White lightnings lit partially a gloomy sky, surprisingly cloudless.
A single peak projected its bare needle from the shoulder of the bleak range of mountains into the forbidding firmament, while the claps of thunder seemed to wrap the isolated rock in its upper layers.
Obscure flying figures circled the place giving it a phantasmagoric facade.
In a secluded boudoir, at the top of the frightening summit, a dark feminine shape, in full regalia, her body wreathed in black dahlias walked anxiously towards one wall, and looking at a glass hanging between drapes, without suppressing her angst, asked with a strangled voice:
Mirror, mirror, on the wall...
The lugubrious voice from the looking-glass interrupted her:
Beware, Belz-abâ, you are about to commit plagiarism...!
I went to the Hunters' Club, they said there was a gathering to recount member's adventures and I wanted to tell them about my last one, at my arrival there were already several persons waiting to tell their stories, I took my time listening to other people tales, and when there was a lull around the guests, I started, harrumphing:
A few months ago I went to the African savannah looking for a rare white lion the natives mentioned had been seen prowling on the field, my expertise made easy to find the animal, and as I started to raise the gun to my face I heard a low growl to my right, surprised I looked toward the bushes and saw a big white lioness already charging for my throat!
I made a long silence looking at my audience...
Then, one of them could not endure the suspense, and asked in a small voice: How did you escape?
I didn't! I said, while I dissolved into thin air.
Why dawn was loitering behind the horizon for so long?
I was fretful waiting for that elusive light.
In the seven years of life I had, it was not easy to remain calm when your most wanted desire delays its presence.
At long last, there was the small orange line on the sky, I ran into Mommy's and Daddy's room crying: Get up! get up! it's already time!
Daddy looked with one eye at the clock on the night table and grunted:
Oh, my goodness!! It is just 5:50! Will you stop making such noise!
But Mommy, rose and said smiling:
Let him alone, it's always the same!
Finally, we started our trip, and a couple of hours later we were standing in front of the high wooden doors, Daddy took me up to ring the bell.
As always, the high door opened to the most beautiful smile I will ever see!
The house smelled of roses and jasmines, I could not decide where to go first, the garden in full bloom took my fancy, I flew over all this beauty in wonder; then the soap smelling bathroom, the old tub with lion's paws feet, the bedroom with the beautiful mirror framed in the big ancient wood wardrobe, where I could see myself from the head to the feet, the lavender scent that pervaded the chamber, the old daguerreotype of the little girl that I have seen peering playfully at me from the grey eyes over the most beautiful smile I'd ever seen, and then the call to breakfast in the warm kitchen, the big bowl of milk with just a cloud of coffee, this was the only place I was allowed to drink coffee. The white loaf of just baked bread, and the syrupy orange marmalade under the thin coat of home made milk-cream.
The loving embraces, the smiles, and the long tales about how I came to be born, always told in different ways, making me think I was a different person each time.
The tasty simple lunch, which prepared the tummy for the regal supper, after a very slight meal at mid-afternoon repeating the bread, syrupy jam, and milk-cream.
This way, leaping from new things to repeated bits and pieces, but in a different light each time, the day flew away in beautiful minutes as a wonderful gift.
I will never forget all those marvelous days I spent finding new the old things, feeling to be the hub of the Universe, and 'knowing' I was the most important person in the world!
With a little pang of regret because they cannot be repeated now, I will always remember all the visits to my Granny's house!
The little hand of the soft breeze caresses the multicolored leaves and petals that populate trees and blossoms in the small garden, producing a murmur of ancient stories.
The noisy creek coming down from the not so steep slope sings a love song never written, and then as if tired by the effort stops in a shallow pond that mirrors the world around it, while the Orchid yielding to the bouncy impulse of the breeze's hand, inclines its beautiful countenance toward the quiet water of the pond.
The slow sway of the long and limber stem let the perception of the magic beauty of the regal bloom to scatter all over the confined space of the garden and wakes echoes of admiration from other crammed bouquets around the pond, and while the wallflowers emit, as a due tribute, a mild scent that gives sweet waves of perfume to the breeze, the camellias acknowledge the nobility of the beautiful Orchid through a shy flutter of their snow-white petals adding wonder to the awe of the Summer evening!
