As You Like It in Esperanto: Washington, DC, 1910

2010 was the 100th anniversary of the 6th Universal Congress of Esperanto in Washington, DC, which Zamenhof himself attended. It was reported in the daily press of all of the major Washington newspapers. I researched this and related matters extensively and reported on it during the centennial year, in an interview on National Public Radio, a talk with slide show at the annual national congress of Esperanto USA in the Washington area, and in a similar talk as a part of a symposium at the UN on Zamenhof's birthday, at which Esperanto-speaker George Soros made a surprise appearance.

Some of my documentation can be found in a special section of my web site:

Esperanto, Vaŝingtono, & la Mondo / Esperanto, Washington, & the World — Jubileo / Centennial — 2010

The Esperanto press of course reported on the congress as well.  Here is my outline of the contents, with links to some specific items, of:

Amerika Esperantisto, vol. 8, no. 3, Oct. 1910

Note that Shakespeare's play As You Like It -- Kiel Plaĉas al Vi -- was performed in Esperanto translation by non-Esperantist actors on Tuesday, August 16, the third day of the conference.

A series of Shakespeare's plays was promised for the 1907 Universal Congress in Cambridge, UK:

Shakespeare in Esperanto, The New York Times, April 10, 1907

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC posted an article from its web site on Facebook on May 11:

As You Like It in Esperanto: Washington, DC, 1910, by Sarah Hovde, November 16, 2015

As they say, it's a small world, also because I live in the same neighborhood as the Folger Shakespeare Library, and my late beloved Evelyn, the 12th anniversary of whose death is today, was a Shakespeare buff and a volunteer there.

The library's catalog entry lists the date of the play's performance by the Hickamen Players as August 15, I will have to check other sources to confirm whether it was the 15th or 16th. Hovde extensively documents the performance, with links to reports in the American press. Bravo!

According to her report, this was the Hickman Players' first (and last) play performed in Esperanto, the first Esperanto play performed in the USA, and the first Esperanto translation of As You Like It.

The translation can be accessed and downloaded from Google Books:

Kiel plaĉas al vi: komedio en kvin aktoj de William Shakespeare; tradukis Dro. Ivy Kellerman [Reed]; speciale tradukita por, kaj ludita ce La Sesa Internacia Kongreso de Esperanto. Washington, D.C., USONO: La Sesa Internacia Kongreso de Esperanto, 1910.

Some time ago I was asked by Humphrey Tonkin to research what other documentation I could dig up on this. Maybe someday...

Zamenhof in Washington revisited

In 2010, the occasion of the centennial of Dr. Zamenhof's participation in the first Universal Congress of Esperanto to be held in the USA, in Washington, DC, I lectured twice on this topic and was even interviewed on National Public Radio. All this is documented on this blog.

In preparing for these lectures, I scoured the Washington newspapers and documented their extensive reportage of this event.

The blog Imp of the Diverse has several posts on coverage of Esperanto in the press in its early years. The latest post, posted today, is . . .

1910: Zamenhof to Arrive in Washington

Here we find a bit of background, a newspaper photo (reproduced here), and some snippets from the press and from Zamenhof's correspondence in anticipation of the 1910 Universal Congress.

William Sanders Scarborough & Volapük in the Black Press

William Sanders Scarborough (1852-1926) was one of the most outstanding of outstanding Black American intellectuals of the 19th and early 20th centuries, individual scholars who, because of the dire predicament of Black Americans, assumed all the roles a Black professional person could fill: writer, educator, professor, administrator, civil rights advocate and leader . . .Scarborough was born into slavery and rose to become a leading scholar of the Greek and Latin classics and president of Wilberforce University.

Scarborough was resurrected from the forgetfulness of history with the publication of two books, edited by Michele Valerie Ronnick: The Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey From Slavery to Scholarship (2005) and The Works of William Sanders Scarborough: Black Classicist and Race Leader (2006).

