This book is written entirely in Esperanto.
This short read is an absolutely wonderful introduction to the world of Esperanto. It was written in 1988 by William Auld, a leading figure in the world of Esperanto literature, to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the language. He frames Esperanto as follows:
La lingvo Esperanto estas fenomeno unika: ĝi estas la sola arta lingvo en la historio de la mondo, kiu ekvivis kaj daŭre plifariĝis komuna lingvo de homoj el ĉiuj nacioj kaj ĉiuj mondpartoj, krea lingvo de poetoj kaj faka lingvo de sciencistoj, plenrajta komunikilo apud ĉiuj aliaj, laŭdire “naturaj”, lingvoj.
And my translation:
Esperanto is a unique phenomenon, it is the only artificial language in the history of the world which sprang to life and has become a communal language of people from all nations and parts of the world, a creative language of poets and a specialist language of scientists, a fully-fledged means of communication along side the so-called “natural” languages.
Auld truly delights in the language, and is quite playful through out. You can tell that he loves Esperanto and wants to share his delight.
Nenionfara describes someone who does nothing. And it is immediately clear to any esperantist that figemalafablulinidetaĉoj are the terrible sons and daughters of a woman who is not very social.
I bought a copy of La Fenomeno Esperanto because it defines La Baza Legolisto, a basic reading list of works originally written in Esperanto. However, Auld says almost nothing about the list. “Anyone who wants to even allude to the original literature of Esperanto must have read, at the very least, some of its outstanding words before expressing their opinion.” Of course, Auld has written extensively about the history of Esperanto literature, and I suppose that I’ll need to track down those references.
This book would be a great read for someone who has just learned the language, and can read somewhat fluently, but doesn’t know much of the history of the culture.
Published: May 27, 2024
Last Modified: Jul 11, 2024
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