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Re: A Verne clerihew

From: Ralf Tauchmann <ralf.tauchmann~at~t-online.de>
Date: 07 Mar 2011 20:15 GMT
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Dear all,

"Garmt de Vries-Uiterweerd" <garmtdevries~at~gmail.com> schrieb:
> > M. Jules Verne
> > Ne demeura jamais à Nairn.
> > Il ne parle pas du Salon
> > Dans Cinq Semaines en Ballon.

I checked Cinq Semaines en Ballon and I found a story of what was supposed
to have happened in a "salon d'Edimbourg"... but I don't see the point
either.

In any case, here's my verse contribution :

Jules Verne
Wrote novels to earn
What he had in his purse...
He could have done worse.

> And we shouldn't forget out own Ralf Tauchmann, who composed a nice
> sonnet: http://verne.ratau.de/sonette.html

Dear Garmt,

thank you for the reference. I'd like to suggest another poem I wrote and
which has the title "DER ALTE FRIK UND DAS KARPATENSCHLOSS" (THE OLD FRIK
AND THE CASTLE OF THE CARPATHIANS) which refers to LE CHÂTEAU DES
CARPATHES, especially to the beginning of the story where "Frik", the
shepherd, looks up to the chateau :

"Néanmoins, il fallait que l'oeil du pâtour fût doué d'une grande puissance
de vision pour distinguer quelque détail de cette masse lointaine.
Soudain le voilà qui s'écrie en hochant la tête :
« Vieux burg !... Vieux burg !... Tu as beau te carrer sur ta base !...
Encore trois ans, et tu auras cessé d'exister, puisque ton hêtre n'a plus
que trois branches ! »"

What I found especially interesting is his age : « C'est qu'il est âgé de
soixante-cinq ans, - il y a lieu de le croire du moins. »

Jules Verne published the novel in 1892 -- at the age of about 64. In my
poem, I kind of blend Verne and Frik by making the author (feeling first
signs of loss of eye sight) invent the shepherd as his "poor-rich alter
ego" -- low resources, but rich in eye sight, having good vision, looking
far ahead -- also in terms of the story by predicting the fall of the
chateau) -- as illustrated by the above quotation.

I should like to add that LE CHATEAU DES CARPATHES was my first French
Jules Verne novel -- when I was starting to learn French -- in east
Germany. There was a French visitor (conseiller of the French PS) from the
twinned city of my home town (due to communist mayor in the French town). I
was a student at school (16 years old) and he seized the occasion to
(honestly) follow me (to the loo), away from the east German officials, to
ask me questions about life in east Germany. I was honest and two weeks
later, after his return, I received the book (because I also told him that
Jules Verne was my favourite author). The book (which I didn't know, even
not by title) was kind of a treasure for me, because there were no French
books available at all in my surroundings.

I learned a lot from this book, which accompanied my progress in French. I
even momorized the first page entirely and translated the book almost
entirely (without any publishing interest... as Goethe said, I'm quoting
from memory: "in most things we do, we will eventually come to the point
where we see that somebody did it earlier... but nobody can take away from
us the joy we had in doing...") Just to explain how I came to make this
poem... So I invent "Krötenloch" for "crapaudière" -- a French word I
appreciated very much in these early French-learning days. Just as a brief
informatio... for those interested (the poem is in German of course). Here
is the link:

http://brassens.ratau.de/ged.htm#Der%20alte%20Frik%20und%20das%20Karpatenschloss

Kind regards,

Ralf

-- 
Ralf Tauchmann
Gerhart-Hauptmann-Str. 23
01445 RADEBEUL
Tel: +49-351-8336141
Fax: +49-322-29811799
Mobil: 0178-4320374
eMail: ralf.tauchmann~at~t-online.de
Internet: http://tauchmann.ratau.de

Received on Mon 07 Mar 2011 - 22:15:50 IST

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