LL-L "Etymology" 2008.02.25 (02) [E]

Tue Feb 26 17:53:35 UTC 2008

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From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology"

Beste Ron and Gael,

You wrote:

And here one wonders what the difference was in Ancient Hebrew between
Persian-derived פַּרְדֵס *pardes* and apparently native בֻּסְתָּן
*bustân*(cf. Arabic بستان
*bustân* 'garden', 'orchard'), גִּנָה *gin**â**h* and גָּן *g**â**n*. All of
them can be translated as "garden," and *pardes* and *bustân* can both be
translated as "orchard."  I have a feeling that *pardes* connoted the
Persian idea of a grand, luscious garden, a ... well, paradisiacal one, that
incorporated the idea of inner space. The author of *Balashon* (
http://www.balashon.com/2007/12/pardes-and-paradise.html) writes:

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".

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).

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.

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.

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:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/GardenED.jpg

(from left to right: Garden of Eden > Garden of Earthly Delights > Hell)

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

Thank you very much for that insightful piece, Luc. I don't praise it only
because I agree with it. ;-)

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.

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!

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 *ʿūd*, is
really of Persian origin, and the hammered dulcimer definitely descended
from the Persian سنتور *santūr*, as did the Chinese 揚琴 *yángqín*.) 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.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
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