52 Weeks of Historical How-To’s, Week 28: translating 17th century verse into Esperanto

For this week’s how-to post, I’ve taken some inspiration from one of our quirkiest collections, that of the Reverend John Beveridge (1857-1943). Beveridge gifted his library and archive to the University in 1943, the year of his death; the book collection of over 1,700 items almost exclusively reflects his three main interests Norway, beekeeping and Esperanto. I’m afraid the blog-budget couldn’t support a personal fjord-cruise for this blogger, nor do I have any desire to be stung a hundred times in a vain attempt to keep bees; therefore I’m turning my mind to learning a bit of Esperanto and translating some historic verse from our collections!

Beveridge was ordained into the United Presbyterian Church in 1882 and ministered in Stow (Midlothian), Wolverhampton, Dundee, Fossoway (Kinross-shire), and Gartmore (Perthshire) before retiring from the regular ministry in 1926. During this time Beveridge became involved in the developing Esperanto movement, which ultimately culminated in his participation of the translation of the New Testament into Esperanto, published in 1912. Beveridge’s work for the Esperanto translation of the Bible is outlined in his correspondence with J. Cyprian Rust, W.M. Page, editor of the “British Esperantist“, J.M. Warden, chief editor of the Esperanto translation of the Bible, and Dr L.L. Zamenhof, the originator of Esperanto. The correspondence also includes articles on and guidance rules for Bible translators, a few translations of short stories (some delivered as lectures), programmes for Esperanto congresses in Dundee (1911), Glasgow (1919) and Rothesay (1935), and orders of service, prayers and a sermon (all in Esperanto) for an Esperanto service held in Dunfermline Abbey in 1937.

Seeing as Beveridge was a keen translator of works in Latin and Greek into Esperanto, I thought I’d try my hand at doing something similar. I worked on a translation of a Latin poem into modern English for an exhibition two years ago on the founding of the King James Library; a poem which celebrates the foundation of the University Library by James VI & I. It was written by Andrew Bruce in 1612 and read to King James by Peter Bruce, Rector of the University, on 11 July 1617 when the King visited St Andrews and officially opened the Library. This address was delivered on the porch of Holy Trinity Church on South Street, just across the street from the site of the new library building. This poem was printed in The muses welcome to the high and mightie Prince Iames by the grace of God King of Britaine , France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. at his M. happie returne to his old and native kingdom of Scotland…(1618), a kind of itinerary of all of the official visits that James VI & I made during his one and only return to Scotland as King of Great Britain.

I figured since I already had some experience with this poem and its aloof imagery that translating it into Esperanto would be fitting. The short poem equates King James’s gift to St Andrews as the re-founding of the Pharos of Alexandria, the lighthouse which guided sailors to Alexandria and its great library. Bruce describes King James’s efforts as “collecting the scattered rocks of Pharos … constructing a new sacred home and majestic building”. So, off the to grammars and dictionaries I went. Esperanto is pretty easy to key your mind into, and for a native English speaker with pretty solid Latin proficiencies, the structure and vocabulary weren’t too difficult. The vocabulary is kind of half-Latinate and half-not, and especially nouns were quick to handle: insula->island->insulo; nubes->clouds->nuboj; etc. Esperanto’s structure is built to be spoken, and is very familiar to an English/German speaker, (noun, verb, object, etc.), with the added bonus of only two cases for nouns (nominative and accusative) and three verb tenses. Only a single definite article, easy conjunctions, and very easy plural noun structures put this blogger in translating heaven. The most difficult parts of this translation were working out the complex Latin/English moods, and then the final choice of vocabulary.

Here, then, is my final translation of “De Bibliotheca a serenissimo Reg Jacobo Andreapoli erecta, variisque selectissimorum authorum monumentis locupletat” by Professor Andrew Bruce (c. 1617) from Latin into English and from English into Esperanto. (you can view a .pdf of this translation work here). I hope that my translation doesn’t offend the ghost of the Rev. John Beveridge too much and that those who are proficient in Esperanto can forgive any first-timer’s mistakes! I will say that after completing my translation by hand, I checked this against online translating services in lieu of having any true Esperantists in the Library; since Esperanto is an auxiliary language (i.e. made-up), and its vocabulary and rules are finite, I found that Google translate did a decent job at checking phrases. Enjoy! (Amuziĝi!)

Pri la biblioteko konstruita de

la plej serena Reĝo James en St Andrews

kaj riĉigita de diversaj verkoj

de la plej zorgeme elektitaj aŭtoroj.

Al la Reĝo.

Estis iam renoma insulo, Pharos,

ĉirkaŭita de la vasta maro, (sed la maro kaj la tajdo sangxis

sian antikvan pozicioj), kie a turo konstruita

sur elĉizita rokoj leviĝis tiel alte, kiel la nuboj.

Tie lumoj brilis kiel tiuj de brilanta ruĝa stelo,

kiun oni povis vidi de malproksime por ŝipoj kiuj veturis nokte.

Tiu fairo , kiu guidis maristoj ‘ kanvaso dum

sia kaprica pasejoj sur la furiozanta maro,

estis nur por trankviligante al la biblioteko,

kiu brilis en Ptolomeo ilustras citadelo, lumturo kaj

la sola intereso de klerula korpo de viroj.

De tie libroj estis dissemitaj la longo kaj larĝo

de la mondo kaj etendis brilan lumon al liberalaj mensoj.

Nun Pharos estas dronita , ĝia altega turo malkonstruita,

kaj neniu spuro de tiaj grandaj Muzoj restas.

Sed la pia zorgo de la obeema Reĝo kolektis

la disaj rokoj de Pharos kaj dediĉita novan donacon al la Muzoj.

Li starigis sanktajn hejmo kaj majesta konstruaĵo

– lasu la biblioteko de la Reĝo, kiu konstruis Pharos fervoros pri ili –

kaj li havigis al kun libroj je kiu Ateno kaj Romo,

ankoraŭ ne piedpremis de la aroganta piedo de la Gotoj ,

devus miri.

Kaj tiel Skota Pharos leviĝas el tiu de Egiptujo ,

kaj la sceptroj de Egiptujo cedi al tiuj de Britio.

Andrew Bruce, profesoro de filozofio

(tradukita de Daryl Green, bibliotekisto de raraj libroj)