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Hungarian as Science Fiction

RamblingMan — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 13:24:45 +0000

The problem with me and languages is, that instead of learning the language, I’m far more interested in stuff like the origins of the words. For example the Hungarian for foot is lábfej, literally ‘leg-head’, the head of the leg, and I can spend more time pondering than is reasonable or necessary. The way Hungarian uses quite a lot of archaic words to make new words is also a favorite e.g. camera = fényképezőgép = light-picture-machine. And it was from this, and such things as the word for 7 also being the word for week, the word for Sun the same for day, that i realised if you translate from Hungarian in a strictly literal way (or whatever way it is) you all of a sudden are pretty much writing in a science-fiction style. Here’s an example:

Zoltan saw his friend Zita by the Petrol Well. He slowed down his carriage and stopped.
‘you’ve returned from other-earth!’
‘Yes, I have just arrived from the flying-square. The flying-machine landed early’.
‘You are here to see your birthers?’
‘Yes, but I will not see them until next Seven, because I want to first visit my body-blood on shopping day’.
‘Which town does your body-blood live in?’
‘60’
‘Can I take you to the Iron-way station?’
‘Thanks. I will come back in three Sun’s time. Lets meet and go beering then.’
‘In order! I will call you next seven!’

You see
Benzinkút = Petrol-Well = Petrol Station.
Kulföldi = Other Earth = Abroad
Repülőter = flying square = airport
repülőgép = flying machine = aeroplane
szülei = birthers = parents
hét = seven and week
nap = sun and day
vasút = iron way = railway
vásárnap = shopping day = sunday
testvér = body blood = sibling
rendben = in order = ok

So there you go. Now who said Magyars were aliens?

(p.s. hatvan i.e. 60 is a town East of Budapest).

Mechanics of the Body

RamblingMan — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:34:37 +0000

I’ve never been to Thailand though in my head I have. I’ve certainly eat enough Thai Food, and I do know the bustle of a South-Asian city, and can imagine well-enough sunshine on a lazy beach. I have also discovered the powers of a traditional Thai massage. Only thing is I discovered the last bit in Budapest of all places a few years ago.

Now, traditional massage isn’t some gentle cosmetic kneeding, oh no. Done right, as it is by these tough little Thai women with their training certificates on the wall of the place I go, its a down-to-the-nuts-and-bolts fixing. It feels good at the time in a way, but its also pretty tough at times, and frankly, as they press into your shoulder-blade tension, sort of painful. But worth it, as you exit feeling lighter, a little transformed, in short: fixed. They’re the mechanics, you’re the dodgy motor. They know where you tension is, and they know the ways to have a pop at it.

In a better world, I imagine we’d all be trained body mechanics, and this kind of massage would be at least a weekly fixture of life.

p.s. lian massage is the place I like

p.p.s haven’t blogged in so long, must try harder (or accept I’m not a natural blogger).

The Lives of Others

RamblingMan — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:06:21 +0000

One of the things I like about Budapest is how old stuff seems to drift through its narrow corridors in more abundance than other places. And when the Lomtanalitas is town (where people put out stuff they don’t want) you can discover all sorts of interesting bits and pieces.
It wasn’t even a Lomtanalitas day last week when we found, just on the street by the window of my block of flats a bunch of old photographs. They looked like they might have belonged to some old photo studio in Budapest (somewhere on Kiraly street). There were a few shots of couples, children, and quite a few school portraits.
Fascinating to look into the eyes of people from the past, to wonder at what those 100 lives entailed, how in their little way the shaped the world today.

Forgotten Pleasures

RamblingMan — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 21:13:42 +0000

Its funny the things most of us stop doing as we grow up. Things somehow forever associated with childhood. The instruments we played, the sports we enjoyed, the art we made. These things in themselves are not childish, but apart from those who go on to be defined by these activities, they often get left in the school days past. Maybe we just had more time then, maybe they were usurped by newer pleasures.

