The Ramblings of my Disorganised Mind

Funny how the collective unconscious works

One disadvantage of taking a long time to get a piece of work done (say, a novel) is that you keep seeing bits of what you've already written all over the place. I don't think this is because of plagiarism, conscious or unconscious, but simply because "there is nothing new under the sun." Jung's collective unconscious theorem states that there are certain mythical elements that tend to be repeated, especially in the heroic fantasy-type story, from Ancient Greek mythology to Viking religiosity to Tolkein, because they all had similar elements that resonate within the human unconscious, a consciouness we all share. This goes beyond the Cliche thing, where we repeat the same elements because we know they sell (although they probably sell because those tropes and cliches are so effective at tapping into that; I don't know).

The end result is, especially if you consciously try to tap into these unconscious elements, you often find someone else got there first.

I realised this morning why I liked the song Remember so much, when I googled up the lyrics. There are two passages that are very, very similar to something I wrote for the Beth books almost three years ago. The lyrics are:

Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me, in your memory

Remember, when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
Just remember me

I am the one star that keeps burning, so brightly,
It is the last light, to fade into the rising sun

I'm with you
Whenever you tell my story
For I am all I've done

Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me, in your memory
Remember me

I am the one voice in the cold wind, that whispers
And if you listen, you'll hear me call across the sky

As long as I still can reach out, and touch you
Then I will never die

Remember, I'll never leave you
If you will only
Remember me

Remember me...

Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory

Remember, when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
I live forever
Remember me

Remember me
Remember... me...

The passage I've bolded sounded so familiar I checked my Ballads file and found one of the Barethian songs I'd written as a song written in that world by the character Bethía Na'brithrien (yes, that Beth) that had a very similar theme (although it's more a song about her own darkness and loneliness than about remembrance of Achilles. Which would make sense, given that there is no Achilles in my story, but I suppose I didn't really need to say that). The English translation is (it's the second verse that was similar):

Shadows fill my soul
I hear twilight's call
My aching heart cries in darkness:
Banish my sorrow,
Ease this unending, eternal craving.

Shadows fill my dreams
I hear icy whispers
My voices cry between the winds:
Listen to me,
I call across the barren skies.

I'm not sure if I like it much when that happens, because there's so much similarity to a popular song that if I ever do get it out, although it was written before the popular song (as far as I know), being accused of plagiarism is not fun.

Mind you, verse one of the song would appear in this form, if at all:

oretheh hafhíat
ahcadan valet
glaeoveh haf camhan
claithin ía

traeb hafhíat fhareh
dorae cadatha
threh hafhíat cahín
solath mar'cravtha

So I guess it doesn't really matter. But it's always annoying when something you've agonised over ends up almost effortlessly on the hit parade. Sigh. I'm not good at poetry, and making the form fit both languages is a bugger.

Example: the translation of the first four lines up there is:

"my spirit,
shadows fill
call of twilight
I hear."

but the literal translation is:
"spirit [lit. life spirit within] of-me
shadows [competely] fill.
[overwhelming] call of twilight
hear I."

Not exactly poetic, really.

So I go for:

Shadows fill my soul
I hear twilight's call

Which kind of carries the intent, if you marry it to the other lines (you know, "aching" and "darkness") while at least trying for some sort of English poetical form.

I suppose translaters throughout history have had the same problem. Some of the beautiful, beautiful Scots Gaelic songs completely lose all meaning and resonance when translated into English. The Bible reads better in Greek -- English, for all its wordiness, can take many words to say very little (you may have noticed that on this blog, hehe), whereas one Greek word can mean entire English sentences. An example would be the word translated "to perish" in some parts of the NT, when referring to punishment. It actually means, "to perish, and go on perishing, to always be perishing", I suppose, spiritually.

Another one would be the word translated "witch". It's actually the word we get "pharmaceutical" from, and literally means "poisoner" or "murdering drugger" and has nothing to do with "sorcery" or "magic", which, actually, Scripture only has a problem with when it is used to deceive, or pass off as a "miracle" (I guess the blokes who translated for James VI/I figured "witch" would do, given that hedge witches and midwives--most "witches" who were burned at the stake were midwives, never mind that Scripture itself is very supportive of feminine midwifery--used herbs as medication and birth aids. After all, you only had to look at his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, who was reviled at that time as a "witch" and traitor to James' own crown, through his predecessor Elizabeth. You could, logically, equally say "Thou shalt not suffer a pharmacist to live" as "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Political translations. I wish people would actually check the veracity of their source material before quoting it. Sheesh. But I digress again).

