What My Grandma Said
Hmm...translations might be a bit difficult. Well, today she said the following:
"I remember Man-Long a long time ago with his Mama (mother of my father). Man-Long you were locked up in that chicken pen butt naked while NaiNai (how my Poh Poh addresses my Mama) was just covered with a piece of cloth. I remember it very well, poor Man-Long locked up in the chicken pen, that little chicken pen, crawling butt naked (yes, Poh Poh repeated what she said - old people tend to do that) and I could not stop laughing. I laughed until my lung bursted. I laughed until I died. I thought to myself, 'Yum Gon (I'm not sure how to translate that - it roughly means poor you), why doesn't my grandson and my NaiNai have clothes?'"
~What really happened is that I was in my baby bed (with the bars, hence the chicken pen) and I was lying down to cool my body. I didn't have pants on, and my grandma only had a piece a cloth is not to be explained by poverty - my Mama was hardly poor, but that it was truly a very hot day. But what you can see there is a very death or suffering driven metaphors to describe my actually fairly happy childhood. To be locked up in a "chicken pen" is a lot worse than to lie down in a baby bed; to have just a piece of cloth is a lot worse than actually being fully dressed. Being butt naked because of the poverty is also a much worse picture than because of the heat.
Today I did realize that my grandma suffered a lot and is still suffering - according to her she is suffering disrespect from certain members of the family. But she is a tough character, and hence she can speak of suffering with a beautiful dignity; she can also speak metaphorically, mixing sublimely a tone of the tragic with an image of the comic.
In the future if I remember any more translatable passage I'll post them up.
"I remember Man-Long a long time ago with his Mama (mother of my father). Man-Long you were locked up in that chicken pen butt naked while NaiNai (how my Poh Poh addresses my Mama) was just covered with a piece of cloth. I remember it very well, poor Man-Long locked up in the chicken pen, that little chicken pen, crawling butt naked (yes, Poh Poh repeated what she said - old people tend to do that) and I could not stop laughing. I laughed until my lung bursted. I laughed until I died. I thought to myself, 'Yum Gon (I'm not sure how to translate that - it roughly means poor you), why doesn't my grandson and my NaiNai have clothes?'"
~What really happened is that I was in my baby bed (with the bars, hence the chicken pen) and I was lying down to cool my body. I didn't have pants on, and my grandma only had a piece a cloth is not to be explained by poverty - my Mama was hardly poor, but that it was truly a very hot day. But what you can see there is a very death or suffering driven metaphors to describe my actually fairly happy childhood. To be locked up in a "chicken pen" is a lot worse than to lie down in a baby bed; to have just a piece of cloth is a lot worse than actually being fully dressed. Being butt naked because of the poverty is also a much worse picture than because of the heat.
Today I did realize that my grandma suffered a lot and is still suffering - according to her she is suffering disrespect from certain members of the family. But she is a tough character, and hence she can speak of suffering with a beautiful dignity; she can also speak metaphorically, mixing sublimely a tone of the tragic with an image of the comic.
In the future if I remember any more translatable passage I'll post them up.
posted by Tristan at 10:20 p.m.
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