Re: Are their any bi-lingual novels?

From: Neeraj Mathur (neemathur_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 11/12/04


Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:08:10 -0000


<iwantlambert@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:397210d7.0411110731.2988eeff@posting.google.com...
> Ashley Moore wrote:
>
>> I'm curious as to whether anyone knows of the existence of a novel
>> that requires comprehension of more than one language in order to read
>> it.
>
> In moorish Spain a style of poetry evolved in which part of the poem
> was in Hebrew or Spanish and another part in Arab. This style of
> poetry was called kharja if i remember well.

I think something similar happened in Norman English; I remember reading a
three-line poem that went something like this (as I remember it; I think I
read it before I knew much of Norman Old French or Middle English, so this
is modernised):

Ma tresdouce et tresamée
For love of thee both night and day
Suspiro

Apparently, this combination of French, English, and Latin was not uncommon
at the time; I don't know much more about the subject though.

Neeraj Mathur



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