Is It P ossible for A ll P eople to Speak th e Sam e Language? The Story of Ludw ik Zamenhof and Esperanto

Federico Gobbo (Am sterdam / Torino)

PO LIN Museum , 14 Decem ber ( ursday), 6 PM, free adm ission

Abstract

First, we will see the pillars of Zam enhof's thinking and why his linguistic project a$racted the Esperanto pioneers. Then, we will move on the contem porary days, looking to the m otivations of today’s speakers and their aspirations for the present and future of Esperanto.

About the lecturer

Lecture by Professor Federico Gobbo from University of Am sterdam . Federico Gobbo is Full Professor at the University of Amsterdam, holding the Special Chair in Interlinguistics and Esperanto, and teaching fellow in Language Planning and Planned Language at the University of Torino (Italy). He is a leading scholar in the analysis of the Esperanto phenom enon and language, including Zam enhof’s heritage in th e E s p e ra n to c o m m u n ity o f p ra c tic e .

About the lecture

Lecture delivered in English with simultaneous translation into Polish.

The lecture is organized within the Global Education Outreach Program .

The lecture was made possible thanks to the support of the Taube Foundation for Jew ish L ife & C u ltu re, th e W illia m K . B o w es, Jr. F o u n d a tio n , a n d th e A sso cia tio n o f th e Jew ish H isto rica l In stitu te of P o lan d . e casual tourist in Warsaw can encounter traces of Zamenhof and his main creation, the Esperanto language, w andering throughout the city. Coming here to the PO LIN M useum , you com e across ulica Zam enhofa. In th e city th ere is also an Esperanto Street, and a city bus show s ‘Esperanto’ on its display as that street is its last stop. B u t th ere are m an y Esp eran to an d Z am en h of streets in the w orld, so this is not w hat m akes W arsaw unique. Follow ing our im aginary to u rist, w h o is fo n d o f stre e t a rt, w e ca n ta k e a to u r to d isco v e r W a rsa w ’s murals: one of them portrays Zamenhof with an extensive bilingual Esperanto–Polish text, which can be found just outside here, around the corner, in the Muranów m e tro s ta tio n . L e t’s s u p p o s e th a t o u r im a g in a ry to u ris t is fond of languages too, and she loves biking. She w ill certainly ask herself the follow ing question: W hy does W arsaw ’s public bike system have such a stran ge non -P olish nam e, Veturilo? You can now guess the answ er: it is a w ord in Esperanto, m eaning ‘vehicle’. If our im aginary tourist happens to read Polish or Esperanto, she could satisfy her legitimate curiosity about the topic by consulting a book that is a source of reliable inform ation about the relation between Zam enhof and this city. In fact, the book entitled Zam enhof in Warsaw, published earlier this year, appeared in tw o editions, the

Even if Ludwik Lejzer was born in Białystok, he spent most of his life here in Warsaw, where he published the unua libro (‘first book’) on July 1887. So, Warsaw can be considered the adopted home of Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof and, of course, the cradle of Esperanto. UNESCO declared 2017 Zamenhof Year, being the 100th anniversary of his death, which transpired here in Warsaw, where Zamenhof’s grave is also located. The UNESCO decision was made after a proposal by Poland with the support of Germany and Slovakia. It is worth reading an extract of the original document motivating this important symbolic decision:

1 In 1887 he [Zam enhoD] published a textbook in R ussian: “ e international tongue – Preface and com plete m ethod”, under the pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto. e pseudonym means “ e Doctor who hopes” and has caught on as the nam e of the language. In the sam e year the textbook w as published in Polish, French, G erm an and English. e France, the

Zamenhof himself was the

Every language is a vehicle for a set of values held by the people who use it— in this case, the collection of the Esperanto-speakers— and even an invented language like Esperanto is no exception in this sense. In other w ords, Esperanto is not only a language, but a culture represented by its artifacts, created by the Esperantists, the people w ho believe that using that language for one purpose or another is w orth the tim e spent learning it. W e are used to ta lk in g a b o u t a sin g le E sp e ra n to la n g u a g e id e o lo g y , b u t th e v a rie ty o f p o litica l and social ideas connected to this language justify the use of the w ord ‘E sp e ra n tism s’ in th e p lu ra l.

