From: 72627.2647@compuserve.com (Don HARLOW)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.esperanto
Subject: Re: [Anglolingvo/English] easy to learn
Date: 16 Aug 92 15:02:06 GMT
Distribution: inet
Organization: The Internet

To: Esperanto >INTERNET:esperanto@rand.org

Dato: 920815

Sven Hauptfeld writes:

>Just to make it clear, I said that Esperanto was not MEANT TO BE the language
>in which one would EXPRESS LOVE TO ONE"S MOTHER. I think this is true enough.
>It was created by an adult man, with the purpose of easing the communication
>between adult people of different nationalities. I doubt that Zamenhof 
>envisioned anything like speaking Esperanto at home or as one's first language.

>I certainly DID NOT SAY that Esperanto lacked capability for expressing 
>emotions. That is entirely J.C.'s (mis)interpretation of what I said.

>Once again, I am not very competent in this issue (my knowledge of E. is just
>about enough to understand everything that was written in E. in this thread,
>or to conduct a simple conversation, that's all), but I don't think I've said
>anything wrong about it here - unless someone arbitrarily assumes that I've
>said more than I actually have.

I don't think Sven, or any other relatively new Esperantist 
participant, should be taken to task for being unfamiliar 
with the history of Esperanto. Perhaps, for the benefit of those 
who don't know, it should be pointed out that Zamenhof himself 
was, in fact, very interested in the idea of creating a native 
Esperanto-speaking community; he considered this (wrongly, I 
hope and believe) the best and perhaps only way of ensuring the 
future of the language. Many Esperantists still work towards this 
laudable goal, as any keyhole-peeper returning from a World 
Esperanto Congress or International Youth Congress can tell you.

Zamenhof also had poetic ambitions, and it is a fact that poetry is 
best used to express emotion, in whatever language. This was 
built into the language at the very start. As an example, consider 
the following poem, with which most long-time Esperantists will 
be familiar:

MIA PENSO

de L. L. Zamenhof

Sur la kampo, for de l' mondo,
Antaux nokto de somero,
Amikino en la rondo
Kantas kanton pri l' espero.
Kaj pri vivo detruita
Sxi rakontas kompatante, --
Mia vundo refrapita
Min doloras resangante.

"Cxu vi dormas? Ho, sinjoro,
Kial tia senmoveco?
Ha, kredeble rememoro
El la kara infaneco?"
Kion diri? Ne ploranta
Povis esti parolado
Kun frauxlino ripozanta
Post somera promenado!

Mia penso kaj turmento,
Kaj doloroj kaj esperoj!
Kiom de mi en silento
Al vi iris jam oferoj!
Kion havis mi plej karan --
La junecon -- mi ploranta
Metis mem sur la altaron
De la devo ordonanta!

Fajron sentas mi interne,
Vivi ankaux mi deziras, --
Io pelas min eterne,
Se mi al gajuloj iras ...
Se ne placxas al la sorto
Mia peno kaj laboro --
Venu tuj al mi la morto,
En espero -- sen doloro!

This was one of the first sample texts of Esperanto, published 
in the first book of the language in 1887. A version of it ("Mo 
pinto") is found among the few fragments still extant of the 
ur-Esperanto of 1881, in which year Zamenhof was 21. I think, 
as far as expression of emotion in Esperanto is concerned, that 
it speaks for itself.

=============================================
Don HARLOW                                Redaktoro Esperanto U.S.A.
tel. (1 510) 222 0187
CompuServe [72627,2647]
Internet 72627.2647@compuserve.com

"To discipline Esperantists is to eat soup with chopsticks."
                                                          Confucius
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