Like a Log

Memrise Kouri-vini

Memrise

Ti Liv Kréyòl

Google Woolaroo

Ti Liv Kreyol Second Edition.pdf

Tafè tout à fait?

Talè tout à l’heure

Ojordi çé premyé jou printem! Mo paré pou bon tem épi krébis!Today is the first day of spring!  I’m ready for good weather and crabs!

Jodi a se premye jou prentan an!  Mwen pare pou bon tan ak krab! Ede m sou sa.  Isit ou di  .  La ou di krébis. Krébis KV </=  kribich HC (ayisyin).  Crabs or shrimp?

Mwen mande paske 30 ane de sa mwen te pibliye yon moso ki rele Kribich, «cribiche», ecrévisse. Link,

L’Avenir  de l’Éloge de la Créolité. In Convergences et divergences dans les littératures francophones, Daniel Deltel, ed. Paris: L’Harmattan, pp.  170-181, 1992.

Granmoun blan isit la.  Ozetazini ak Kanada, pa janm mande yo nan lang angle oswa franse.  Pafwa an Frans, paske mwen gen yon aksan ibrid.  Mwen toujou mande, si kirye, depi mwen se yon xenofil.

Old white man here. In the US and Canada, never get asked in English or French. Sometimes in France, because I have a hybrid accent. I always ask, if curious, since I’m a xenophile. 

Granmoun blan isit la

Çé byin fars ékan moun menas mwin ak “mo va pa swiv twa non plis” ?, ok… mo fou pa mal! Vouzòt pa bezwinn anonsé to va kité konm léropor. Mo va pa vini trist ékan vouzòt kit. Zòt ap pensé zòt importan ou kèkshoj? Non ? 

It’s a joke when people threaten me with “I won’t follow three other names” ?, ok… I’m not crazy!  You don’t have to announce that you’re going.  I will not be sad because of you.  Are you thinking about your importance some days?  No ?

   

Sa fèm nan betiz lè moun menase m ak “m pap suiv twa lòt non” ?, ok… mwen pa fou!  Ou pa bezwen anonse ke ou pral ale.  Mwen pap vin tris poutèt ou.  Èske w ap panse sou enpòtans ou kèk jou?  Non ?

Mo las ap netwayé mô lamézon shak jou ?. Mô piti-yé toujou ap kassé tou ça dan mô lamézon. Mo paré pou mô pli jènn gaçon kouri a lékol paske ti boug-çila konm Tasmanian Devil ?. Zòt… mo linm piti-çalayé mé mô las ?

It’s a joke when people threaten me with “I won’t follow three other names” ?, ok… I’m not crazy!  You don’t have to announce that you’re going.  I will not be sad because of you.  Are you thinking about your importance some days?  No ?

Se yon blag lè moun menase m ak “m pap swiv twa lòt non” ?, ok… mwen pa fou!  Ou pa bezwen anonse ke ou prale.  Mwen pap tris poutèt ou.  Èske w ap panse sou enpòtans ou kèk jou?  Non ?

Losurdo observes that the one-drop rule found in the American South was more stringent than the Nuremberg Laws (citizenship is not given if found 3⁄4 Jewish) implemented by Nazi Germany.[4]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism:_A_Counter-History

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domenico_Losurdo

the original form of moral leftism, or what Losurdo referred to as the “beautiful soul”, which seeks to impose “the law of the heart” and the intelligence of its inevitable authoritarian reversal. For Losurdo, the ferment of authoritarianism in the communist movement is to be found more on the libertarian side of the communist utopia than in the reformist desire to build a state.

Senryu –  https://www.britannica.com/art/senryu

Senryu Girl : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senryu_Girl
/// https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentai_Filmworks

I had  a goatee
before but a ‘stache stands out

What I love about my families, chosen as well as traditional, is that we are all so distinct one from another

Granmoun blan isit la.  Ozetazini ak Kanada, pa janm mande yo nalang  angle oswa franse.  Pafwa an Frans, paske mwen gen yon aksan ibrid.  Mwen toujou mande, si kirye, depi mwen se yon xenofil.

Old white man here. In the US and Canada, never get asked in English or French. Sometimes in France, because I have a hybrid accent. I always ask, if curious, since I’m a xenophile.

Alteritas : Collectio poetica in linguas anglicas alienas

At the Door of the Dojo. Writing inspired by Aikido

At the door of the dojo a fellow aikidoka, who bears the name lf an ancient Persian king, offered me New Year’s greetings. I replied:
‎- نوروز مبارک, adding, غم انگیز است, it’s sad.
– “Why?” he asked: .چرا؟
‎-  به خاطر همه مرده های جوان, because of all the dead young.
– “It will take time, he said. Not as long, I hope, as aikido takes.  

Anna giving and taking like aikido
With sensei marriage and aikido
The Rhetoric of Aikido

Elliptics: Translations from the Québécois
Love is a figure of speech

For me to forgive you, you have to have forgiven me, and vice-versa

My two contributions to the “[James] Olney” African dinner on 11 Feb, 2023:

Nkulenu’s Palm Wine

and

West Africanish Peanut Soup

***

Alas, palm wine is not readily available in the US, so I had planned to make do with a modified version of the palm wine gin fizz and prosecco cocktail proposed by Zoe Anjonyoh in her cookbook, Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen, using Nkulenu’s Palm Wine, an Accra-produced beer-strength drink made from the sap of palm trees. I got lazy and just offered chilled bottles of it.

Coincidentally, the first African novel published outside of Africa was Amos Tutuola’s The Palm Wine Drinkard (1952). Written in Nigerian English (aka “Pidgin English”), it is a reworking of Yoruba folk tales. After being praised by Dylan Thomas, it had an interesting reception: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Palm-Wine_Drinkard. 

A personal note: after I caught hepatitis (A) in Liberia in 1968 I was forbidden alcohol for three months. No problem, there was s lot of “Cairo” available — Liberian for cannabis, the substance being attributed to the Islamic population and to the trans-Saharan trade. Actually, we acquired our cairo from a local store front pharmacist by the name of Dominique, his French name betokening his Mandingo ethnicity, itself associated, in Liberian eyes, with Islam. He did in fact speak French.    

My first drink after abstinence from alcohol was a ceremonial “mid-afternoon” palm wine. The modifier expressses the style of wine. The wine is traditionally tapped in the early morning when it is fizzy and light. By afternoon it is more substantial, richer and less sweet. Evening wine is considered the connaisseur’s delight. Liberians compare the style to the age of women and the effects they produce.

***

Peanut “soup” is usually a stew containing, when affordable, meat often chicken, served over rice, a West African stable. I have devised a “soupy” vegan version from onions softened in palm oil, broth, tomato paste and organic peanut butter, itself based in palm oil. For the record, the palm oil used is marketed as sustainable and is produced on small farms in coastal Ecuador.

Given the devastating effect of its industrial production since the 19th century, palm oil is often disparaged by Western ecologists. It can be found is in many comestible and cosmetic products. “Palmolive soap” just scratches the surface.