According to Mark FeOes, a scholar who is currently the president of the most im portant association supporting the language, the U niversal Esperanto Association, the way Esperanto speakers perceive their language fa c e s a dilem m a between two contrasting aspects: on one side, there is the Gemeins⌫a⇠, linked to tradition, kinship, rurality; w hile on the other side,

2 th e re is th e Gesells⌫a⇠, linked to m odernity, individualism , and urbanness. e Esperanto G e m e in s⌫a⇠ aspect nurtures original poetry and prose, prepares theatrical pieces for perform ance at Esperanto conferences, and takes care of th e co n ce rt p e rfo rm e d b y th e la te st E sp e ra n to ro ck b a n d . e E sp e ra n to Gesells⌫a⇠ a s p e c t is m o re c o n c e rn e d w ith re c o g n itio n o f th e la n g u a g e a n d its value by external institutions, such as the UN ESC O declaration we saw above (w h ic h is o n ly th e la st o f a ra th e r lo n g list) o r th e P o lish P a rlia m e n t re so lu tio n in m em ory of Zam enhof, adopted on (th e 7th o f A p ril 2017) 7 A p ril 2 0 1 7 .

If w e consider the fact that Esperanto is spoken by a m inority scaOered around th e w o rld a n d th a t a t a sa m e tim e it h a s a n in te rn a tio n a l ch a ra cte r b y de

Gemeins⌫a⇠ a n d Gesells⌫a⇠ a re tw o a s p e c ts fo u n d in a n y liv in g la n g u a g e used by a com m unity of speakers: the Gemeins⌫a⇠ a s p e c t re p re s e n ts th e language as a barrier, allow ing speakers to identify them selves as a group, excluding non-speakers; in contrast, the Gesells⌫a⇠ rep resen ts th e lan g u age as a bridge, so that outsiders can learn it as a second language, follow ing the advice that learning a language m eans gaining access to a new w ay to look at the w orld through new lens. is paradox is unavoidable, and Esperanto is no exception in this sense.

In the case of Esperanto, Z am enhof w as concerned w ith both of these aspects since its lau n ch , an d th is fact is on e of th e m ain factors th at en abled Esp eran to to survive tw o W orld W ars and the challenges faced by the num erous rival projects proposed for playing the role of the international auxiliary language, su ch as Ido or Interlingu a, w h ich are now noth ing m ore th an cu riosities for sp ecialists an d a

3 utilitarian purposes, which users could not easily identify them selves with. In contrast, Zam enhof em bued his lin g v o in te rn a c ia , ‘international language’ in Esperanto, with his ow n character, com ing from his life experience of being an Ashkenazi Jew living in a gheOo. Esther Schor once expressed the relation between Zam enhoD’s Jew ishness and his language with a wonderful metaphor, which I would now like to quote: “ e history of Esperanto is a s e rie s o f Chinese boxes with a Jewish ghost inside.”

In a very fam ous private leOe r w riOe n in R u ssia n to a frie n d o f h is, N ik o la j Borovko, he recalls his early years in BiaVystok, where there were four distinct com m unities sharing the city: the Jew s, the Rom an Catholic Poles, the Orthodox Russians, and the Lutheran Germans. ese four peoples were divided by languages and religions that de

While Esperanto enjoyed a relative success, a=er its successful launch in France in 1905, the destiny of Zam enhoD’s religious project was already clear. Only once, Zamenhof was convinced to give an interview in English, to the Reverend Isidore Harris, for the journal ⌧e Jewish Chronicle. L e t u s lo o k a t a n extract of that interview , published in 1907, w here Zam enhof clari

4 Inasm uch as all Jew s have a history in com m on, and the peoples w ill have nothing to do with us, we ought to bew are of calling ourselves ’Russians,’ ’G erm ans,’ etc., and w e should call ourselves ’Jew s’ by nationality ; alw ays rem em b erin g th at, un like oth er nation alities, ou rs is neith er local no r ethnological, but only ideal. It stands to reason that w e cannot reform the whole Jewish people at one step. So we ought to create in Judaism a normal sect, an d strive to bring it abou t th at th at sect m ay com e, in cou rse of tim e— say, a=er 100 or 150 years— to include th e w h ole Jew ish peop le. W e shou ld th en becom e a pow erful group. Nay, more, we should be in a position to conquer the civilised w orld w ith our ideas, as the C hristians have hitherto succeeded in doing, though they only com m enced by being a sm all Jew ish body. Instead of being absorbed by the Christian world, we shall absorb them ; [but the Russian Jew s] had not the courage to help m e in organising such a sect as I contem plated. ere is a Russian proverb that [says] ‘O ne m an in a cam p does not make a soldier.’ So I have long since abandoned my schem e as unw orkable, and m y eXorts are now devoted to the cognate object of furthering the movement which I have called Esperantism.