In 2010, in the course of preparing a lecture on the 100th anniversary of the Universal Esperanto Congress in Washington, DC, in addition to researching the mainstream American press for relevant articles, I decided to search the databases of the Black press for reports on Esperanto and the quest for an international language. Here are the articles on Volapük, now on my web site:

• Volapük in the Black Press, 1888 
• Volapuk (Chicago Defender, 1911)

Note that the two signed articles, from August 1888, were authored by Scarborough. Given that Esperanto saw the light of day only in 1887, 1888 was apparently too soon for the American philological community to compare it to Volapük. (I don't recall when Esperanto first captured attention of someone in the anglophone world. It did not take long.)

I found another reference to Volapük in Scarborough's Works. Here is the quote with the bibliographical information on the original publication. Note also that this article was written in the heat of the imperialist scramble to carve up Africa:

The influence of civilization is a mighty lever in shaping the destiny of language. Dialects crumble before it, and the diversity of tongues drifts toward unity. The language of the intelligent must supersede, wholly or in part, that of the unintelligent wherever they come in contact, either by displacing it or fashioning it after its own mold. As the weaker languages and dialects of Europe have disappeared before the light of intelligence, so will the languages and dialects of Africa drop out of existence, one by one, it may be, as the same influence shall quicken and permeate the people. One by one will the stronger swallow up the weak, until the speech of the dominant people shall prevail, jargon first, perhaps, extinction later. Doubtless many more dialects than now exist have passed away, some of them leaving not a relic behind to tell the story of their existence, while of others bare skeletons of speech may be found here and there, but hardly enough to indicate their linguistic relations. The forces that produced these changes are still at work, but in a greater degree; and, though we can make no definite statement as to the results growing out of the invasion of Africa by foreign languages, yet again we believe that the inflectional will survive the uninflectional languages of the world. No artificial language can stand the test of time. In fact, it will hardly gain a foothold, but like Volapük, will die in its infancy. 5 [footnote clarifying Volapük] 

SOURCE: Works, p. 242. Original source: "Function and future of foreign languages in Africa," Methodist Review 76, November-December 1894, pp. 890-899.

Poŝtmarkoj & the 6a UK

En 2010 mi priprelegis kaj dokumentis la 6an Universalan Kongreson (UK) de Esperanto en Vaŝingtono en 1910, en kiu partoprenis Zamenhof. De tempo al tempo mi trovas pluajn aferojn el tiu kongreso.

Jen poŝtmarko pri la 6a UK, trovita ĉe Rainbow Stamp Club: Esperanto stamps. Ĝi ne estas oficiala usona poŝtmarko; mankas ajna tia indiko. Do kies poŝtmarko estas ĉi tiu?

Stacia Pilkludo (Basbalo) en 1910

En 2010, okaze de la jarcenta datreveno de la Universala Kongreso (UK) de Esperanto kaj la vizito de Zamenhof en Vaŝingtono, mi parolis tiuteme ĉe Nacia Publika Radio kaj mi prelegis ĉe landa kongreso de la asocio Esperanto-USA kaj ĉe Zamenhof-Simpozio ĉe UNo (ĉe kiu George Soros aperis). En tiuj prelegoj mi montris multajn artikolojn el la tiamaj kvar precipaj ĵurnaloj de Vaŝingtono: ĉiutage oni raportis pri la UK de 1910.

En 1910 oni nomis la usonan sporton basbalon "stacia pilkludo." Dum la UK profesia teamo ludis basbalon unufoje utiligante Esperanton. Oni raportis pri tio en la ĵurnaloj.

Nu, ekzistas libreto da la regularo de basbalo, eldonita en 1910. Lastatempe mi trovis kaj enretigis ĝin:

Kondukanto al la Stacia Pilkludo (Basbalo)

 

. . . aranĝis Erik, kun antaŭparolo de Thomas S. Rice (Redaktoro pri Sportoj, Washington (D. C.) “Times”). New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1910. [21 p.adverts/reklamoj] + 23 p. + [22 p. adverts/reklamoj]. 18 cm. (Spalding’s Athletic Library. Auxiliary Series) Introduction in English, p. 3-6; Antaŭparolo, p. 7-10; La Reguloj aranĝis kaj tradukis Erik, p. 11-23.

