Here is the Cavafy poem that inspires this blog:
Ποσειδωνιάται
Ποσειδωνιάταις τοις εν τω Tυρρηνικώ κόλπω το μεν εξ αρχής Έλλησιν ούσιν εκβαρβαρώσθαι Tυρρηνοίς ή Pωμαίοις γεγονόσι και την τε φωνήν μεταβεβληκέναι, τα τε πολλά των επιτηδευμάτων, άγειν δε μιαν τινα αυτούς των εορτών των Eλλήνων έτι και νυν, εν η συνιόντες αναμιμνήσκονται των αρχαίων όνομάτων τε και νομίμων, απολοφυράμενοι προς αλλήλους και δακρύσαντες απέρχονται.
ΑΘΗΝΑΙΟΣ
Την γλώσσα την ελληνική οι Ποσειδωνιάται
εξέχασαν τόσους αιώνας ανακατευμένοι
με Τυρρηνούς, και με Λατίνους, κι άλλους ξένους.
Το μόνο που τους έμενε προγονικό
ήταν μια ελληνική γιορτή, με τελετές ωραίες,
με λύρες και με αυλούς, με αγώνας και στεφάνους.
Κ' είχαν συνήθειο προς το τέλος της γιορτής
τα παλαιά τους έθιμα να διηγούνται,
και τα ελληνικά ονόματα να ξαναλένε,
που μόλις πια τα καταλάμβαναν ολίγοι.
Και πάντα μελαγχολικά τελείων' η γιορτή τους.
Γιατί θυμούνταν που κι αυτοί ήσαν Έλληνες―
Ιταλιώται έναν καιρό κι αυτοί·
και τώρα πώς εξέπεσαν, πώς έγιναν,
να ζουν και να ομιλούν βαρβαρικά,
βγαλμένοι ―ω συμφορά!― απ' τον Ελληνισμό.
Poseidonians
[We behave like] the Poseidonians in the TyrrhenianGulf, who although of Greek origin, became barbarized as Tyrrhenians or Romans and changed their speech and the customs of their ancestors. But they observe one Greek festival even to this day; during this they gather together and call up from memory their ancient names and customs, and then, lamenting loudly to each other and weeping, they go away.
Athenaios, Deipnosophistai, Book 14, 31A (632)
The Poseidonians forgot the Greek language
after so many centuries of mingling
with Tyrrhenians, Latins, and other foreigners.
The only thing surviving from their ancestors
was a Greek festival, with beautiful rites,
with lyres and flutes, contests and garlands.
And it was their habit towards the festival's end
to tell each other about their ancient customs
and once again to speak Greek names
hardly any of them still recognized.
And so their festival always had a melancholy ending
because they remembered that they too were Greeks,
they too once upon a time were citizens of Magna Graecia.
But how they'd fallen now, how they'd changed,
living and speaking like barbarians,
cut off so disastrously from the Greek way of life.
Constantine P. Cavafy
Τα Υπ' Όψιν της 17 Μαϊου 2020
3 years ago
3 comments:
There are more than one ways to wander away from your language: one is when you live in a foreign country - need to survive dictates assimilation. Two, when another country has physically occupied your own (and still, the difference in religion that discouraged intermarrying and the general policies of Turkey prevented the language from perishing)- and third, when everydya talk changes as a result of the dazing effect another culture has on the people: not a physical occupation but one that creeps into everyday life and finds space for expressions such as "I don't have a problem", "it makes the difference" and the exclamation "Wow!" that I hear often on and off radio and TV.
Of all three cases, I am more afraid of the third: it implies a longing for and a sense of inferiority towards the non-existant US of the sixties - and it did not happen when France was a major power and French was the first foreign language young Greeks would learn.
If the Greeks in Greece today do not care enough to preserve their language, why should I? It is argued that the Greek language will not survive then next 100 years. If the Greeks today or so ignorant as to not preserve their history, of which the language is a huge part, then maybe the language should perish in order for it not to be associated amongst future generations as little more than the langauage of an arrogant group of people.
I agree with you to an extent: we should not try desparately to keep alive something the time of which is up.
My questions is "Is this languages's time up already? Or is it still evolving and taking a different shape and sound? And, certainly, I would not rely just on one people to preserve/care for a language (to a realistic extent again).Sometimes the spirit and the letter of a language can be carried on by "barbarians"....
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