I know that whilst I took music along with me into adulthood, I stopped drawing and painting and those were things I used to enjoy. I didn’t ever really learn to do those things properly but just the activity of messing about with them was deeply satisfying. Now that I’ve had some extra time on my hands I thought I’d have a little play again. And as I sat there one evening, and drew fat slabs of colour over the canvass I realised how much I’d missed this. Twenty odd years of missing out on this simple, relaxing, fun. It was good to have it back.

These pictures detail my tentative attempts to put paint to paper, including the process of working out how to paint a Traubisoda bottle, which is apt because when I first fell for the fizzy grapey charms of Traubi (Hungary around 1986) was probably the last time I painted something on canvas.

In Search of Ugyessness

RamblingMan — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 10:51:30 +0000

There is a great little Hungarian word for which there is no satisfactory equivalent in Engligh. It is ‘Ugyes’ (pronounce that Ooojesh). It is commonly used to tell someone they did something well – ugyes vagy! – You are ugyes! But ‘Well done!’ it isn’t, as ugyes is an adjective. It conveys strength, determination, enthusiasm, cleverness, deftness, and more wrapped into one little positive word. And its not any of these individually, so ugyes vagy – translates as something ‘strong you are’ gives a flavour but doesn’t quite work. But you do end up sounding like Yoda (btw: so Yoda ends up selling mobile phones on British TV? I guess the darkside is the stronger in the final analysis).

And actually, yeah, maybe its best to understand ugyes as something like The Force. So Ugyes is best translated as ‘the force is strong with you’. That would probably do it. The pursuit of Ugyessness is a noble one, maybe we should all strive to be knights of Ugy.

p.s. Ugyetlen – liteally ‘without ugy’ by the way means ‘clumsy’

Budapest, Off the Beaten Path

RamblingMan — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:10:58 +0000

Hello? What is this place? Oh, its my blog. Haven’t been in here for a while. That’s mainly because I’ve unconsciously stopped feeling like so much of an observer and started feeling like someone who simply lives in Budapest. But its unwise to stop observing, so from here on in, a concerted effort to write more, however trivial. Ok, how about kicking off again with something potentially useful for tourists? Right then 7 things to do in Budapest that are a little bit off the beaten tourist path, and a cheap way to experience different sides of Budapest.

1. Take the Public Transport (BKV) boat. It goes up and down the river, but instead of a fancy guided tour boat you get a no frills 400 forint (£1.20) tour of the river. http://www.bkv.hu/en/hajo_menetrend

2. Go down to the big market (nagyvasarcsarnok) in the morning, give yourself a shot of espresso coffee from the little hole in the wall cafe there (2nd left alley as you walk in). A little plastic cup of wake-up for 120 forint (45p).

3. Ideally if its summer, act like a young local, and instead of paying more than you need to in the bars, go get a cheap bottle of wine and/or some cans of beer from you local 24-non-stop-shop, and drink it with your friends in the centre of town in the grassy areas around the place that used to called The Gödör, is now the akvarium club, but Gödör is still the better name. https://www.facebook.com/akvariumklub

4. Staying on the drinking theme, forget the trendy Ruin Bars of the 7th district, and drink (cheaply) like a local at bog standard pub (kocsma). There’s plenty to choose from but the Bakéger is fairly typical and I guess you’d get a pint of beer for about 450 forint (£1.30). 1066 Budapest, Jókai utca 4., Hungary

5. Get your souvenirs and bargains from a local fleamarket. Saturday and Sunday down in the city park (Varosliget) is a good fleamarket (bolhapiac). Just ask for the Petőfi csárnok Bolhapiac. 100 forint (30p) to get in and then you can find a whole bunch of things, from clothes, arts and crafts, socialist memorabilia, crockery, cheap cleaning products. You can eat a grilled sausage when you get hungry www.bolhapiac.com

6. Cheap eats. For a late night snack go get yourself a 200 forint pizza on Kiraly Street. But that ain’t so Hungarian, so you want to go get your lunch at a typical lunchery…where you’ll get good cheap wholesome Hungarian food. Try for example Főzelék Fálo near Liszt Ferenc tér. Or there’s a good one on Raday utca called Kék something.

