Black humor was popular in the Middle Ages. That is why the art of epitaphs has become so popular. Philosophical or amusing sayings were composed on their gravestone during their lifetime and often used the services of professional epitaphists.
The tradition of writing epitaphs has passed into our time. But if in our country they are written quite rarely, then in English-speaking countries to write something tearful or cheerful on the grave is the norm.
Today we will tell you about the epitaphs on the graves of famous people, which can really be called art.
Why write epitaphs at all?
From a psychological point of view, an epitaph is an attempt by relatives to slightly reduce their pain from the loss of a loved one. And if it was composed by the deceased himself (when he was still alive, of course), then this is a kind of attempt to leave something behind him - funny, philosophical or strange.
In the post-Soviet countries, epitaphs did not take root. Even if they are written, they are mostly prayers or passages from the Bible. This tradition is more European and American.
Many famous people who left their mark on history were also not averse to composing an epitaph for themselves. For others, it was composed by relatives. Anyway, let's not drag out the introduction for a long time, let's get down to business.
William Shakespeare
The legendary poet and playwright rests in the UK, in the city of Stratford-upon-Avon. The place of his burial is a real tourist Mecca. But today we will consider the epitaph not on a pompous memorial monument, but a quatrain written by Shakespeare himself, which is located on his grave.
There is a legend that Shakespeare was so afraid of desecrating his own grave that he himself came up with an epitaph in which he cursed anyone who dared to touch his ashes.
Good frend for Iesvs sake forbear,
To digg the dvst encloased hear.
Blese be ye man yt spares the stones,
And cvrst be he yt moves my bones.Here is a literary translation (translator A. Velichansky):
Friend, for the Lord's sake, don't swarm
Remains taken by this land;
Untouched is blessed through the ages,
And damned - who touched my ashes.
The quatrain is interesting to both linguists and historians. At the same time, many philologists consider this epitaph to be rather mediocre in terms of poetics. There is even a hypothesis that the epitaph was not written by Shakespeare, but by someone else. However, researchers seem to have found that its author is Shakespeare himself.
And some even more adventurous researchers even believe that some kind of secret is hidden there. . This is, of course, unlikely, but research is still being done.
Let's take a look at the epitaph from a linguistic point of view.
Notice that the letter V completely replaces the letter U? The thing is that the letter U at that time did not officially exist yet. Depending on its location in the word, the letter V also denoted sounds that are now assigned to the letters U and W.
And although some writers of the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries already used the letter U, Shakespeare wrote the epitaph in the old fashioned way.
And you also definitely noticed the abbreviations the - ye, that - yt, in which one letter is written above the other. This style of articles was quite common in the XNUMXth century - printers often used just such forms. And since we’ve already touched on it, look also at the continuous spelling of letters in the words the, heare, thes - such a thing was also extremely common.
"Blese be the man" - here the phrase should be taken as "May the man be blest"
"cvrst be he" - similarly, "may he be cursed".
In general, according to the linguistic analysis of Shakespeare's epitaph, there is even , in which there are even parallels with ancient inscriptions, including those of Ovid. But we won't go that far. Let's go further.
Mel Blanc
You may not know the name of this person, you may not know what he looked like, but you definitely heard his voice. Because that's what many of the cartoon characters at Warner Bros.
“The Man of a Thousand Voices” was what his colleagues called him. Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety Chick, Willy Coyote and a huge number of other characters speak in his voice.
The epitaph on his grave is the iconic phrase that ended every cartoon in the Looney Tunes series from Warner Bros. "That's all folks" - "That's all, friends."
Mel Blanc clearly indicated in his will that this phrase should serve as an epitaph. And to be honest, it sounds both like excellent self-irony and like awareness of one's own merits. This is great.
Jack Lemmon
An American actor who has been nominated for an Oscar eight times and won a statuette twice.
Lemmon was considered one of the best actors in the US in the 70s and 80s. He has acted in over a hundred films, but Russian-speaking filmgoers probably know him from his role in the film Some Like It Hot (1959).
Lemmon has a very solid list of awards. In addition to two Oscars, he has 2 more Cannes palm branches, 3 BAFTA awards, 3 Golden Globes and a whole bunch of smaller awards.
The epitaph on Lemmon's tombstone is very brief - Chekhov would be glad. It has only three words, two of which are the name of the actor.
The joke is that the tombstone looks exactly like a frame from the credits of the movie. As if in the next moment the title of the picture will appear. And you need to understand the inscription exactly as "Jack Lemmon in the movie ..."
At the same time, the inscription can be understood literally: "Johnn Lemmon in [the earth]." An excellent epitaph for a filmmaker.