Jubilea poŝtkarto: Universala Kongreso, Vaŝingtono, 1910-2010

Mi havas nenian ideon aŭ informon pri ĉi tiu afero, krom ke ĝi ĵus vendiĝis ĉe eBay:

Esperanto USA 2010 Congress (5): Arika Okrent on Esperanto & the 3 ages of invented languages

Arika Okrent was the keynote speaker on Saturday May 29. She commenced her speech in Esperanto and switched to English so as, in her terms, not to abuse the language. Rather than read a summary of mine, you can see and hear her talk for yourself:

OK, here are a few notes. Dr. Okrent claimed that the coverage of the 1910 Universal Congress set the tone for one approach to the journalistic coverage of Esperanto (bemused but not hostile), though in this case the extent of the press coverage is impressive. It seems that after a couple decades, "reform fatigue" set in in the public mind. The 3rd era of the conlang phenomenon, today's Klingon era, represents the coming out of J.R.R. Tolkein's "secret vice" of the pure pleasures of language creation, which now involve extrapolations of fictional scenarios or philosophical ideas, or incorporation of intriguing or "exotic" features of existing natural languages. The 2nd conlang era, dominated by Esperanto, is over. (The 1st was the era of philosophical languages that peaked in the 17th century), but the 2nd era shares with the 3rd a spirit of linguistic internationalism.

The Q & A period involved such varied questions, I won't attempt to summarize them this time around.

Esperanto USA 2010 Congress (4): “Esperanto, Washington, & the World in 1910”

Ralph Dumain: “Esperanto, Washington, and the World in 1910” /
“Esperanto, Vaŝingtono, kaj la Mondo en 1910”

58th National Congress of Esperanto USA (Bethesda, MD, May 28-31, 2010) /
58-a Landa Kongreso de Esperanto USA

On May 30 I delivered my talk on this topic in Esperanto, with the assistance of Verlette Simon, who coordinated my accompanying “slide show.” This talk is part of a larger research effort to analyze the American Esperanto movement of a century ago with a view to the broader social forces that converged on Washington in 1910, as my way of commemorating this centennial and the Zamenhof sesquicentennial. (1)

I briefly enumerated a number of relevant perspectives: diplomacy, science and technology, commerce, labor, women’s rights, religion and freethought, Latin America, European and American Jews and Zamenhof’s own Eastern European Jewish perspective, and the general ethos of optimistic prospects on the threshold of the 20th century which began with epochal scientific and technological breakthroughs. My talk took off from a contrast between Zamenhof’s famous “Land of Liberty” speech and the reality of Jim Crow Washington, and culminated in the hitherto unexplored African-American perspective.

Most noteworthy is the contrast between our national congress of 2010—which could have gone unnoticed by the wider world were it not for the luck of being briefly spotlighted by National Public Radio (2)—and the 1910 International Congress, which was the subject of daily headline news in four Washington newspapers, as well as reportage by newspapers around the nation. My “slide show” was comprised largely of clippings from the Washington Herald and Washington Times, which reveal the range of activities of the Congress, including the performance of Shakespeare’s As You Like It in Esperanto and the use of Esperanto in a major league baseball game, as well as the serious attention given to Esperanto by diplomats, heads of state, government representatives, and a major American labor leader.

Then I sprang the aspect of my project of greatest personal interest: my attempt to document the reportage of Esperanto and international languages in the black press and my quest for the unknown history of black participation in the Esperanto movement. My most significant find here was William Pickens, who surfaced as an advocate of Esperanto in 1906 and who later became an eminent professor and college administrator and leader in the civil rights movement of the time. There’s a further linkage to the contemporary poet Elizabeth Alexander, who writes of Pickens in a poem as the “first Afro-American Esperantist” and who delivered on the steps of the Capitol the commemorative poem she wrote for the inauguration of President Obama! Who could have foreseen such an event in 1910?

I followed up this presentation with an hour-long radio program in Buffalo, NY, on June 7, in which I summarized this talk, added remarks on likely reasons for Zamenhof’s perspective on the United States, and recited my three Esperanto translations of poems by William Blake which I had recited in the “Poezia Rondo” which also transpired at the Esperanto Congress. (3)

(1) See my web-based project at http://autodidactproject.org/esperanto2010/intro.html.

