six Years in the South of France," appeared in the New Yorker magazine in 4/10/06. Read the review at http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/04/10/060410crbo_books1.
.
This is an excellent resource for people who already have a solid grounding in Gypsy culture. That resource was not available to us as we traveled on our own, and researched the culture later. We have no independent experience with the Roma, as John Updike has.
Update: Add to the list of authors focusing on Roma, Jessica Duchen, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/aug/12/1. She lists her top 10, among which are:
- Carmen (opera),
- Esmeralda (from Hunchback of Notre Dame), and a new one for me,
- Kizzy in a children's book, The Diddakoi, by Rumer Godden, http://www.rumergodden.com/diddakoi.php, story with a bullying theme, see review at http://sarahbbc.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/the-diddakoi-rumer-godden/. In libraries, this can be listed either as adult Fiction or in Juvenile, so look both places. Diddakoi: defined as "Gypsy outside the Romany tribes and of mixed blood", see http://www.diddakoi.com/kay_diddakoi.htm
- Mr. Rochester (Jane Eyre) when he takes on a teller's disguise, and others new to me: here so I can look them up at the library:
- Emil (Fires in the Dark by Louise Doughty, holocaust topic, CZ),
Vlachs. Vlax. Records vie. Gypsies, or not
Vying about origins. See ://www.m-w.com/dictionary/vie. "Bury Me Standing" says that the Vlachs were Latin-speaking; and that they saw the value in Gypsies (this section suggests that the Vlachs were not themselves Gypsies - need to find out more) at p. 177. Then again, there is an earlier record of two "Egyptians" including a Vlach who ordered merchandise in the Balkans (Dubrovnik, Croatia?).
This site recognizes the Vlach origins of Gypsies in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, see http://romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/ethn/groupscz/cz-vlax.en.xml.
This one examines their history and culture, as they are in Hungary - Hungarian Gypsies. See ://www.everyculture.com/Europe/Vlach-Gypsies-of-Hungary.html
This site does not recognize Vlachs as Gypsy at all. See "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and their Journey," Isabel Fonseca, NY Vintage 1996. It sees them, from records, as indigenous to the area from the times of the Roman Legions, and speaking a vernacular Latin. Fonseca researched records from books not translated before, and not circulated - even now. You have to go to the libraries, ask, wait, hope.
Tracing origins by language. Specific words used in different parts of Europe are followed at this site, pointing out the branches of Romani.
//www.marston.co.uk/RSPP/LUPRSV012P02A00075.pdf, are listed as
1. Northern -
Germany and France - "Sinti"
Scandinavian, Spain, Poland, Northern Russia, Baltic States [association with late middle ages migration, into central, northern, southern, western Europe]
2. Central - Hungary, Burgenland in Austria, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic
3. Balkan
4. Vlax
For the Vlachs, or Vlax, or Vlachi, see an initial overview and photos at Romania Road Ways, Vlachs. See also the Czech Republic and Slovakian Vlachs at http://romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/ethn/groupscz/cz-vlax.en.xml.
They are also in Greece, and that is where we photographed one - a shepherd, with his sheep, see Greece Road Ways, Ioannina, Metsovo, Vlachs. And Texas, around the area of Vlassko, see ://www.angelfire.com/tx5/texasczech/Valachs/Who%20are%20the%20Valachs.htm; and ://brunodam.blog.kataweb.it/2006/10/26/xviii-ae-forum-on-aromaniansvlachs/
This site recognizes the Vlach origins of Gypsies in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, see http://romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/ethn/groupscz/cz-vlax.en.xml.
This one examines their history and culture, as they are in Hungary - Hungarian Gypsies. See ://www.everyculture.com/Europe/Vlach-Gypsies-of-Hungary.html
This site does not recognize Vlachs as Gypsy at all. See "Bury Me Standing, The Gypsies and their Journey," Isabel Fonseca, NY Vintage 1996. It sees them, from records, as indigenous to the area from the times of the Roman Legions, and speaking a vernacular Latin. Fonseca researched records from books not translated before, and not circulated - even now. You have to go to the libraries, ask, wait, hope.
Tracing origins by language. Specific words used in different parts of Europe are followed at this site, pointing out the branches of Romani.
//www.marston.co.uk/RSPP/LUPRSV012P02A00075.pdf, are listed as
1. Northern -
Germany and France - "Sinti"
Scandinavian, Spain, Poland, Northern Russia, Baltic States [association with late middle ages migration, into central, northern, southern, western Europe]
2. Central - Hungary, Burgenland in Austria, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic
3. Balkan
4. Vlax
For the Vlachs, or Vlax, or Vlachi, see an initial overview and photos at Romania Road Ways, Vlachs. See also the Czech Republic and Slovakian Vlachs at http://romani.uni-graz.at/rombase/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/ethn/groupscz/cz-vlax.en.xml.
They are also in Greece, and that is where we photographed one - a shepherd, with his sheep, see Greece Road Ways, Ioannina, Metsovo, Vlachs. And Texas, around the area of Vlassko, see ://www.angelfire.com/tx5/texasczech/Valachs/Who%20are%20the%20Valachs.htm; and ://brunodam.blog.kataweb.it/2006/10/26/xviii-ae-forum-on-aromaniansvlachs/
"Romney" as a Gypsy language, as is "Cant"
Roots of people are often in the words they use. Look up this book: "Scholarship and the Gypsy Struggle, Commitment in Romani Studies" edited by Thomas Acton; online at this very long URL, or do your own search for gypsies roma romney ://books.google.com/books?id=CGWFAQ9RZ0oC&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=gysies+roma+romney&source=web&ots=CMpJWIApnx&sig=E2KfOMzLmm12Te8b60EpQXijLx8#PPP1,M1
In one of the sections, The Genesis of Anglo-Romani, by Peter Bakker, is this section:
In one of the sections, The Genesis of Anglo-Romani, by Peter Bakker, is this section:
- In 1753, a James Poulter distinguishes the language of the Gypsies, Romney, from Cant. "Gypsies are a people that talk Romney, that is a Cant that nobody understands but themselves."
It also means "thieves' jargon," see entry for 1787 Germany, at ://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/files/13_briefhistory.shtml.
The term "Romney" appears in several contexts so far: as a synonym for "Romani," or "Rom'nie," and here as language identifier. The Romani Linguistics and Romani Language Projects, at ://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/files/13_briefhistory.shtml gives a chronology of the search for language roots.
See supplemental post here, Other roots of "Romney".
Here is a site that discusses many different groups among gypsies, suggesting a broader variance in language because they dispersed, took on different roles, trades: The Gypsy Lore Society, at ://www.gypsyloresociety.org/cultureintro.html. This relates to the several groups of North American gypsies, noting that the Irish travelers and the Scottish travelers do not refer to themselves as gypsies. They had their own traditions, keep their distance. There was a substantial wave of immigration around the 1850's to North America, from many parts of Europe and the British Isles.
For more on the language, there is this book (online but only accessible through JSTOR), "The Cryptolectal Speech of the American Roads: Traveler Cant and American Angloromani" by
Ian Hancock, American Speech, Vol. 61, No. 3 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 206-220
doi:10.2307/454664.
Rom and Romni can mean Husband and Wife, see http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/files/11_names.shtml.
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