Robert Lewis Stevenson
Among the poets and writers of the past, it was very prestigious to write an epitaph for oneself.
Robert Stevenson, author of the legendary Treasure Island and dozens of other maritime books, also wrote a requiem for himself.
In 1884 he became seriously ill. The writer was already preparing for death and created a small poem, bequeathed to write it on his tombstone. True, it “came in handy” for him already 10 years later, in 1894.
Stevenson is buried in Samoa. His will was carried out and his "Requiem" flaunts on his grave.
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Gladly did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a willThis be the verse you dig for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
"Requiem" has a rather interesting rhyme aaab cccb, where three lines of the quatrain have a common rhyme, and all fourth lines of stanzas rhyme with each other.
"Requiem" is considered a rather difficult work to translate. Partly because of the rhyme, partly because of the rhythm. There are quite a few translation options into Russian, but there is no single recognized one. Here is one of the most successful, in our opinion (translator - Mikhail Lukashevich):
Beneath the expanse of heaven where the star is high
Let the coffin take me
I lived happily, and death is easy for me,
This is my last order.Knock out a verse on my grave:
Here he lies by his will,
The sailor returned home from the seas,
The hunter came down from the hills.
It is interesting that in fact the verse consists of three stanzas, and there are only two on the tombstone. It turned out that the literary clerk of the writer threw out the second stanza from the work. It is still not known whether this was done at the request of the writer or it was arbitrariness on the part of the clerk. And many researchers believe that it is still the latter.
Here is the second missing stanza:
Here may the winds about me blow;
Here the clouds may come and go;
Here shall be rest for evermore,
And the heart for aye shall be still.
Charles Bukowski
Bukowski has been a major influence on modern American literature. He wrote six novels, over two hundred short stories and about a thousand poems.
As a representative of "dirty realism", he illuminated the vicious and cruel realities of American society in his works. Bukowski's stories have been filmed many times.
Bukowski is a representative of a rather tough underground in literature, so his works have not received awards, but he occupies a fairly strong place in American culture.
Bukowski's epitaph is as simple as possible: "Don't try" ("Don't try"). But in fact, its meaning is not as pessimistic as it might seem at first glance.
The phrase "Don't try" has become a kind of life credo of the writer. In letters to friends and in the works of the writer, the same thought was often repeated:
“We work too hard. We try too hard. Don't try. Don't work. It's there. It's been looking right at us, aching to kick out of the closed womb. There's been too much direction. It's all free, we needn't be told. classes? Classes are for asses. Writing a poem is as easy as beating your meat or drinking a bottle of beer.”
“We work too hard. We try too hard. Don't try. Don't work. All here. It looks directly at us and passionately seeks to break out of the closed womb. We have too many guides. It's all free, we don't have to be taught it. Studies? She's for the butt. Writing a poem is as easy as jerking off or drinking a bottle of beer."
The whole philosophy of the life of the writer was reduced to one simple sentence. "Don't try, just be yourself and do what you like." But for the uninitiated in the views of Bukowski, the epitaph sounds like “Don’t try,” but for those who know what the writer had in mind, it is completely transformed: “Don’t try what you don’t have a heart for.”
Bonus: eulogy to himself
The second meaning of the word "epitaph" is a funeral speech. Last year, a video appeared on Reddit in which a humorous recording of the voice of the deceased was played at the funeral. She made those present laugh and diluted the mournful mood of relatives.
Hello? Hello? Let me out! Where the fuck am I? Let me out! It's fucking dark in here! Is that a priest I can hear? This is Shay, I'm in the box. And I'm dead… Hello again hello, I just called to say goodbye.
Hey! Hey! Release me! Damn it, where am I? Release me! It's fucking dark in here! Is that the priest speaking? This is Shay, I'm in the box. And I'm dead. Hello, hello again. I just called to say goodbye."
The man sang the last phrase in the manner . Only the last "hello" was replaced with "goodbye".
PS Did you notice the classic Irish accent in the video? Fucking [ˈfʌk.ɪŋ] becomes [ˈfɔːk.ɪŋ] with a clear "o" sound.
It's amazing how a few phrases can change people's moods. Here they mourn, and in a second they are already giggling. And in order to feel the real power of the English language, not in translation, but in the original, learn it competently.
Online school EnglishDom.com - we inspire you to learn English through technology and human care
Only for Habr readers ! And with the purchase of classes, you will receive up to 3 lessons for free!
Get a whole month of premium subscription to the ED Words application as a gift.
Enter promo code deathart or straight . The promo code is valid until 11.02.2021/XNUMX/XNUMX.
Our products:
Source: habr.com