On one accord the whole garden quivers in harmony with the gentleness and pleasure that the contemplation of beauty brings to Nature's creatures!
From far away upon the red-cochineal horizon, the setting sun reaches through shredded and rosy clouds towards the happy garden bringing forth the smile of the Maker, delighted by His Own 'Craft-Deity-Ship'!
Author Note: Please, note that "faulty spelling" words in Spanish showed in plain writing, as well as in English (displayed between brackets), and are in red text: "aver" (to habe), while the words accepted by both languages are in magenta text: haber (to have).
Prologue
Words City, in the Lexicon realm,
was receiving very disturbing news from its twin city across the Letter-Soup River.
As all of
you know, the river divided the English kingdom and Words City
from that of its peers, the Spanish nation, and its Ciudad de Palabras.
The
grapevine was that there was to be an imminent visit to Ciudad de Palabras by Srta.
Ortografía, a buxom lady very conservative and given to slash spelling
mistakes.
Srta. Ortografía
The poor dwellers in Ciudad de Palabras were aghast. We all know that Srta. Ortografía enjoys making clear the differences between V and B, discover a wrongly laid stress mark, and all the imperfections that, as per her own words, plagued the city.
The worst
of this attitude is that she walked the city streets with her dreary red pencil
and did not stop except to cross out and embarrass those poor 'faulty words' she met, again her own remarks, and we know what that means: deportation of the wretched vocables to the outskirts slums, and oblivion.
The badly
shaken words decided to seek help from Ms. Spelling, a lean and scrawny woman
with a long face who worked in Words
City in a similar job
than Srta. Ortografía did in Ciudad de Palabras.
Ms. Spelling was said to be much more lenient
to incorrect spelling, and faulty grammar, as it was commented in a low voice
between the conjunctions, those unities that are always gossiping because they
belong to the syntactic liaison.
As I told
above, the Letter-Soup
River separated the two
countries and cities, but there were several bridges with mobile translator
machines to make the communication easy.
This was so
because in Words City, English was the official language, and since it came
from the group of Germanic languages, although Latin and other languages
influenced it, there was a logical difference with Ciudad de Palabras where Spanish
was the officiallanguage which came
from Romance source.
Chapter 1
Under the
cover of darkness, the delegates walked to the nearest bridge, donned a
translator each one of them, and went looking for Ms. Spelling.
They found her in the Reading-Room of the Dictionary House with a 'o' letter in one hand, and a 'u' letter in the other, with a perplex expression in her face. As
soon as she saw the delegation, her face changed showing a light hope, and cried:
Hello, you there! Can you tell me if it is easy
to tell apart the sounding of these two letters?
She spoke
in English, but the group could understand her easily using the mobile
translators.
Well, yes ma'am, answered Bueno using the translator, it is not possible to mix them up. I know
because I have them in my name.
Ms. Spelling
Really? asked dubiously Ms. Spelling, but have you ever pronounced the word 'Ghoul'? (She said it as 'gool')
No
ma'am, recognised Bueno.
There you are! Ms. Spelling sounded hopeless; it seems as if one of them is useless!
The words
in the group moved restless, not knowing what to do, but Decisión, who was in
the first row, shook her stress mark and said with decision:
Ms. Spelling, we need your help!
The
grammarian seemed slightly confused, but answered:
What can I do for you people?
We are in a predicament, ma'am, said Decisión, Srta. Ortografía thinks to visit us and
correct any spelling or grammar mistake, which is very painful for us. Therefore,
we came to ask you to speak with her, show her how she can be tolerant, and
accept some errors, in the way you does!
Ms.
Spelling looked bewildered, she was having the two small vowels in her hands
yet, but after a little moment of indecision she dropped both letter into the
small case on her desk and showing some relief, as if she had not make a choice
just now, said:
I will help you gladly!
Chapter 2
They went
together, when over the bridge, the group left their translators and helped Ms.
Spelling to get into hers.
They
realised it was late, so decided to leave the errand for next day.