In truth, Z am enhof never forgot H om aranism o, but a=er 1900 he devoted m ore tim e a n d e n e rg y to E sp e ra n to , a s h e w a n te d to g u a ra n te e th e la n g u a g e a secu re life even w ith ou t his ch arism atic presen ce. H is con cern s w ere w ell placed, because the accidents of history brought Esperanto into a cultural milieu where his religious proposal was completely unacceptable. In fact, whereas before the year 1900 the majority of Esperantists came from Tsarist Russia (and Jewish Esperantists had a considerable presence), in the early days of the past century it was the French-speaking world that would take the lead of the Esperanto M ovem ent, with Catholics strongly represented. M oreover, in 1905, public opinion in France w as divided because of the aaire Dreyfus, which fueled antisemitism, just when the Esperantists were organising their

5 Once he identi

En nia kunveno ne ekzistas nacioj fortaj kaj malfortaj, privilegiitaj kaj sen privilegiaj, nen iu hu m iliYas, nen iu sin Yen as ; ni Ziuj staras sur fundam ento ne[tra la , n i Ziu j e sta s p le n e e g a lra jta j ; n e n iu h u m iliYa s, neniu sin Yenas ; ni Ziuj sentas nin kiel mem broj de unu nacio, kiel membroj de unu familio, kaj la unuan fojon en la homa historio ni membroj de la plej malsamaj popoloj staras unu apud alia ne kiel fre m d u lo j, n e k ie l k o n k u ra n to j, se d k ie l fra to j, k iu j n e a ltru d a n te u n u la alia sian lingvon, kom prenas sin reciproke, ne suspektas unu la alian pro mallumo ilin dividanta, amas sin reciproke kaj premas al si reciproke la manojn ne hipokrite, kiel alinaciano al alinaciano, sed sincere homo al hom o. Ni konsciu bone la tutan gravecon de la hodia[a tago, Zar hodia[ in te r la g a sta m a j m u ro j d e B u lo n jo -su r-M a ro k u n v e n is n e fra n c o j k u n angloj, ne rusoj kun poloj, sed hom oj kun hom oj. Benata estu la tago, kaj grandaj kaj gloraj estu Yiaj sekvoj !

In our m eeting there are no strong and w eak nations, privileged and disadvantaged, nobody is forced to hum iliate himself, nobody has to worry; we all stan d on a neutral ground, we all are fully equal in rights; nobody is forced to hum iliate himself, nobody has to worry; we all feel as if w e a re members of a single nation, as mem bers of one fam ily, and fo r th e

6 e importance of that moment cannot be overestimated: Esperanto proved to be a workable language for everyday oral com m unication, but also suitable for form al contexts, both oral and w riOe n . A =er that m om ent, w e can

Spirituality always played a major role in Zam enhoD’s thinking. He closed his sp eech reading a poem , en titled Pre%o sub la verda standardo, P r a y e r b e n e a th th e G re e n B a n n e r. is poem is generally considered a good sum m ary of the in n e r sp iritu a lity in h e re n t to E sp e ra n to , th e so -c a lle d in tern a id eo , in te r n a l id e a of Esperanto. I will

Al Vi, ho potenca senkorpa mistero, fortego, la m ondon reganta, al Vi, granda fonto de l'amo kaj vero kaj fonto de vivo konstanta, al Vi, kiun Ziuj m alsam e prezentas, sed Ziuj egale en koro V in sen tas, al Vi, kiu kreas, al Vi, kiu reYas, hodia[ ni preYas.

Al Vi ni ne venas kun kredo nacia, kun dogm oj de blinda fervoro: silen tas nu n Ziu dispu t' religia kaj regas nun kredo de koro. Kun Yi, kiu estas Ze Ziuj egala, kun Yi, la plej vera, sen trudo batala, ni staras nun,

Homaron Vi kreis perfekte kaj bele, sed Yi sin dividis batale; popolo popolon atakas kruele, fra t’ fra to n a ta k a s _a k a le .