(2) See "Marking the Centennial of Esperanto Creator's Visit" by Art Silverman, "All Things Considered", National Public Radio, Tuesday 25 May 2010, 5:55 pm EDT
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?verified=true&storyId=127118219#commentBlock, from where you can listen to or download the audio broadcast itself.

(3) The summary can be found on the Think Twice Radio site: http://www.thinktwiceradio.com/sound-clips/sound-clips.html. The mp3 audio clip itself can be found at http://www.thinktwiceradio.com/sound-clips/audio/100607.mp3. On the same page as the program description you will find a link to a program from May 10 in which I briefly discuss the upcoming national Esperanto congress.

Esperanto USA 2010 Congress (3): Library of Congress visit

Library of Congress Field Trip
58th National Congress of Esperanto USA

On the afternoon of Saturday May 30 a contingent of Esperantists made a pilgrimage to the Library of Congress, one of our greatest national treasures, where we were greeted by Lee Douglas, a veteran Esperantist and librarian stationed in the Local History & Genealogy Dept. Also awaiting our arrival was a display of books from the library’s rich collection (on site and from the repository in Ft. Meade) and from Mr. Douglas’s personal collection, ranging from old and rare to recently published items. I made a note of a few items of interest: Class Leader’s Course by Correspondence (American School of Esperanto, Washington D.C., 1911); Practical Esperanto: Complete Method for Learning the International Language "Esperanto": Home Course (William Sol Benson, 1925-1932); Proleta Kurso de Esperanto, vol. 5 (Tokyo, 1932); La Lasta Usonano by J. A. Mitchell (various editions); Vivprotokoloj: Ĉiutagaj Vivoj, Rakontitaj de Esperantistoj compiled by Ulrich Becker & Zdravka Metz (2nd ed., 2009). In turn, we presented items for donation to the library’s collection.

Mr. Douglas treated us to an overview of how to fully use the library’s resources, which included information new even to me as a veteran researcher. There are various tricks to using the online catalog available to everyone, especially in light of the newer practice of “minimal level cataloging.”

In addition to researching the usual published formats, one must do some digging to find Esperanto-related material in various archives. For example, the library has on microfiche the German secret police reports covering the period 1920-1933, in which the Esperanto movement was heavily surveilled by government spies.

Finally, the acquisitions policies of the library were reviewed. The Library of Congress accepts everything, throws nothing away, but will probably never catalog a substantial percentage of material entered into storage. Esperanto material is of the lowest priority for cataloging, and of a very low priority for regular acquisitions. You can of course write to the Library of Congress yourself urging your priorities, but you are unlikely to have much impact unless you or someone you know has pull.

I trust that others moved on to take in other departments of the Library of Congress or other tourist attractions. I remained behind to pursue my research passion for a bit. Thanks, Mr. Douglas and the Library of Congress staff, for your service to our group as well as to the national memory.

Esperanto USA 2010 Kongreso (2B): Pluaj komentoj pri prelego de Humphrey Tonkin

Rimarku, ke mia raporto pri la prelego de Humphrey Tonkin pri "Esperanto en la Nuna Mondo" estas sufiĉe diplomateca. Fakte, mi estas multe pli cinika. Komente ĉe la prelego, mi menciis iom el mia skeptikemo, ekz. citante mian sperton de usonaj esperantistoj en la antaŭa usona kongreso en Vaŝingtono en 1987, kiam pluraj usonaj esperantistoj esprimis la saman dekstran tendencon pri hispanlingvanoj en Usono kiel aliaj usonanoj. Mi asertis, ke estas absurdaĵo supozi ke usonaj esperantistoj havas ajnan intereson pri "lingva diskriminacio."

Post miaj komentoj, D-ro Tonkin asertis ke temas pri etika demando de diverseco, identeco, diskriminacio, ktp.

Ĉi tiuj abstraktaj asertoj tute ne konvinkas min. Mi ne perceptas praktikan rilaton inter la abstraktaj supozataj koncernoj de esperantistoj kaj realaj lingvaj, etnaj, naciaj, landaj, kaj internaciaj problemoj. Cetere, mi skeptikas pri la koncepto postmoderisma, kvankam mi komprenas la enhavon sub tiu misetikedo. Mi ankaŭ cinikas pri konceptoj "diverseco" kaj "identeco" favorata de la etburĝa liberalularo.

