<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">=========================================================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 26 February 2008 - Volume 02<br style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
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=========================================================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe"><span class="EP8xU" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Luc Hellinckx</span> <span class="lDACoc"><<a href="mailto:luc.hellinckx@gmail.com">luc.hellinckx@gmail.com</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="HcCDpe">LL-L "Etymology"<br><br></span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Beste Ron and Gael,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
You wrote:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<blockquote style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" type="cite">And
here one wonders what the difference was in Ancient Hebrew between
Persian-derived פַּרְדֵס <i>pardes</i> and apparently native בֻּסְתָּן
<i>bustân</i> (cf. Arabic بستان <i>bustân</i> 'garden', 'orchard'),
גִּנָה <i>gin</i><i>â</i><i>h</i> and <span dir="rtl" style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="HE">גָּן</span> <i>g</i><i>â</i><i>n</i>. All of them
can be translated as "garden," and <i>pardes</i> and <i>bustân</i>
can both be translated as "orchard." I have a feeling that <i>pardes</i>
connoted the Persian idea of a grand, luscious garden, a ... well,
paradisiacal one, that incorporated the idea of inner space. The author
of <i>Balashon</i> (<a href="http://www.balashon.com/2007/12/pardes-and-paradise.html" target="_blank">http://www.balashon.com/2007/12/pardes-and-paradise.html</a>)
writes:<br>
</blockquote>
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
To me, all these words like "hedge", "garden", "bāg" and "paradise",
share this meaning of enveloping something, as such defining the
integral unity of a "body", of a "whole".<br>
<br>
In olden times, when people were living in communities that were much
more closed than nowadays, this was important: what was located inside
the walls was known, good and trustworthy. Beyond the walls: hazard,
!freedom!, and adventurous barbarians. To some extent this shows the
conflict between a peasant and a hunter. Just look at the negative
connotations "hedge" has, merely because it's like a wall, and anything
happening behind a hedge is (almost) invisible, read "clandestine".
Look at the fascination of the Chinese with walls, especially the Great
Wall, trying to keep intruders at bay. See how on old maps terra
incognita always seems to be inhabited by monsters and freaks. As the
saying goes, "East, west, home's best" (mind you, not my personal
belief).<br>
<br>
But...home is also where the heart is of course. And this restless
heart of ours sometimes goes astray, wandering about in the Garden of
Eden. This paradise is vast, but it also has a black hole that connects
with a parallel world; some call it the "Garden of Earthly Delights" in
the West (that's the Greco-Judeo-Christian part of the equation), yin
and yang in the East. The "whole" is neutral by definition, but viewed
from a distance one sees the eternal conflict with an opposing
principle, of which the seed is at the same time buried deep within the
first: yin/yang.<br>
<br>
Naturally, I can't tell which side Iran is on in this respect (sorry,
can't help using the word "side"), it could be halfway between the East
and the West, but Persia/India may just as well lie at the origin of
both world views (free will/sin vs. karma/shame) I think.<br>
<br>
For a good example of the Western point of view, just have a look at
how our famous Brabantish painter Hieronymus Bosch (source of
inspiration for other Brabantish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder)
depicted that Garden of Earthly Delights in his triptych:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/GardenED.jpg" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/GardenED.jpg</a><br>
<br>
(from left to right: Garden of Eden > Garden of Earthly Delights
> Hell)<br>
<br>
Kind greetings,<br><font color="#888888">
<br>
Luc Hellinckx</font></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>><span></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: Etymology<br><br>Thank you very much for that insightful piece, Luc. I don't praise it only because I agree with it. ;-)<br><br>It's easy for us at this time to lose sight of the fact that our ancestors lived with even less security and with greater fear than us. Some of the fear sprang from the imagery of their belief systems and from the then unexplainable spread of disease. Those of us that remember the fear of the dark, of the outside and of strangers we experienced as young children can imagine what it was like for our ancestors all their lives. Relatively safe places were at a prime, in reality and in one's imagination always surrounded by some sort of protective barrier or other ... homesteads, clusters of homesteads, fortresses, towns, cities ... and, yes, countries. We saw it again when East Germany erected walls to ward off the "evils" of the West and to keep its people inside. We saw it again later when some communities in the Czech Republic erected walls and fences to separate themselves from the supposed evils of their Roma ("Gypsy") neighbors. We see it where Israel erected walls to control cross-border movement of Palestinians. I experienced it when visiting Australian and British friends in the walled-off foreigners' quarters of Jakarta, Indonesia. Some countries are now trying to wall themselves in in Cyberspace. There's the imaginary wall that is supposed to separate Europe from Asia to justify its status as a continent ... And the list goes on. Walls seem to be a specifically Eurasian thing, if not obsession.<br>
<br>And it is probably not coincidental that images of paradise tended to come with such barriers to symbolize their security. They were seen as wonderful, safe oases. Hence perhaps also the connections with orchards and gardens which from Europe to Eastern Asia tend to be surrounded by walls or at least fences, or maybe sheer rock faces. Surviving medieval cloistered gardens of Europe provide us with glimpses of such ideas of sanctuaries: atrium courts full of trees, flowers and herbs surrounded by high walls and cloistered passageways. Imagine the sight in the Middle Ages: entering such a place from the squalor of the noisy, dusty, filthy street!<br>
<br>The more I learn about it the more I feel convinced that the Persian cultural sphere played a pivotal role throughout Eurasia. Its influences where particularly strong in Central, Southern and Western Asia, but it also reached all the way to China, to Morocco (and on to Spain) and to Europe, at least indirectly so. Chang'an (today's Xi'an) and other cities of Tang China (618 – 907 CE) had special neighborhoods for Persians. Bearded men, probably mostly Persians, are frequently seen depicted in Chinese art of the time. Almost all Chinese musical instruments can be traced back to Persia, having arrived in China mostly via Central Asia. Conversely, classical Persian painting marries ornate detail we know from India with the elegant grace we know from Chinese ink paining. Arabic and Turkic art and thought is strongly Persian-influenced, and Medieval European art (including music) is more strongly Arabic-influenced than most Europeans know or care to admit. (There are now indications that the lute, a descendant of the Arabic عود <i>ʿūd</i>, is really of Persian origin, and the hammered dulcimer definitely descended from the Persian سنتور </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">santūr</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">, as did the Chinese 揚琴 <i>yángqín</i>.) The Alans, ancestors of today's Iranian-speaking Ossetians, banded together with Goths at the Baltic Sea coast in what are now Poland and far-eastern Germany. Persia is featured prominently in Greek and Hebrew history, including the goings-on of the Old Testament.<br>
<br>Regards,<br>Reinhard/Ron<br></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">