7 Ho, kiu ajn estas Vi, forto mistera, a[skultu la voZon de l’ p re Yo s in c e ra , red o n u la paco n al la in fan aro de l' granda hom aro!

Ni `uris labori, ni `uris batali, por reunuigi l’ h o m a ro n . Subtenu nin Forto, ne lasu nin fali, sed lasu nin ven ki la baron ; donacu Vi benon al nia laboro, donacu Vi forton al nia fervoro, ke Ziam ni kontra[ atakoj sovaYaj nin tenu kuraYaj.

La verdan standardon tre alte ni tenos; Yi signas la bonon kaj belon. La Forto mistera de l’ m o n d o n in b e n o s , kaj nian atingos ni celon. Ni inter popoloj la murojn detruos, kaj ili ekkrakos kaj ili ekbruos kaj falos por Ziam , kaj am o kaj vero ekregos sur tero.

* * *

To ee, O mysterious, bodiless Force, O Power of the World, all-controlling, To ee, source of Love and of Truth, and the source, Of Life in its endless unrolling, Whom each may conceive in his way in his mind, But the same in his heart, in his feelings, shall

We turn to ee now with no creed of a state, With no dogmas to keep us apart; Blind zeal now is hushed, and fanatical hate; Now our faith is the faith of the heart.

8 With this truest faith, this unforced faith and free, Which all feel alike, we are turning to ee, We stand now, the sons of the whole human race, In y h o ly p la ce .

y creation was perfect and lovely, but men, Are divided, and war on each other; Now peoples rend peoples like beasts in a den, Now brother makes war on his brother; Mysterious Power, whatever ou art, O hear now our prayer, our true prayer from the heart: O grant us y peace, O give peace once again To the children of men!

We are sworn to strive on, we are sworn to the

We will hold our green banner on high now, unfurled, A symbol of goodness, and, blessed In our task by the M ystery ruling the w orld, We shall come to the end of our quest. e walls that divide shall divide us no more; ey shall crack, they shall crash, they shall fall with a roar, And love then and truth shall, all walls overthrown, Come into their own.

at moment in 1905 was the establishment of ‘miracle’ of Esperanto. at miracle still holds today. In fact, such a miracle is repeated every time two Esperanto speakers belonging to diXerent nationalities, and even religions, meet. In 2015 la ce n ta U n iv e rsa la K o n g re so , the 100th W orld Esperanto Congress, was held in Lille, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, with almost 2,700 (two th o u sa n d sev e n h u n d re d ) p a rticip a n ts.

9 But let us com e back to the period of Esperanto pioneers, who de

KuniYu la fratoj, plektiYu la manoj, anta[en kun pacaj arm iloj! Kristanoj, hebreoj a[ mahometanoj ni Ziuj de Di’ e s ta s

Now onwards, all people, linked for e’er hand in hand, Your weapons of peace burnished brightly! From Islam ite, Hebrew or from Christian land, Each born of the Father Almighty. We must never forget we serve man’s highest cause, Whatever besets us, without let, without pause, Together, as brothers, to our goal we must press To certain success.

Since the success of the First Congress in 1905 until W ord W ar I broke out in 1914, a consistent international com m unity w as form ing around the tw o centres of the Esperanto M ovem ent: G eneva in Sw itzerland and Paris in France. e Sw iss elite, led by Hector Hodler, Edm ond Privat, and René de Saussure— the youngest brother of the more fam ous Ferdinand— stressed the im portance of the Esperanto M ovem ent’s political neutrality and its application in scienti

10 For them , Esperanto should be a spiritual refuge for individuals who did not let them selves be guided nationality for their ow n life choices, Esperanto being a sort of R ed C ross of th e Sou l.