Cetere, oni ne sufiĉe esploris la situacion de reteca socia agado en sociaj movadoj. Percepteblas, ege evidentas, la kapablo por sinorganizado de movadanoj (la eksplodo de movado de negraj ateistoj/humanistoj en Usono el nenio, nur dum la pasinta jaro, estas elstara ekzemplo!), sed restas la demando de la efikeco de sociaj movadoj al la ĝenerala socio. Oni ja povas brile sin organizi kaj resti socipolitike impotenta.

Esperanto USA 2010 Kongreso (2): Humphrey Tonkin pri “Esperanto en la Nuna Mondo”

Humphrey Tonkin: “Esperanto en la Nuna Mondo”
58-a Landa Kongreso de Esperanto USA

La 30an de majo Humphrey Tonkin prelegis, komence en la angla, poste en Esperanto, pri perskeptivoj de la Esperanto-movado. La mondo je la fino de la 19a jarcento, kiam Esperanto aperis, estas kvalite malsama ol tio aktuala. La tradicia Esperanto-movado daŭris laŭ akceptitaj antaŭsupozoj eĉ post la Dua Mondmilito. Evidentas aktuale, tamen, ke ni ne bezonas komunan interlingvon; ni havas la anglan, kvankam ĝi respegulas neneŭtralecon kaj neegalecon. Kontraŭe, Esperanto ĝuas la plej malaltan estimon inter la lingvoj de la mondo. La socia demando nun ne konsistiĝas el komuna interkomprenado, sed estas afero de diskriminacio. La principoj de neŭtraleco kaj egaleco respondas al la bezonoj de socia identeco.

La Esperanto-movado en praktiko orientiĝas laŭ provizado de servoj al Esperantistoj mem. D-ro Tonkin mem komence inspiriĝis de la Esperanto-komunumo, nur poste konstatis la mondskalajn sociajn implicaĵojn de la movado. Li asertas, ke la konservado de la Esperanto-komunumo malaltiĝu prioritate, favore al engaĝiĝo kun la vasta mondo.

D-ro Tonkin konceptigas la epokan diferencon laŭ la konceptoj modernismo / postmodernismo. La moderna epoko, el kiu fontis Esperanto, reliefigis la trajtojn de formalaj, hierarkiaj rilatoj, sed la postmoderna epoko estas esence reteca, neformala. Oni ankoraŭ organizas la Esperanto-movadon modernisme en postmoderna mondo. La strukturo de tradiciaj asocioj kaj la provizado de varoj al efektivaj aŭ potencialaj Esperantistoj konstrastendas al la aktuala modo de sinorganizado (ekz. Facebook). Sed la Esperanto-movado iam estis avangarda: ekz., kiam UEA fondiĝis, okazis senpera aliĝo sen landaj asocioj. Esperanto mem estis reteca. Sed finfine Esperanto lamis post la evoluo de la cetera mondo. Ni nun troviĝas en epoko en kiu oni povas agi interrete, senpage, interagi individue, eĉ neniam persone renkonti unu la alian. En ĉi tiu epoko ni ne pensu plejparte pri memkonservo de organizoj kaj varbado de novaj membroj. D-ro Tonkin laŭ propraj vortoj pensas “puritanisme”: ni ne nur ĝuu Esperanton; ni okupiĝu por pli justa mondo.

Sekvis demandoj kaj komentoj de aŭskultintoj. Estas rimarkinda generacia diferenco pri alkultimiĝo la la reta mondo. Alia problemo estas ke Usonanoj nek konas nek prikompatas lingvan diskriminacion, ankaŭ en ĝenerala etoso de “laceco pri egaleco.” Mi esprimis skeptikegemon pri la intereso de usonaj Esperantistoj pri lingva diskriminacio enlanda, kaj historie la limoj de la naci-ŝtato estas problemo el kiu rezultis diversaj lingvopolitikoj en la Esperanto-movado: la Zamenhofa, la “neŭtral”-movada (internaciisma), kaj la sennaciisma kaj la etnisma kiel kontraŭaj ekstremoj. (Flanke: neniu menciis Raŭmismon kiel alternativan perspektivon, kiu ja kontraŭdiras tion de la tradicia movado kaj kiu rezignas la movadan finvenkismon.) Responde, D-ro Tonkin asertis, ke temas pri afero de konscienco senkoncerne pri landlimoj. Estas afero de diverseco de identeco kontraŭ tutmondiga homogenigo. Min tute ne kontentigis lia respondo pri la rilato inter Esperanto kaj ĉiaspeca lingva diskriminacio, kaj restas bezonata konkretigo de rekonceptigota rilato inter aktuala reteco kaj tradiciaj organizoj. Jen elirpunktoj por plua diskutado.