Yet for all its ubiquity, our "emotional" words lack something. Take the word "love", for example. When you say "I love you" you can be talking to anyone or anything from pancakes to chocolate to your mum to your first lover. You say to someone "I like you," and you end up having this whole confusing conversation that goes something like,

"You like me? Do you mean like like or just, like?"

"I don't know. What do you mean by like like? Is that, like, like as a friend, like as more than a friend but less than in love yet or are we just best friends now? Or do you really mean you love me but you can't say it? Give me some perametres, here."

"No, I mean, I really like you."

"Really? So, does that mean we're just friends or is this going somewhere? Do you mean, 'you really like me, but...'?"

"No,I really, really like--oh, forget it."

Etc.

One of my friends and I had this conversation a couple of years ago, and we decided the best way to get around that is to say to someone, when you're getting to the "affectionate feelings for just a friend" thing (especially if of different genders, which can get awkward otherwise sometimes), you say "I am SO in friend with you." Then everything you say that involves the word "love" after that, both of you know means "just friends" and there's no misunderstandings of the crushy type. Of course, that also means being prepared to 'fess up if the circumstance changes, and isn't always effective. The (male) friend involved thought for quite some time I had a crush on him because I just went my merry "just friends but very affectionate" way. That was funny for a while, once I clued in. I teased him about it for months. He got very panicked there for a while. I'm the evil twin, really.

Scots Gaelic has at least seven different words for love. They WAY outweigh the so-called "language of love", who have a similar problem to English: you say je t'aime (I like you) or je t'adore (I love you), whether you're speaking to your mother, your dog, or your life partner. Scots, on the other hand, has a word for lust, another one for love to a spouse, another one for love to a best friend, etc. I guess it makes sense, the Highlanders were perilinear (they counted descent from mum equally important to descent from dad: women kept their maiden names when they married, which I must admit can be a right pain when tryiong to track down family trees) so I guess more emotional nuances made their way into the language.

I think Scots Gaelic is more romantic than French (although admittedly harder to learn and bizarre to the English ear). "I love you" in Scots is Tha gaol agam ort, which, uh, sounds better than it reads using English phonetics (eg, the first word, "Tha" is pronounced approximately "ha"). That actually means, sort of, "Love is at me-on you." If you think about that for a while, it's quite profound.

Mind you, they don't have any straight words for a simple "yes" or "no", but you can't have everything.

I've done a similar thing with Barethian. I like emotional nuance, and that is an undercurrent of what the book is about, anyhow, and language is a very important plot point, as well as a catalyst for some of the events within the story. I mean, the first thing you do when trying to oppress a people, if actual genocide doesn't work, is to impose a cultural genocide, and that often starts with the language.

So, in Barethian, you can say "I love you" the following ways (using the verb conjugates differently for you, you (plural), they, we, he, she, it so I'm only giving the "I" example).

The í is a vowel used for a sound that approximates a short i sound (as in "his") with an exhaled breath at the front, not quite as strong as an h but stronger than nothing (I write it "hee" because "hi" has a long i sound in English). Vowels are always pronounced separately except the phoneme "ae" which is like "ay" except softer. Barethian is very soft. a is always sounded like "ah", (like, the "augh" in the Australian pronounciation of "laugh", and never like the a in "cat") except, softer.

tha grav ía [thah grahv hee.a] - to an object such as pancakes
tha horav ía [thah hor-ahv hee.a] - lit, worship, as in a deity
tha laean ía [thah lay-ahn hee.a] - to a lover or spouse ONLY, never used lightly
tha saerc ía [thah say-ehrc hee.a] - the verb "to love", referring to friends who are close, but not necessarily your "best" friend. Stronger than "like", but not intimate.

English-to-Barethian:

love 1. laean - (the emotion: ONLY as in "I love you" to a spouse, etc, or strong soul love for a bond partner)
2. saerc - love a person, friend, family only, stronger than "like", has affection for
3. grav - love an object, as in "I love pancakes"
4. inthlanan - to make love
5. nethria - love, honey pet name, to friends and family
6. horav - worship a deity
etc.

Pet names for those you love include:

annsa [ahn-sah] - dear, beloved, said to close friends and family only.
chíara [kh.hee-ah-rah] - best friend, close friend, love, mate (in a very strong platonic friendship).
laeannan [lay-ahn-ahn] - lover, sweetheart, only to spouse or lover.
nethria [neth-ree-ah] - to good friends (this is also the literal word for "honey", as in, the stuff the bees make).

That was your first Barethian lesson, too, folks. ;-)

I don't know why I do that to myself, but it's fun. Maybe I do it because it's fun.

Or maybe it's a form of procrastination. I don't know, but I reckon if I'm not having some fun with the writing thing, then I need to.

posted by Heather @ 10:15 am