> Is tradition, so-called, really just a kind of etymology?
What a lovely question, Joseph. Ceremonial guards wearing histories of
words, priests officiating at the altar in robes of flowing derivations.
Delightful.
But as for the answer: dunno.
I'd certainly hazard though that tradition is an inheritance of practice,
and a practice too often found on misunderstanding, or mistranslation. Which
has the tang of etymology.
Take the haiku, for instance. The traditional haiku in the West is as we
know a seventeen syllable unit. Unhappily for the 'authority' of that
'tradition' it is based on misunderstanding: the Japanese haiku, or rather
the forms lumped together in the West as 'haiku', were written in units of
seventeen 'onji', that is roughly 'sound-signs', which are not identical to
Roman alphabet syllables. One Western syllable may equal several onji, so
that the average Japanese traditional haiku will tend to be only 70% - 'ish'
in duration compared to its Western equivalent.
But 'everyone' knows that haiku are 17 syllables in a 5/7/5 split.
Though Basho never wrote haiku, the term wasn't used until the late 19th
century.
So I guess tradition is just the weight of accepted practice.
david bircumshaw
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Duemer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2001 9:45 AM
Subject: Re: versículos
> I'm still thinking about how the discussion of prose / poetry led to the
> discussion of this particular form of verse (or its absence), first in
> the work of a particular Mexican poet & then more broadly. (Mark, thanks
> for transmitting Kozer's response.) What I took from that discussion was
> that the difference is contingent on practice, which is to say it is
> functional, though that contingency operates (I think) with knowledge of
> previous practice, er, tradition. But I also appreciate the dialectic
> set in motion by Erminia with her references to etymology & the
> responses from Alison, Candice & others emphasizing practice (see
> above). Is tradition, so-called, really just a kind of etymology?
>
> jd
> ________________________
> Joseph Duemer
> School of Liberal Arts-5750
> Clarkson University
> (On leave 2000 - 2001)
> Doan Thi Hanh Guesthouse
> 172 Pho Ngoc Ha So cu 4
> Ba Dinh - Hanoi, Viet Nam
> [log in to unmask]
> ________________________
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