On the other hand, the French leaders of the Esperanto Movement, in particular Louis de Beaufront, “the second father of Esperanto”— as ZamenhoD’s biographer Aleksandr Korzhenkov once called him— stressed the utility of the language in com m erce, diplom atic relations, and tourism . For th e m , th e E sp e ra n to M o v e m e n t sh o u ld b e stru ctu re d a lo n g n a tio n a litie s: h is Société Pour la Propagation de l'Espéranto in F ra n c e , Society for the Propagation of Esperanto, becam e the model of what later becam e the national societies, su ch as th e m odern Esperanto Nederland in the N etherlands or the Pola Esperanto-Asocio (in P o lis h : Polski Zw i4zek Esperantystów ) h e re in P o la n d . It is clear that Zam enhoD’s H om aranism o w as closer to the Sw iss view of Esperanto th a n to th e F re n ch o n e. B u t in th e e n d it w a s th e F re n ch v iew th a t w o n th e ideological com petition, and the m ainstream Esperanto M ovem ent w as eventually structured along national lines, in direct opposition of Zam enhoD’s Homaranismo. We have a clear proof of that in the following episode.

In his tim e as university student in M oscow , Z am enhof w as a Proto-Z ionist. e establishment of the new state of Israel was a maOer of intellectual discussion, though still not a political program m e. Zam enhof proposed establishing the future Israel not in Palestine but on the borders of the Mississippi River, still uninhabited then, with Yiddish as the oWcial state language. H is m odel w as the M orm ons, w ho had already founded their state, Utah, within the United States of America, maintaining their religion and culture. A s w e all know , the path to the foundation of Israel took a diXerent direction. In 1914, just before the beginning of the W orld W ar I, the Jew ish Esperantists were about to found a World Jew ish Esperanto Association (in Esperanto Tutmonda Esperantista Hebrea Asocio). ey asked Zam enhoD’s advice and oXered him the honorary presidency. H e refused the oXer, and su ggested th at th ey adop t Esp eran to an d Yiddish as w orking lan gu ages— notably, not Hebrew, whose revival was well established, a=er more than a generation of use. It was not an easy journey for Zam enhof to distance him self from the Jew ish people in this w ay. H is m otivation behind turning dow n the honorary position rightly rem ained fam ous. Let me

11 la [ m iaj konvinkoj, m i estas “hom arano”, kaj m i ne povas ligi kun la celado kaj idealoj de speciala gento a[ religio. [… ] Estas vero, ke la nacionalism o de la gentoj prem ataj—kiel natura sindefenda reago— estas multe pli pardoninda, ol la nacionalismo de gentoj premantaj; sed, se la nacionalism o de la fortuloj estas nenobla, la nacionalism o de la malfortuloj estas neprudenta; amba[ naskas kaj subtenas unu la alian, kaj prezentas eraran rondon de m alfeliZoj, el kiuj la hom aro neniam eliros, se Ziu el ni ne oferos sian grupan m em am on kaj ne penos stariYi su r gru n do tu te ne[trala.

According to my beliefs, I am a “homaranist”, and I cannot bind myself to th e p u rp o se s a n d id e a ls o f a p a rticu la r p e o p le o r re lig io n . [… ] It is true that the nationalism of a repressed people— as a natural defensive reaction — is m u ch m o re fo rg ivable th an th e nation alism of op p ressin g peoples; but if the nationalism of the strong is ignoble, the nationalism of the weak is unw ise; the two give birth to and nurture each other, and present an erring cycle of unhappiness, from which hum anity will never escape, unless all of us sacri

In sp ite o f th e Zeitgeist, the spirit of his tim e, Z am enhof did not believe in de

12 Will you begin simply to remake and patch up the map of Europe? Will you simply decide that the territory A must belong to the nation X and te rrito ry B to th e n a tio n Y ? T ru e, su ch w o rk y o u w ill h a v e to d o , b u t it must be only an insigni

Zamenhof would die two years later. His legacy and heritage lives through the Esperanto com m unity of practice, made by Jew ish and non-Jew ish people alike, not only in Europe but in many other parts of the world, notably the Far East— especially China, Japan, and South Korea— and the Am ericas— in particular Brazil, Canada, and the United States.

Esperanto speakers have developed the Esperanto language through the production of original cultural artifacts, and they continue to develop it today. e long poem La infana raso, e Infant Race, authored by W illiam A uld and published in 1956, is generally considered its most important and inMuential resu lt. B o rn in Sco tlan d , W illiam A u ld, w h o passed aw ay in 2006, decided to write his poems in Esperanto a=er his experience in World War II as Spit

13 XVIII Ne estas

L’ epoko ne maturas. Sed bezonon ja m se n ta s k e lk a j, k a j b e z o n o tro v a s sian rim edon , la precizan kon on alprenas. Kiu volas, tiu povas.

