tiny monks in the East End of London

Fuair mé an íomhá seo ar an mblag seo an lá cheana. Míníonn an blagadóir, a thóg an pictiúr seo, nach bhfuil iontu ach gearrthóga páipéir atá greamaithe de bhalla san East End. (Tá triúr acu ann, mar is ceart, ar ndóigh.) Níl siad ach cúpla orlach ar airde. Níl a fhios agam cé a chum iad. Is breá liom an teicníc seo!

The Monks in the wilderness

Bliain a hAon

Bliain a Dó

Bliain a Trí

- Maith at·taam.

- Is maith atáimid.

- Is maith ón.

- Is maith é.

- Toingim fom aibit, mani·léicthe ciúnas dom co n-imgéb in fásach uile dúib.

- Mionnaím ar m'aibíd, mura ligeann sibh ciúnas dom fágfaidh mé an fásach uile daoibh!

authority

Cliceáil le méadú.

As·bert int ap co·ndechad for cel.

Dúirt an t-ab go ndeachaigh tú ar ceal (.i. go bhfuair tú bás).

The abbot said that you died.

Am béo-sa calléic, amal ad·cíd.

Tá mé beo mar sin féin, mar a fheiceann sibh.

I'm alive nonetheless, as you see.

Acht is indraiciu int ap oldaí-siu.

Ach tá an t-ab níos iontaofa ná thusa.

But the abbot is more trustworthy than you.

“The Three Hermits”

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939). Responsibilities and Other Poems. 1916.

THREE old hermits took the air
By a cold and desolate sea,
First was muttering a prayer,
Second rummaged for a flea;
On a windy stone, the third,	5
Giddy with his hundredth year,
Sang unnoticed like a bird.
‘Though the Door of Death is near
And what waits behind the door,
Three times in a single day	10
I, though upright on the shore,
Fall asleep when I should pray.’
So the first but now the second,
‘We’re but given what we have earned
When all thoughts and deeds are reckoned	15
So it’s plain to be discerned
That the shades of holy men,
Who have failed being weak of will,
Pass the Door of Birth again,
And are plagued by crowds, until	20
They’ve the passion to escape.’
Moaned the other, ‘They are thrown
Into some most fearful shape.’
But the second mocked his moan:
‘They are not changed to anything,	25
Having loved God once, but maybe,
To a poet or a king
Or a witty lovely lady.’
While he’d rummaged rags and hair,
Caught and cracked his flea, the third,	30
Giddy with his hundredth year,
Sang unnoticed like a bird.

Drink is the enemy.

Cliceéail le méadú.

- Is náma in deog. = Drink is the enemy.

- Car do námait. = Love your enemy.

Sean-Ghaeilge atá á labhairt acu, ar ndóigh.

Na Manaigh san Alsáis & sa Lorráin

Tá an Triúr Manach líofa i dteangacha áitiúla na hAlsáise agus na Lorráine anois, a bhuí le Pascal Curin agus a chuid cairde. Is teangacha/canúintí Gearmánacha an chéad dá cheann, agus teanga/canúint Fhrancach an tríú ceann. Is dócha gur canúintí iad, ó nach bhfuil arm ná cabhlach acu, mar a dúirt Max Weinreich:

.אַ שפּראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמיי און פֿלאָט

A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot.

Alsáisis

Réin-Fhrancóinis

Lorráinis

Maidir leis an triúr manach sa ghreanadh adhmaid thuas, is é Jost Amman a chum iad don leabharEygentliche Beschreibung Aller Stände auff Erden a scríobh Hans Sachs agus a foilsíodh sa bhliain 1568. Seo é an téacs, a deir go raibh na manaigh i bhfad níos diaganta fadó (.i. roimh 1568!). Nach mar sin a bhíonn sé i gcónaí? B'fhéidir gur mhaith le hAonghus nó le Fergus Gaeilge a chur ar na línte seo.

Wir Münich vor uralten jarn,
Einsidel und Waldbrüder warn,
Lagen in andechting Gebett,
Mit fasten, wachen, frü und spet,

Hofften dardurch selig zu werdn,

Doch lebn wir jetzt anderß auff Erdn,
Mancherley Orden, Rott und Sect,
Da nicht viel Geistes innen steckt.

triple deities

Genii Cucullati

íomhá ón mBreatain Rómhánach

Triúr Jizō

íomhá ón tSeapáin

Is maith liom chomh cosúil agus atá an dá íomhá seo, a tháinig ó dhá cheann mhórchríoch na hEoráise. Scríobh mé cúpla focal ar na Genii Cucullati roimhe seo. Fuarthas an chéad íomhá thuas in Housesteads, Northumberland, in aice le Múr Hadrian. Scrín tí a bhí ann, de réir dealraimh.