Esperanto USA 2010 Congress (1): Poezia Rondo

Poezia Rondo: 58-a Landa Kongreso de Esperanto USA

Esther Schor specializes in Poetry at Princeton University and published a landmark article in English on Zamenhof’s Jewish projects in the National Yiddish Book Center’s magazine Pakn Treger. On May 30 she convened a Poezia Rondo (Poetry Circle) in which translators, authors and readers recited their own material or that of others. Ralph Dumain led off with his three translations from the poetry of William Blake. Humphrey Tonkin contributed several translations of the American poet Wallace Stevens. Steven Brewer contributed both original Haiku and a translation from Emily Dickinson. Several poems by Dickinson were translated by Lee Miller. E. James Lieberman recited his own translation of Esperanto poet Baldur Ragnarsson’s “Nerimarkitaj Herboj” (Unsung Leaves). He also translated Walt Whitman’s “A Noiseless, Patient Spider” into Esperanto and Marjorie Boulton’s “Buĉotoj” (To the Butcher) into English. Esther Schor offered her Esperanto translations of Elizabeth Bishop’s “Electrical Storm” and the poem “Don’t Kill Yourself” by Carlos Drummond de Andrade. Ulrich Becker provided two original poems “Humoroj en Stato de Kaptiteco” (about New York from an immigrant’s perspective) and “Sed Ne Flori” (a love poem). Others recited Julius Balbin’s Esperanto translation of Yevgeny Yevushenko’s “Babij Jar” and William Auld’s original Esperanto poem of drunkenness, “Ebrio.” Esther Schor distributed a booklet comprised of all the poems contributed to this program, including also Istvan Ertl’s Esperanto translation of Tony Kushner’s “An Undoing World.”

I was impressed by the seriousness and the level of the contributors’ engagement with poetry and with the language. This Poezia Rondo was a showcase of Esperanto’s role as a meaningful cultural vehicle.

Miaj lastatempaj radio- kaj kongres-programoj

Ĉiuj sekvaj aferoj okazis en la angla lingvo.

Je la 25-a de majo:

Mi kaj Jim Ryan estis aparte intervjuitaj de Art Silverman, kaj el tio rezultis 3-minuta radioprogramo je Nacia Publika Radio, kiu gajnis 12 000 000 aŭskultintojn. Jen la retloko:

"Marking The Centennial Of Esperanto Creator's Visit" by Art Silverman, "All Things Considered", National Public Radio, Tuesday 25 May 2010, 5:55 pm EDT
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?verified=true&storyId=127118219#commentBlock

De tie vi povas aŭskulti au elŝuti la radioprogramon mem.

Je la 30-a de majo, en la landa usona Esperanto-kongreso, mi prelegis pri "Esperanto, Vaŝingtono, kaj la Mondo en 1910".

Je la 7-a de junio, en Buffalo, Novjorko, mi faris 1-horan radioprogramon pri Esperanto por "Think Twice Radio". Vidu priskribon kun retligo al la programo ĉe:

http://www.thinktwiceradio.com/sound-clips/sound-clips.html

La mp3-dosiero troviĝas ĉe:

http://www.thinktwiceradio.com/sound-clips/audio/100607.mp3

Mi resume ripetis la enhavon de mia prelego pri la Universala Kongreso de 1910, kaj pritraktis en postaj komentoj la ideologion de Zamenhof. Mi ankaŭ deklamis miajn tri Esperantajn tradukojn de poemoj de la angla poeto kaj artisto William Blake.