'Otel', who was very worried about losing her residence
card, decided to give shelter to Ms. Spelling during the night, with the help
ofher twin sister, Hotel.
They also invited the two twins 'Cenar' (Dinner) and 'Senar' (Dyner), to help in making Ms. Spelling understand the
serious situation some of them were in.
Atdawn, after a short sleep, Ms. Spelling, already knowing what she had to do, went to look for Srta. Ortografía.
ERAyMDG
She found
her at the bureau of the president of ERAyMDG, this acrostic means: Ente
Regulador de Acentos y Marcas Diacríticas en General, (Accent Regulator and
General Diacritics Marks Office) we already know how verbose the official
workplaces in Spanish are.
The acrid woman was reviewing several booklets recently issued by 'La Ilustrísima Real Academia Española' (The Most illustrious Royal Spanish
Academy), the agency that
rules over the ways Spanish language should be used everywhere.
After the usual cold greeting, Ms. Spelling started to state the reason of her errand, that is, why there are no reasons to be so strict with the lexicon, and the syntax, giving some examples how it worked in Words City and stressing some of the best known local cases. There was no problem with languages since both agents, as all other agents, speak all language, as we all know,
If sometime we are loose in our trend to make
shorter sentences, she proclaimed, and we change "You're" into "Your", or
include an apostrophe in "It's" when we really mean "Its",
we are not doing any terrible thing, just we are a bit of lazy, and writing as
we hear!
You see, Ms. Spelling was taking assurance from her
own words; the important thing is to make
an effective communication, it is not important how that is accomplished, is
it?
Who care, proceed her;
if "aver" (to habe) instead of "haber" (to have) does not have the letter "h" since in your
language is useless enough, or "v" is
in place of "b" if, in the end, they are
pronounced almost in the same way!
You know, she added with the self-assurance of a
solicitor, that there are no differences
between letters in the alphabet; they are all part of the language with the
same rights and liabilities!
Definitively, there is not reason to
discriminate one, favouring the other, when the end is anyway fulfilled, if you
follow my drift!
As we can
see, the arguments were a bit faulty, but they were stressed by the emotional
weight over the rights of words the woman felt at the time.
Srta.
Ortografía did not hide her displeasure, as we know she never does! She
answered under a visibly restrained rage:
Look, Ms.
Spelling, it is probable, I would say certain, that given the endless internal
fights in your language, (she pronounced the last word as an insult) especially those carried away by typographers through the centuries, that being paid by the quantity of letters written, got some solace adding unnecessary "u", "o", "y", and a lot of other vowels and semivowels, with double consonants in the bargain, it is very probable and surely certain, I repeat, that words in your language (again that insulting ringing)
never are sure they are spelled in the right way!
If to this aberration, you add the whim of
giving many different meanings to a single word, as is the Saxon pragmatical
practice, you will concede me that the only thing you increase is
misunderstanding, compelling the speaker to repeat the sentences many times to
reach, as you so sensibly put it, the understanding from the audience!
How can you hope to transfer your thinking to
other people with words as "bow", kept pressing the irate grammarian, when that word, despite the
slight change in pronunciation, can have so many unrelated meanings.
In
addition, I am not trying to start to speak about the word "set", which
I think will fill a whole dictionary!
These things do not happen in our language (now there was a distinct proud
sound in the word). Thanks to the RAE
(Royal Spanish Academy,
I mentioned above) we have always kept a
cleanness and order that would amaze some scatterbrains who tried to understand
the pristine essence of Spanish expressions. I would not deny we have some
exceptions that confirm the rules, and lately, in an unfortunate way, we have
been penetrated by a cultural invasion from English, trying to impose its
faulty rules, and seeping into its better developed equals myriads of execrable
expressions that only add insult to the invasion!
Besides, added Srta. Ortografía almost without
breathing, you should know that, for us,
it is not the same "sima" than "cima" since they are antonymous, nor "revelar”, and "rebelar", with a different meaning! Moreover, with respect to your example "aver", if we add the rightly needed space between
the preposition and verb, we have a very amusing revelation: "a ver si me entiende" (let us see if you
understand me!), fired an impudent trans-language pun the angry agent.