Tá a lán daoine sa tSeapáin an-cheanúil ar an mBodhisattva Jizō. Tá íomhánna de le feiceáil ar fud na tíre. Uaireanta taispeántar mar thriúr é. Is cosúil go raibh an smaoineamh céanna le fáil ó cheann ceann na hEoráise: tá cumhacht ar leith ag baint leis an uimhir trí. Tá dia triarach i bhfad níos fearr ná dia aonair!

“Thou shalt not ...”

Cliceáil le méadú.

#1 - Ni nais étach for nach nocht.

#2 - Is doiligh olann a bhaint de ghabhar.

#3 - Sa Ghréig freisin?

Tá an chéad mhanach ag léamh ón tráchtas breithiúnach “Córus Béscnai” (Corpus Iuris Hibernici 215.2). Tá aistriúchán den nath seo in Ancient Laws of Ireland a thaitníonn liom:Thou shalt not bind a naked person to pay in clothes.

It was time to give them a hand.

- Tá lámha againn anois. [We have hands now.]

- Tig liom m'ordóga a chasadh. [I can twiddle my thumbs.]

- Cuireann an Diabhal obair ar fáil do lámha díomhaoine. [The Devil makes work for idle hands.]

Céim chun tosaigh? Céard atá i ndán do Manaigh anois?

Triúr a bhíonn faicheallach ...

... le go mbeidh dul as acu má bhréagnaítear iad:

... go gclos dom. [... from what I hear.]

... go bhfios dom. [... as far as I know.]

... go gcuimhin liom. [... from what I remember.]

communication

- We have two eyes, two ears and two feet.

- But we have no hands!

- You can talk without your hands. We're not Italians!

The Monks discuss wisdom.

Cliceáil le méadú.

Manach a haon: Is fearr eagna

Manach a dó: ... ná maoin.

Manach a trí: Eagna agus oidhreacht le chéile, is maith an ní é sin.

Tá an chéad ráiteas, “Ferr ecnae n-anaib” (nó “Is fearr eagna ná maoin”) le fáil sa chnuasach “Bríathra Flainn Fhína maic Ossu”. Tagann freagra an tríú duine ó Chóheilit 7:11 sa Bhíobla:טובה חכמה עם־נחלה, freagra atá níos gonta san Eabhrais ná mar atá sé sa Ghaeilge. Is ionann “oidhreacht” agus maoin a thiteann ar dhuine. I bhfocail eile, níl eagna leis féin chomh maith le heagna in éineacht le hairgead, mar “tá cosaint na heagna cosúil le cosaint an airgid”.

“To everything there is a season...”

Click to enlarge.

“To everything, there is a season...”

“A time to keep silence and a time to speak...”

And a time to complain/censure/revile, 24/7 !

Marbh ag tae?

scéal na bpolaiteoirí

The Monks on Facebook

I have 205 friends.

I have 332 friends.

I have 2,523 friends. And I don't read a bit of what they write!

gaois ó na Manaigh

the first sentence

The syntax of first sentence of the joke is a bit odd. As a simple declarative sentence we would expect the verb to come first:

Do·rat tríar manach díultad dont ṡaegul.

Putting the noun phrase “tríar manach" (= a threesome of monks) first is an instance of “fronting”: moving a portion of the sentence forward to the head of the sentence in order to emphasize it. This is a fairly common strategy in Irish.

Tríar manach do·rat díultad dont ṡaegul.

= (It was) a threesome of monks that rejected the world.

David Stifter has just suggested to me another possible explanation for the shape of the first sentence:

Jedenfalls ist mir die idee gekommen, dass dieser satz evtl. gar nicht teil der geschichte ist, sondern der titel des textes: "(about) the three monks who had renounced the world". In diesem fall bekäme die konstruktion plötzlich guten sinn und es handelte sich einfach um einen relativsatz. Die eigentliche geschichte beginnt dann erst mit "tíagait".

The sentence definitely sets the scene by introducing the characters and providing background information. As such, it seems to stand midway between a bare title (“The Three Monks”) and a first line of narrative (“Three monks renounced the world.”)

Thank you, David, for that idea!

They went to do what?

They went “do aithrigi a peccad”, that is, “for penance / penitence / repentence / repenting of their sins”. The word “aithrige” (dative “aithrigi”) is the verbal noun of the Old Irish verb “ad·eirreig”, which had two somewhat different meanings: (1) repeats, and (2) changes. The latter meaning was extended to include “changes for the better; improves”.

The verbal noun “aithrige” takes the idea of “changing for the better” one step further so that it ends up implying a change of attitude, and thereby an attempt to undo, repair, rectify a mistake.

Interestingly, the Old Irish verb “ad·eirreig” bifurcates during the history of the language, so that today in Modern Irish we have both:

1) “athraigh = changes” and its verbal noun “athrú = changing, change”; and

2) “aithrí = penance; repentence”.

In any case, the Three Monks apparently went into the wilderness in order to undo their sins before God by doing penance, not in order to repeat them!

in the hopper

The Monks have six new languages in the hopper, waiting to be processed. But there's also some structural work underway on their polyglot site. Once the work is done, more versions will appear!

another triad

The shrine of Tigh nam Bodach

Nó an bhfuil seisear acu ann? / Or are they six?