7. Get some culture on the cheap. Its the Stamp Museum. Yes, the Stamp Museum. I confess I haven’t been there yet, but a friend insisted I put this one in. And only 300 forint (90p) to get in. http://www.belyegmuzeum.hu/

There you go, for about £10 you could do all that in a day. Pompás!!

Those Magyars!

RamblingMan — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 09:54:58 +0000

If the Hungarians were united, the richness of their country would enable them to defend it in the face of any enemy. But they are of the worst type in the world, everyone is seeking his own profit and, if he can, lives on the fat of public property. They have no esteem for other countries. Though they feast together as if they were all brothers, surreptitiously they fight each other. There is no case so evil that it should not be won by the bribing of two or three men. They are haughty and proud, unable to command and to obey but unwilling to accept advice. They work little as they spend their time with feasting and intrigues.

Don’t worry readers (Reader? Silent empty net?), I haven’t turned on the Hungarians. The above was written nearly 500 years ago, in 1521 by the Austrian Ambassador. It just amused me a little.

[The Featured Photo of a typical Hungarian man has nothing to do with this post ]

Whilst you Wait

RamblingMan — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 14:35:52 +0000

My obsession with the Budapest Metro has developed into an obsession with the seats at Budapest Metro stops. So, like some perpetual commuter I travelled the whole of line 3 (which for no really logical explanation I consider my ‘home’ line), and took some snaps. Occasionally this meant getting off and waiting for the next one, but more often than not involved jumping off the train, kneeling in front of empty chairs, taking a snap, and jumping back on the train, like some demented tourist paparazzi who believes that chairs are celebrities (‘Aha, I got you yellow chair!!’). And in their own way, on metro line 3 at least they are. These would look at lot nicer with a better camera and more than a few seconds, but anyway here they are. Oh and for any station spotters out there amongst my massive readership, gyöngyösi út didn’t make the cut (exactly the same as Forgach ut), nor did körbánya kispest (no seats).

Facebook link:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151058719963474.490018.623263473&type=1

The sneeze that goes on forever

RamblingMan — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:27:52 +0000

I think I’ve drunk too much coffee today, for this is my silly train of thought:

I’m looking out of the aeroplane window (again) and rather obviously observe that we’re floating in the air. And that lots of other people are floating in the air. And then when we land others take off. So there’s always some humans floating in the air. All the time. That’s something like half a million humans floating in the air, circling the earth. Always.

And then I sneeze. And its the same thing. Not only are millions of others sneezing at the same time, but when I stop another sneeze will start. That’s a continous sneeze that will last how long? 10,000 years? And this can be applied to every human action. If you could just tune into to crying for example then there has been, and will be, a song of tears that has lasted for 10,000 years and will last for 10,000 more. On the other had there’s a smile that will last forever, and laughter that will never stop (well until the Sun grows big and eats us up – that might wipe the smile off our faces).

The world is therefore alive and pulsating all the time with all these things, all these songs of the Humans. There means, of course continous birth, continous death, continous sexual climax, continous dancing (good and bad). For a long time, way past when you and me are just bits of the universe again. And there’s the slightly more mundane or absurd, like the sneeze that lasts forever, the yawn that has no end, the burp that echoes in eternity. At every single moment, always something terrible, always something beautiful, always something stupid.

What’s my point? I have none, just two observations, a) the way we egocentrically perceive the world isn’t the only way it can be perceived, and b) I should drink less coffee.

Apologies, I hope next time to resume the more normal practice of writing about being surprised by Hungarians.

p.s. to keep the smile going, here’s Fam and Mai from the Red Zhou tribe in Northern Vietnam, who I met in the mountains in 2009.