Kaj dum ekzistos la bezon’, ekzistos la e sp rim ilo (« n e p o r la fu tu ro » — ne, tam en eble anka[ mi asistos). gi estis revo pela. Kaj a[guro.

Li sciis, kom preneble: «post centjaroj» — ars longa… ho, sed vita estas brevis; Yi da[ras tikon de la okulharoj, kaj Yi ekzistas nur se oni revis.

La revo estas Zio. Kaj kuraYo: Zar revas nur la kuraYul’ unika. PerdiYas mil kaj mil pro la ZantaYo de l’ Ziutaga, mora, herm etika.

Li sciis. Kom preneble. Kaj li

«… post Yi ne estis plu la sam a», sorto kom pensa de l’ pelatoj kaj stranguloj, la so la , la sta sp ito k o n tra [ m o rto (la m alproksim a grako de klanguloj).

Nur tion li ne sciis, en mallumaj ta g o j d e V a rso v io d u m m ilita ;

14 sed tro m alfru e estas, en kru cu m aj horoj, beda[ri pri la kub’ `etita.

Faktoroj koincidis; nu, ekzem ple, la Proverbaro. La hazardo tra

Kaj rigor vitae Ziam Yin minacas? — sed ne dum Yin bezon as societo. Kio kontenton al postul’ donacas ne estas ludo por la kabineto.

Kio naskiYis en la familioj, en m ilionaj tribaj kom unum oj, kaj kunfandiYas trans periferioj kreskantaj pro produktoj kaj konsum oj, atingos unuecon. M alaperos neniam nia orfa idiom o (Zu je s a [ n e la m o n d o n Yi konkeros) dum volas kom preniYi hom ’ kun hom o.

Preska[ timige… senutilaj konoj… la hom naturo estas origine… Alea iacta, pasis fanfaronoj, nepras la vojon iri jam , obstine.

15 XVIII It is n ot on ly faith : facts bear th is ou t. Language an interchange machine, by social contact brought about, is altered by the changing scene.

Our age is not mature. But need is felt by som e w ho

And while the need exists, the way (“not for the future”) by design also exists, (perhaps I’ll play a part). A driving dream . And sign.

He knew “a=er

e dream is everything, and boldness, for only valiant hearts have dream s. Many are lost: blackmail, life’s coldness And every day’s hermetic schemes.

He knew, of course. A faithful mind, and by his faith he m oved the m ountains. A miracle? Factors combined To make a trickle future’s fountains.

“… nothing rem ained the sam e”, and faith unbending that can console obsessive m inds and cranks, th e o n ly

And in the hard dark days in wartime Warsaw, he did not know this, neither what would last;

16 it is too late to curse on e’s cross, an d m ore so to h a v e re g re ts w h e n o n ce th e d ie is ca st.

e factors coincided; for example the Proverbaro, A nd by happy chance, concise and certain. A nd above all sim ple, the sixteen rules perm iOing free advance.

And rigor vitae, did it threaten ever? — not while required by society whatever meets demand, and such endeavour is n o t a g a m e p la y e d o u t in p riv a c y .

Whatever comes to be within the family, within a million tribes and groups that function, consolidating, crossing tribal lim its, in c re a sin g b y p ro d u c tio n a n d c o n su m p tio n brings unity. And this our orphan tongue will never disappear, ‘spite bar or ban, (w hether or not it conquer the w orld over) while man seeks understanding still with man.

Almost frightening…useless knowledge hum an nature found innately alea iacta, boasting’s over we must go on obstinately.

17 Before le a v in g th e Mo o r, th e re a re s o m e p e o p le I would like to th a n k .

First, all the people working here at PO LIN, and in particular: o u r P o lis h in te rp re te rs, th e tw o Joan n a’s, Jo a n n a W ó jc ic k a -W a rd a a n d Jo a n n a A n d ry s ia k who did a wonderful job at organising th e w o rk s h o p a n d th is s p e c ia l p u b lic event.

Second, all my colleagues w ho helped m e in m aking these events in honour of Zamenhof possible, com ing here, som etimes from very far away.