The Monks like them!

tripod

The tripod is the most stable of structures ... except in human relations.

The Monks need a graphic artist.

from the Moone High Cross:

other monks

Thai Style

- or Sri Lanka??

Uto-Aztecan, North to South

Michael Dunn and colleagues just published a paper in Nature that systematically challenges the theory of universal grammar long propounded by Noam Chomsky and his acolytes. This is the theory that says we all learn language effortless as children because we have a built-in “language organ”, a set of instructions that Pinker dubbed “the language instinct”.

The paper by Dunn et al., “Evolved structure of language shows lineage-specific trends in word-order universals”, was summarized in this piece in Wired.

click to enlarge

The research involved the analysis of four widely separated language families, one of which is the Uto-Aztecan of North and Central America. The Monks are pleased to note that they span the full extent of that family's geographical range, from Shoshoni in the north (Idaho) all the way to Nawat (also known as Pipil) in the south (El Salvador). In the middle they also have: Western Mono (California), Hopi (Arizona), Classical Nahuatl (México) and the contemporary Nahuatl of Huasteca (México). They look forward, as always, to adding further representatives of the Uto-Aztecan family!

Q: When are three monks not three monks?

A: When they are Genii Cucullati. These guys don't look all that different from the missionary monks on the Shetland stone. They appear to be wearing the same hooded woolen garment, known as the birrus or cucullus. This representation of a trio of Genii Cucullati (or Hooded Spirits) comes from Housesteads in Northumberland, along Hadrian's Wall, but images of them, often as a group of three, were common throughout the Romano-Celtic world. There are no associated inscriptions, and their exact role in Romano-Celtic religion is uncertain.

monks in Shetland

Three Monks

Here's the entire panel, which is in the Shetland Museum, where it is known as “The Monk Stone”, identified as a Pictish altar with a carving of Christian missionaries.

These guys appear to be wearing a long version of the one-piece hooded garment called in Latin birrus Brittanicus (which I discussed recently in Irish here). The birrus, which was made of wool and was reasonably waterproof as well as warm, was common in Gaul and Britain during the Roman period and into the Middle Ages. The word birrus comes from the Gaulish word birros, meaning “short”. The original version consisted of a hood and short cloak which covered just the shoulders and upper body. (The French word beret derives ultimately from the same word and garment, via Italian berretta.)

When is a monk not a monk? (cont.)

click to enlarge

The Sumerian solution, applied several thousand years after the heyday of the Sumerians by Dan Foxvog, a scholar of the language who recently retired from UC Berkeley, was to make the monks into “gala-priests”. The first two words in the text above are gala eš5. That eš5 means “three” is obvious.

The gala-priest was one of the several different classes of temple functionaries. His job was to sing choral liturgies (“heart-soothing laments”) for the goddess Inanna, as well as private burial laments. Gala-priests may have had a “third gender” identity in Sumerican culture. They sang their songs in the women's dialect (eme-sal) and some of them took women's names, and for those that know Sumerian, the elements that make up the written word gala are suggestive!

When is a monk not a monk?

When he's a sādhu, or a sannyāsī, or a Daoist priest, or a Pharisee, or a Sūfī, or a nanishundehai-daiboo or “prayer-whiteman”, which was the Shoshoni solution.

In Hopi, the monk becomes, not greatly to his credit, a tota’tsi, a “tyrant, dictator, demanding person; applied to Catholic priests (Franciscans) during the Spanish occupation”.

These are just a few examples of how the anecdote can be localized to fit the language and culture that it's moving into.

Mirandese?

Le Petit Prince has been translated into “around 200 languages, second only to the Bible for the number of translations”, according to this site. With only around a hundred versions of the 3M so far, I see they'll have to redouble their efforts. ;-)

By the way, what and where is Mirandese? Off to Google it!

Things to look at more closely?

Or, words to conjure with:

1. tríar : the power of the number three and triplicity in Indo-European culture and Irish culture in particular (the popularity of triads)

2. manach : the history and institution of monasticism, and the absence of the concept in other cultures

3. saegul : the world, in a Christian context, and in the pre-christian (?) dichotomy of in centar and int alltar, this world and the otherworld

4. peccad : the Christian concept of sin and its analogs in other religions/cultures

5. Día : Who Is This God Person Anyway? (the philosophical blockbuster by Oolon Colluphid in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)

6. toingim : variations and literary uses of the “I swear...” formulas in Early Irish literature

But first a joke!

One joke deserves another (and this one only works in English). Three monks went to live in solitude off the coast of Ireland. They called their home “Celibacy Rocks”. (You may groan now.)

The idea here is...

... to treat this as a journal platform to muse about, explicate and expatiate on the the Three Monks. Input and discussion will be very welcome. But no one knows that this blog exists yet... or so I think!