Esperanto Language Blog

Scottish-born William Auld ranks among the best Esperanto authors of recent times – if not of all time! His long literary career included the editorship of several Esperanto magazines, and for a few years in the late 70s he was the Vice President of the World Esperanto Association. He compiled anthologies, wrote many poetry books, translated plenty of English-language literature, wrote essays on Esperanto, and even wrote four textbooks for teaching and learning Esperanto! His crowning glory was the epic poem “La Infana Raso” (the infant race), which we visited a long while ago in this blog when we examined Esperanto poetry.

Auld is probably one of my favorite poets, in all the languages I know. But, don’t take my word alone that he’s excellent. From 1999 until 2006 (the year of his death), he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He never won, unfortunately…Imagine the recognition Esperanto would have received if he had earned one! However, the mere fact that he was nominated is a testament to his immense literary skill and poetic expertise. Search him on the Internet to find some of his poems!

Playwright (verkisto) Harold Brown was one of the leading figures in Esperanto drama. When he died of a stroke in 2004, Brown had completed a surprising number of Esperanto books, plays, and articles. Though I can’t confess to have read half of his works, I am quite familiar with the play for which he is most famous: A brief two-person drama called “La Pesto” (The Plague). You can find a PDF copy of the play at his website.

In La Pesto, a man and woman who remain unnamed, and of indeterminate age, sit in a cafe and discuss the fallout of what seems to be a catastrophic plague. Their nation is heavily quarantined, requiring identification and a clean bill of health to navigate the countryside. In addition, the panic of the widespread affliction is beginning to take its toll on society, undermining what little stability remains in the government. The play unfolds as a worrisome meditation on human mortality that concludes on a surprising note of hope.

The play is definitely worth the read. Take a look at Harold Brown, and savor one of Esperanto’s finest authorial voices.

If you’ve never visited Europe, you may not have heard of the comic hero Asterix. The series takes place in a village in Gaul (the region that is now France) during the time of the Roman Empire. Asterix and company battle the invading forces of Caesar by means of all sorts of bizarre potions, magics, and ingenious tactics. His adventures span over 30 different comic books, and a lot of them have ended up translated into many different languages. Esperanto is among them! For orthographical purposes, his name is “Asteriks” in Esperanto, since Esperanto has no official x character.

If you want to learn a bit more about the series, Esperanto.net has a great article here. Reading the comic is a good way to improve your Esperanto skills, since the pictures that accompany the text can help you understand what’s going on more than text alone can.