Last by not least, my

ank you fo r y o u r a Oe n tio n .

Dankon pro via atento.

Dziikuji za uwagi.

Acknowledgement

e author participates to the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program m e under grant agreem ent “M obility and Inclusion in M ultilingual Europe”, No. 613344 (Project MIME). Usual disclaimers apply.

18 Appendix for the Polish interpreters

Public part of the Pre%o sub la verda standardo, tra n sla to r u n k n o w n .

Modlitwa pod zielonym sztandarem Do Ciebie, Potigo, bez ksztaVtów, nieznana, Dzierjkca ten lwiat Tajemnico, MiVolci i prawdy Krynico lwietlana I jy cia cikgVego K rynico… Do Ciebie przez wszystkich widziana odmiennie, Lecz w sercach odczuta jednako pVom iennie Do Ciebie, col dla nas twórczolci wyrazem, M o d lim y s ii ra z e m .

Nie wkzki szowinizm do Ciebie tu woVa, Nie llepych dogmatów moc gVucha… Spór ludów , religij ucichnkV tu zgoVa, Tu serce pVom ieniem wybucha… Z tk wiark w moc serca u wszystkich jednakk, Z tk prawdk jedynej najwyjszej oznakk My, syny ludzkolci, zwracamy dzil twarze P rz e d T w o je o Vta rz e .

Tom ludzkolm pow staVa jak braci grom ada… Cój wizVy w niej bratnie rozplatan Przez naród na naród okrutnie napada? Brat staje sii wilkiem dla brata? Kimkolwiek wiic jestel, Potigo przemojna, Niech wzruszy Cii szczera modlitwa pobojna, I d zie cio m sk Vó co n y m te j w ie lk ie j lu d zk o lci Z w ró m p o k ó j m iVolc i!…

19 My walki i pracy sii wikjem przysiigk, My ludzkolm pragniemy zjednoczym… Nie dozwól nam upalm, Tajemna Potigo, Dopomój zawady przekroczym… Nasz trud pobVogosVaw, podeprzyj staranie I serca zapaVom daj m oc i w ytrw anie, Ajebylmy czoVa napalciom w zVej chwili O d w a jn ie s ta w ili.

Nasz sztandar zielony podniesiem wysoko, Przed piikna i dobra oVtarze … I lw iata tajem ne dostrzeje n a s o k o I d ro g i nam blaskiem pokaje … I w strzksnk sii m u ry lród ludów w iekow e Od huku ich pójdk odgVosy cechowe I m iVolm i praw da, gdy one upadnk, N a z ie m i z a w Vadnk!…

Last stanza of the Pre%o.

Poetic translations by the Jew ish Esperantist Przem ysVaw W ierzbow ski.

Niech zbiork sii bracia, niech splotk sii dVonie, z orijem pokoju do przodu! wyznawcy Chrystusa, jydzi, muzuVmanie od jednego Boga sk rodu. Niech wiedzie nas pamiim o dobru ludzkolci, Bez przerwy, nie baczkc na losu wrogolci, To cel nasz jest, bracia, ruszajmy do@, zw arcie, Do ko@ca, uparcie!

20 Poetic tran slation of La infana raso in P o lish by Przem ysVaw W ierzbow ski.

XVIII Nie tylko wiara jest. Wspierajk jk fakty. Jiz y k je st z ja w isk ie m sp oV e c z n y m , tw o re m sp o Vecznych zalejnolci, a m ody

21 i sz e sn a lcie pozw ole@ zaparagrafow aV. A rigor vitae zawsze mu zagraja? — nie wtedy, gdy go potrzebuje spoVecze@stwo. Co zadowolenie jkdaniu daruje nie jest gabinetow k zabaw k. Co sii zrodziVo w rodzinach, w milionowych plemiennych wspólnotach, i sc a liVo sii z a p e ry fe ria m i ro sn kcym i z pow odu produktów i konsum pcji, osikgniVo jednolm. Nie zniknie nigdy nasza sieroca mow a (czy podbije ona lw ia t, c z y te j n ie ) dopóki porozum iem sii chce czVow iek z czVow iekiem . Niemal strasznie… bezujyteczna wiedza… natura ludzka jest pierwotnie… Alea iacta, miniVy przechwaVki, trzeba w drogi ruszym ju j, u p a rcie.

22