Among the immense collection of the British Museum’s Department of the Middle East, I came across the following document (which appears to have been written by many hands).
The words “King of Kings” in this substack immediately transported me back to my first year at university in South Africa. Born from Dutch immigrants, growing up in an Afrikaans community, English was as foreign as Greek. We Boertjies struggled mightily at school with the strange tenses and weird pronunciations. And for every rule there was an exception. So what possessed me to take English as a first year subject at varsity? Maybe because I recognised Shakespeare’s genius in The Merchant of Venice in my matric year ... although I could barely understand it. English I at varsity was the best struggle of my life. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Ozymandias was one of many wonderful poems in my Albatross Book of Verse. Not that I could immediately fathom most of the poems … I waded through every poem and prescribed book with my faithful dictionary at my side. It was slow-going, pencilling the Afrikaans translation above every second word. Sometimes the dictionary made things even more difficult by giving many translations or meanings for a word. But wow, what a wonderful world eventually opened up before me. After varsity I bought myself all the English children’s classics I was deprived of and enjoyed a belated enchanted childhood. Today I feel like a King of Kings (though female), having a vast fortune of English literature at my fingertips. My poor mother tried very hard, but never managed to speak English … the word “vegetables” slayed her.
It’s my favourite poem too! Well done for struggling through on the English, sounds like it was well worth your while. Out of interest does your Afrikaans mean you can read Dutch quite easily or is it too different for that?
Taking note of the date you post this, I can't help but think you're trying to provoke someone here in the U.S. to take this humble title. An egoist comes to mind...
Hello Mr Rothwell. I lived in South Africa and married into an Afrikaans speaking family. I was a Uni prof there from Australia and so had to learn some Afrikaans along with Zulu. When in Europe my wife and I find it fairly easy to understand Dutch, some German but particularly Flemish, which seems the closest of all to Afrikaans. Linguistically the main difference is the use of the double negative in Afrikaans, for example "Ek sal nie koffie óf tee hê nie." - I will not have either coffee or tea. The Dutch fall about laughing when we say Kuk!
How interesting! I never thought to wonder about King of Kings, which, for some reason, I mostly associate with ancient Egypt. I hope Trump doesn't hear of the title. I'm pretty sure he'd want to revive it.
Quick, somebody stab M. E. Rothwell and claim the title for themselves!
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
The words “King of Kings” in this substack immediately transported me back to my first year at university in South Africa. Born from Dutch immigrants, growing up in an Afrikaans community, English was as foreign as Greek. We Boertjies struggled mightily at school with the strange tenses and weird pronunciations. And for every rule there was an exception. So what possessed me to take English as a first year subject at varsity? Maybe because I recognised Shakespeare’s genius in The Merchant of Venice in my matric year ... although I could barely understand it. English I at varsity was the best struggle of my life. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Ozymandias was one of many wonderful poems in my Albatross Book of Verse. Not that I could immediately fathom most of the poems … I waded through every poem and prescribed book with my faithful dictionary at my side. It was slow-going, pencilling the Afrikaans translation above every second word. Sometimes the dictionary made things even more difficult by giving many translations or meanings for a word. But wow, what a wonderful world eventually opened up before me. After varsity I bought myself all the English children’s classics I was deprived of and enjoyed a belated enchanted childhood. Today I feel like a King of Kings (though female), having a vast fortune of English literature at my fingertips. My poor mother tried very hard, but never managed to speak English … the word “vegetables” slayed her.
It’s my favourite poem too! Well done for struggling through on the English, sounds like it was well worth your while. Out of interest does your Afrikaans mean you can read Dutch quite easily or is it too different for that?
Taking note of the date you post this, I can't help but think you're trying to provoke someone here in the U.S. to take this humble title. An egoist comes to mind...
Purely coincidental, I promise!
Hello Mr Rothwell. I lived in South Africa and married into an Afrikaans speaking family. I was a Uni prof there from Australia and so had to learn some Afrikaans along with Zulu. When in Europe my wife and I find it fairly easy to understand Dutch, some German but particularly Flemish, which seems the closest of all to Afrikaans. Linguistically the main difference is the use of the double negative in Afrikaans, for example "Ek sal nie koffie óf tee hê nie." - I will not have either coffee or tea. The Dutch fall about laughing when we say Kuk!
That’s so interesting, hadn’t thought of the Flemish connection but makes perfect sense now you say it
King of the Universe! That one, is apparently too grand for most to even aspire to.
Is this your claim to the title, Mr. Rothwell?
No comment
How interesting! I never thought to wonder about King of Kings, which, for some reason, I mostly associate with ancient Egypt. I hope Trump doesn't hear of the title. I'm pretty sure he'd want to revive it.