Alo and De Culture #68
(PD) Alo and De Lake on Land.
Copyright ©2018 November 15, 2018
Alo: Great six-million dollar man, him way call ram bow, him stairway to heaven, good is cool, beauty is hot, from happy days to san fran nights, bond, not believe big bang theory, not different strokes, live big valley. Rode mustang, smoke from ground under, no smoke from mustang, no gun smoke also. Mustang strong, fast, speak loud, screech loud long, as-if stepping wolf and heavy zeppelin also, colored of deep purple. Man strong, six years matterhorn surround feet, man not say 'I love Lucy', man respect nation's lady, say 'oh Jackie'. Man followed way kings Lincoln, Kennedy, general hospital not save, not download, no face in book, no virus, but life deleted.
Yan: I was about to chuckle, but, actually, it makes sense! Well, most everything... what does 'matterhorn surround feet' mean?
Alo: Heavy boots, tall, same name... weigh about five pounds... legs become strong to wear heavy boots and walk many miles of hills each day... name is very familiar with people in armies... name not familiar outside of armies...
Yan: Firsthand experience... it is so easy to see how impossible it can be to understand a person's words, even when living in the same culture... must live similar life, to grasp what the words point to...
Alo: Precisely... ancient culture, also impossible to understand... translating words, cannot create meaning... one man's stairway to heaven, is another man's song... one man's heaven under, is another man's Universe that has no heaven above... maybe a 'heaven' permeating all... to say 'heaven under', it also implies that there must exist a concept of 'heaven' itself existing above... within the concept, there likely must also exist other concepts, of spirit beings and other things that we cannot imagine today...
Yan: Agreed... we say 'heaven under', but our own concept is that the words merely point to Creation, what was created by heaven... but our concept of heaven, is nowhere close to what the ancients likely believed...
Alo: I agree... when the ancient words speak of kings and generations, we cannot possibly share a similar concept of the kings' lives, because we did not live when the kings lived... our minds have no firsthand histories of living when the kings lived, no firsthand concepts of what life was like when the kings lived... we cannot possibly share a similar concept as what the ancients held. Some men quote history books, and then claim that reciting names, places, and dates, can somehow convey an understanding of a culture. When king Kennedy went the way of king Lincoln, the people were shocked... grieved... the act was shocking, all but unimaginable... but today, if a king went a similar way, most people would not be shocked, nor grieved... likely not care at all... one generation, now different... a hundred generations have passed since the ancients... their kings were apparently respected, no known king today is respected... fully not possible to share same feelings...
Yan: The elder Tom had spoken of something similar... he said that he was isolated as a child, having no family, and never having a close bond with other people... when he saw television movies of people being emotional because of the death of a family member, Tom said that he did not understand why the people would be emotional. To Tom, he could not feel an emotion of loss, nor feel sympathy and compassion for the movies' characters, because, he himself had never had anything to lose... similar with ancient kings... no one can feel similar emotions if the people do not have close bonds...
Alo: Yes, precisely...
Yan: Metaphors also... some of the ancient texts delved deeply into metaphors... surely made sense to many ancients... but cannot make sense today... today, the words are as if mere colorful ideas... as if a further flowering of already flowered metaphors... today's words cannot relate to what the words originally implied...
Alo: 'Master say: I explain Xia customs. Qi not attain perfect-note also. I study many customs, have Song exist here. I study Zhou customs, today use it. I follow Zhou.' Regardless of what might be learned of the different dynasties, no learning can explain what the ancients felt and thought... Song, is known to me, because of the emperor's good paintings... the other dynasties, I have no similar experience... I can speak the words, but I cannot know what the words mean... cannot know ancients' hearts... if, cannot know hearts, then cannot know the why of customs...
Yan: Loosely... 'Second-senior Buddhist-nun grandfather state: Yao, Shun, constitution rules Wen, Wu first principle day hour, second inherit water soil. Build according-to day, earth it not-have, not hold carry not-have, not cover curtain build as-if four when it mistake, behavior comparable sun moon it replace bright.' I can glean a weak concept from the words, but the words are colored of culture... accuracy of translation is not possible...
Alo: Agreed... and it is unfortunate that all popular ancient books throughout the world are similar... cannot be accurately translated, but yet many people still believe that inaccurate translations speak truth... people invent in their minds, that they understand all words... people believe that all people are identical, with identical thoughts, identical lives, identical cultures... identical emotions... the belief, causes people to make bad mistakes. Sod poodle... what does that mean to you?
Yan: Ha! Is that a joke? Well, while waiting for the punch line... I would answer by guessing a sod poodle is a little white curly-haired dog in the dirt?
Alo: Sort of... allegedly a slang word used over a hundred years ago by cowboys... cowboys ride horses, herd cows... one of the most hated creatures was, and still is, a prairie dog... prairie dogs dig holes, tunnels in the soil, live in the tunnels... prairie dogs are extremely destructive to plants, trees, buildings, and very dangerous to horses and cows... horses sometimes stepped into a prairie dog hole, and broke a leg... the horse then had to be put-down... similar with cows... the losses to cowboys were huge, caused the cowboys to hate prairie dogs... no one, even today, living in the prairie, likes prairie dogs... seeing a prairie dog is reason enough for a land owner to energetically try to destroy the animal... 'sod poodle' is a slang derogatory name, given by prairie residents, to a hated animal... possibly originated as part-joke, part-mispronunciation , and part-teasing between cowboys who spoke different languages with different accents, but, now, today, in the same region of prairie, except within a city on the same prairie, some adult city people have named their club to be 'sod poodles'...
Yan: Wow... the name itself is embarrassing enough... maybe acceptable for a club of little pre-school girls planting flowers, but for adults? That is embarrassing, and, an insult to all inhabitants... sounds like a thinking problem... teddy bears and poodles, things for babies and infants... how embarrassing... seriously, my mind sincerely cannot accept the sharp absurdity of an adult club purposefully wanting a name that so strongly relates to little children...
Alo: Same culture, same region, same land, same people, same language, same generation, same day, same hour, same word, fully different meanings. Same slang word can imply a hated thing, as well as a thing that is applauded... choosing the right meaning, cannot be done... no binary here, no left right, no up down, no yes no... the meaning of the word means what it means to each individual, where they live, their occupations, and their own life histories. Likewise are the ancient words... a dictionary definition of binary meanings, is always absurd...