Why George Orwell hated Esperanto: “Apparently, Orwell, during his down-and-out phase in Paris, had to accept a room in the lodgings of a cousin. The fact that she and her live-in lover spoke only Esperanto together at home — a language he could not understand — left him less than enthusiastic.”
There is something about a couple speaking only Esperanto to one another that is really romantic. And I’m not even kidding.
Comments
07 May | 15:10 | LisLei
Cu vi edzigus kun mi?
07 May | 15:17 | josh
okay, someone's going to have to explain.
08 May | 0:45 | LisLei
It was just a modest proposal. But not in a Jonathan Swift sort of way, don't worry. I'm not planning to eat you. (Though I might be game at some point if you answer my original query in the affirmative.) Translate roughly here.
09 May | 22:02 | tim.
Did anyone else get, as a rough translation, "Cu you would husband with me?" That didn't help.
13 May | 22:52 | james
I think the whole IDEA of Esperanto is romantic, in a kind of hopeless and idealistic way. For years, I've wanted to put together some sort of fragile and sad literary collection entitled "Esperanto".
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Joshua Benton is the director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, among other things. Before that, he was a staff writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News. (More.)
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