Categories: words, translation, austria
Date: 04 September 2007 22:14:16
It seems to be a week for stumbling upon curious facts. It was only a few days ago that I was astounded by Austria's relatively recent conversion from driving on the left to driving on the right. Scarcely recovered, I blunder headfirst into the information that the man that coined the phrase “Silk Road” was a German geographer. He used the word “Seidenstraße” which we then borrowed. Not only was he German (more later) but he was none other than Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen. You may recognise the noble surname. He was an uncle of the infamous “Bloody Red Baron”, the WWI flying ace, Manfred von Richthofen.
Sources seem to be a bit confused as to the Baron's nationality. One website has him down as being Austrian, but I think that is unlikely, particularly as he would have been confused about which side of the Seidenstraße to drive his camel along. Other sources maintain that he was born in Bad Carlsruhe which is now known as Pokój and is in Poland. I'm happy to go with this theory, although frankly, to me, his birthplace is neither here nor possibly there - as illustrated by this paragraph.
As part of the rich silken tapestry that is my own life, I once taught English in a town on the Silk Road and spent a long hot afternoon trying to buy a tie with fish on it as a present for my brother using my pidgin Turkish. (Kravat baliklu isteyorum lütfen = “tie fish with would like I please” - no responsibility taken for anything resembling accuracy or authenticity). I was shown grillions of ties with tropical fish - my Turkish was not up to explaining that I wanted to buy a tie with freshwater fish, preferably trout, if possible, please; blue is fine but green would be nicer, thank you. You will be pleased to know that I was eventually successful - more due to the kindness of some friendly Turkish stall-holders than my efforts to murder their language, methinks.
I checked the Net to see if there was a nice picture of the silk market to direct you to. I didn't find one - but I did find this rather entertaining little entry on a tourism site: “The Koza Han (Silk Producer's Bazaar) and the covered bazaar, including the Bedesten must be visited when in Bursa. You will change your mind after a visit to these places even if you are determined not to spend a penny in Turkey!” Spending a penny in Turkey is a completely different subject - and one to which I may return on a slow news day. (Edit: another slow news day).
Now that you are fully in the picture (I feel there must be at least one here [and don't think I can't see you JtL]), I feel a burning urge to ask a question. As the Silk Road has been used as a trading route for at least two thousand years, what was it called before the good Baron christened it in 1877?
A penny for your thoughts.