Based on all these reasons, and without offense intended, ended triumphally the woman in an acerbic tone, I assure you there is not the remotest possibility I’d stop correcting with extreme zeal the core that defines, and givesbrilliancy to our language!
Without
waiting for any response, and with the lack of politeness that characterises
her, Srta. Ortografía left the office.
While the noxious
agent of language was delivering her tirade, the President of ERAyMDG was very
interested in being lost into his desk drawers looking as if he was trying to
find an important item. When the silence prolonged itself for a long time, he
raised his eyes to an amazing view: Ms. Spelling was smiling with great happiness!
When she
saw the astonished face of the President, murmured haltingly:
I knew that the "o"
was superfluous!
Aver near the bridge
From the
next room "Aver" was following all these procedures, and with a sad
heart she accompanied Ms. Spelling to the bridge, and thanked her for the help.
Ms.
Spelling, although she tried to make a show of her despair for the outcome of
her errand, could not stop smiling happily.
Chapter 3
Aver
reached Bueno's house where all the delegates had gathered waiting the outcome
of the meeting, and told them the disastrous end of the conversation between
both language agents.
All of them
started to cry and bemoan, thinking this could be their last day in Central
District, and soon they would be carrying their belongings into the hovels of
the outskirts of Ciudad de Palabras.
While this
was happening, Bueno sat on her best sofa, thinking.
In a
moment, she arose and cried "Eureka"; immediately asking a silent pardon
to Mr. Archimedes for taking his legal exclamation with no copyright
permission.
Everybody
shut up and waited expectant. Bueno addressed to them all and said:
Now we see we cannot reason with this harpy... eehh, I mean Srta. Ortografía, so we will look another line of fighting this issue. I have thought about something I used before, that is slower, but can deliver good results.
We will call to all user of our language to
utilise their influence on public use of Spanish, writing not only the rightly
written words as the harp... eehh, as Srta. Ortografía deems correct, but all
other ways that they can learn, forgetting the spelling rules, and in that way
get the authorisation that those words need to keep their place in the city.
With the
eyes, and the heart full of hope they wrote the following pamphlet, and sent it
to all the Spanish-speaking world:
Dear user of Spanish: for a reason of survival, we beg, plea, and require of you to forget the spelling rules as dictated by the RAE, that in its unpolluted intention of givingbrilliance, and splendour to our language, is condemning us, the words with spelling faults, to a miserable life, and to a shameful death. Most of us were created by you when
learning the language; we are your offspring, abandoned under the pressure of
the academic order. Do this in a sense of benignity and love to words that
served you in the time you were so new to know how to write correctly. We know
we can trust in your kindness!
There were many signatures: Aver (Haber), Composision (Composición), Atravez (A través), Agradesco (Agradezco), Taverna (Taberna), Riquesas (Riquezas), Labar (Lavar), these were some of the twins, but the list
filled several pages!
Epilogue
We do not
know for sure if it is working, but it seems that Bueno's idea is developing
right!
We will see
in the future.
The music is "Inspector Clouseau Theme" from the Pink Panther by Henry Mancini and his Orchestra. The middle way music is the "Waltz No.2" written by Dmitri Shostakovich, performed by Andre Rieu
The blue iris daintily opened its petals letting the dawn dew lie down on its corolla.
The fineness of the flower and the sparks of the early light on the purity of the soft tears from heaven attracted a splash of color in a butterfly costume; it landed softly on the clean surface and moved its wings slowly as if trying to comfort the florescence.
Gently Butterfly unfolded its tongue shyly caressing the inner chalice causing a quivering of pollen avid pistils.
While Butterfly quaffed the nectar, the stamens shudder in harmony throwing a fertile cloud over the carpel giving birth to a new generation.
Then in silence as it came, Butterfly flew away satisfied, while the corolla was left nodding softly an appreciative symbiosis...
I met this boy from Mongolia,
Who bought a bouquet of magnolia,
To regale his little girlfriend,
Trying to make some amend.
But she wanted only sauce of soya.
