{"id":4267,"date":"2021-03-07T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=4267"},"modified":"2021-03-07T15:15:02","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T15:15:02","slug":"basque-fact-of-the-week-a-new-letter-written-in-euskara-discovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/03\/07\/basque-fact-of-the-week-a-new-letter-written-in-euskara-discovered\/","title":{"rendered":"Basque Fact of the Week: A New Poem Written in Euskara Discovered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>One of the challenges with studying and understanding the origins and evolution of the Basque language is simply that it is only until relatively recently that it has been written down. Thus, whenever a new fragment of Euskara is discovered, it is a big deal. While the <a href=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2019\/05\/12\/basque-fact-of-the-week-earliest-written-evidence-of-euskara\/\">oldest known phrases<\/a> in Euskara data back to 950 or so, the oldest text is a letter written in 1537 by the then-bishop of Mexico. Or, it was the oldest, until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ene-laztan-osoa_superpuesto_txikia.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4269\" width=\"309\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ene-laztan-osoa_superpuesto_txikia.jpg 412w, https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ene-laztan-osoa_superpuesto_txikia-217x300.jpg 217w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 309px) 100vw, 309px\" \/><figcaption>The poem discovered by Dr. Rosa Ayerbe, highlighted in the margins of the notary document. Image from the <a href=\"http:\/\/oinati.gipuzkoakultura.net\/es\/los-documentos\/26\/218.html\">Archivo Hist\u00f3rico Provincial de Gipuzkoa.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Dr. Rosa Ayerbe discovered a new poem in Euskara while doing research on notary records in Gipuzkoa at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artxibogipuzkoa.gipuzkoakultura.net\/fondos.php\">Provincial Historical Archive of Gipuzkoa<\/a>. She found one document, in the records of one <a href=\"http:\/\/oinati.gipuzkoakultura.net\/es\/los-documentos\/26\/214.html\">Miguel Iba\u00f1ez de Insausti<\/a> from Azkoitia, in which a poem written in the Gipuzkoan dialect of Basque is inscribed in the margins of the otherwise unremarkable legal document. <\/li><li>With the help of other researchers, including Ramon Martin, Iago Irijoa and Ander Ros, they were able to transcribe and translate the ancient text. It isn&#8217;t clear that this Miguel wrote the poem. More likely, it seems, one of his scribes wrote the Basque text, sometime around 1515. It&#8217;s a love poem, not particularly remarkable in and of itself, but now being the oldest poem we have written in Euskara, it becomes one of the most fascinating items written in the language. <\/li><li>Here is the poem, translated to English with the help of Google translate and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinkspain.com\/news-spain\/32561\/poem-written-in-ancient-basque-is-earliest-known-example-of-spain-s-mystery-language\">thinkSpain<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><em>My sweet beautiful beloved<\/em><br><em>you pity me <\/em><br><br><em>Having me so &#8220;zulez&#8221;, <\/em><br><em>How did you make me fall in love <\/em><br><em>with that sword in hand? <\/em><br><br><em>You take me with your hands <\/em><br><em>from here to there <\/em><br><br><em>I will forgive you, squire, <\/em><br><em>I have not used it to kill a person <\/em><br><em>save the young man <\/em><br><br><em>Hurting me with love pains <\/em><br><em>the feathered hen <\/em><br><em>me sweating of love <\/em><br><em>in my tears <\/em><br><em>the horses appear to the fight <\/em><br><br><em>My love left me <\/em><br><em>I usually have the first one <\/em><br><em>inside my heart. <\/em><br><br><em>Going one day <\/em><br><br><strong><em>Part<\/em> <em>II <\/em><br><\/strong><br><em>I got up early in the morning, one day a week <\/em><br><em>one day a week, and Monday morning <\/em><br><em>my dear &#8220;belagai,&#8221; broke in front of me <\/em><br><em>in the &#8220;bia&#8221; that I did not want, next to where you were <\/em><br><em>the great blow shook me, in the middle of the heart. <\/em><br><br><em>I was going to church when I was hit <\/em><br><em>I got down on my knees, in front of the altar <\/em><br><em>[to] confess my sin, as I did <\/em><br><em>she gave me penance, as I should. <\/em><br><br><em>Meanwhile, here I am (you got me)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>It is particularly amazing that Dr. Ayerbe discovered this document as it has been scanned and digitally available for some time, just waiting for someone to find it. How many other such treasures are buried in the archives?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Primary sources: <a href=\"http:\/\/oinati.gipuzkoakultura.net\/es\/los-documentos\/26\/218.html\">&#8216;Ene Laztan Gozo Ederra&#8230;&#8217;, Primera Transcripci\u00f3n e Interpretaci\u00f3n del Texto<\/a>, Archivo Hist\u00f3rico Provincial de Gipuzkoa; <a href=\"http:\/\/oinati.gipuzkoakultura.net\/es\/los-documentos\/26\/214.html\">\u2018Ene Laztan Gozo Ederra\u2026\u2019, Sale a Luz un Antiguo Texto Escrito en Euskara (Circa 1515)<\/a>, Archivo Hist\u00f3rico Provincial de Gipuzkoa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the challenges with studying and understanding the origins and evolution of the Basque language is simply that it is only until relatively recently that it has been written down. Thus, whenever a new fragment of Euskara is discovered, it is a big deal. While the oldest known phrases in Euskara data back to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[836,14],"tags":[2451,2447,38,463,2450,2504,818,2449,2448],"class_list":["post-4267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basque-fact-of-the-week","category-euskara","tag-ander-ros","tag-archivo-historico-provincial-de-gipuzkoa","tag-euskara","tag-gipuzkoa","tag-iago-irijoa","tag-miguel-ibanez-de-insausti","tag-poem","tag-ramon-martin","tag-rosa-ayerbe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ene-laztan-osoa_superpuesto_txikia.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-16P","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4267"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4400,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4267\/revisions\/4400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}