Intriguing Encounters: Artificial Humans, Silk Road Tales, and Estonian Ballads

ARTIFICIAL HUMANS FROM SLOVENIA TO CHINA REECAS APRIL 27, 2019 Nina Begu nbegus@fas.harvard.edu

THE SILK ROAD TALE The Painter and the Mechanical Maiden 2 original Sanskrit versions, translations: Tibetan, 2 Chinese, Tocharian Central Asian Buddhist Monks en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Central_Asian_Buddhist_Monks.jpeg Tablet A6. Malzahn, M. A Comprehensive Edition of Tocharian Manuscripts. University of Vienna, Feb. 2011. www.univie.ac.at/tocharian/?manuscripts Malzahn A5-A9, Pinault 254-267, Sieg 8-13, Chavannes 2: 12-13, Davids et al. 361-362, Dschi 323-324, Hofinger 185-187, Degener47-48

Chinese version (Taish 207) Tocharian version She drove away the burning from the entire body of the painter. And the painter, who because of his ignorance took the wooden girl for a real one, thinks only to himself: ah, such beauty, as, such bashfulness caused by female shyness! (A5 b4-b6) After the host had gone, the wooden girl stood by the lamp. The guest called her to come; she did not move. The guest thought that the girl did not move out of shyness, thus he stepped forward to hold her by the hand as he realized that she was a piece of wood. The guest was therefore greatly ashamed. He murmured to himself: The host was cheating on me! I should make a revenge to it. Why should I not have a conversation because of love to her? Or what if I take her by the hand before? When the painter then, full of love, reached for the hand of the artificial girl, this one immediately broke asunder, and her rags and ropes [and] pins fell apart, and there was no longer (a girl). When the painter saw this, he rose as distraught from his bed and after a regarding it well, (he says): O dear! I have been terribly deceived by the master mechanic! Of such [is] the power of passion! Oh what awesome power of ignorance, when a human being so intensely falls in love with merely rags! (A7 a3-b2) Takakusu, J., and Watanabe, K., eds. Taish shinsh Daiz ky . 85 vols. Tokyo: Taish Issaiky Kank kai, 1924 32. Malzahn, M. A Comprehensive Edition of Tocharian Manuscripts. University of Vienna, Feb. 2011.

ESTONIAN BALLAD GOLDWIFE [Beautysmith] made a young wife of gold, Siis teg kullast naise nuore, Of silver his other half. H bedasta tesepuole. Patiently he sat, silently he paced [ ] Hilju ta istus, hilju astus [ ] Afraid of waking the silver. H be les rkavada. Siis l ks kullaga magama, Then he went to sleep with the gold, H bedaga voodi ese. He went to bed with the silver. Mis olli k lge vastu kulda, But the side that was against the gold See oll k lge k lma k lge. That was the side that was cold. So he put a fly in its mouth for a tongue, Siis pani k rbase keeleks suhu, A bee for sense in its head. [ ] Mesilase meeleks p he. [ ] This no other man should do: Seda rgu tehku teine miesi, Kis tieb kullast naise nuori, To presume to make a young wife of gold, H bedasta teisepuole. Of silver his other half. Juhan Kurrir. Ilomaile: Anthology of Estonian folk songs with translations and commentary. Tortono: Maarjamaa, 1985. 108-111.

THE REVERSE PYGMALION: PETRIFICATION Katalena Svetlana Makarovi s adaptation Katalena (2009) The ending: human stone Main motif: a wife married far away to a brigand Kata Katalena. Z usti se smejala. Kata Katalena. V srcu se jokala Kata Katalena. Z usti se smejala. Kata Katalena. Du ico je dala. Kata Katalena. Laughter on her mouth. Kata Katalena. Crying in her heart Kata Katalena. Laughter on her mouth. Kata Katalena. Her soul she gave up. Kata Katalena, e takoj ne neha jokati, bom e tebi odsekal glavo! Kataleni je od strahu zledenela kri v ilah in v hipu so se ji posu ile solze. Z vso silo je posku ala raztegniti ustnice v nasmeh. A kakor hitro se je nasmehnila, je njen nasmeh okamenel. Tudi njen obraz se je za el spreminjati v kamen, njene roke, noge, vse telo - in pred Vogrinovimi o mi je nenadoma stala kamnita soha z nasmejanim obrazom ... Brina, Katalena. Sle enako a. Druga Godba, 2011. Svetlana Makarovi , Katalena. Ljubljana, Center za slovensko knji evnost , 2009.

THE REVERSE PYGMALION: GENDER SWAP Rajko Grli sSamo jednom se ljubi (Melody Haunts My Reverie, 1981) Sr anKaranovi sNe to izmedju (Something In-Between, 1983) Miroslav Leki sBolje od bekstva(Better Than Escape, 1993) Tone Bringa s documentary We Are All Neighbors (1992), Dnevnik uvreda 1993 (A Diary of Insults, 1994) Srdjan Dragojevi sLepa sela lepo gore (Pretty Village, Pretty Flame, 1996) Rane(Wounds, 1998) Slobodan Skerli sDo koske (Rage, 1997) Goran Markovi sKordon (The Cordon, 2002) Marko ivkovi ,Serbian Dreambook: National Imaginary in the Time of Milo evi . Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP,2011.

SERBIAN FILMS: DUAN MAKAVEJEV Spomenicima ne treba verovati (Don t Believe in Monuments) , 1958 Antonijevo razbijeno ogledalo (Anthony s Broken Mirror), 1957

LAZAR BODROA, A.I. RISING (EDERLEZI RISING), 2018 ADAPTED FROM ZORAN NE KOVI S 1989 SHORT STORY Original premise: artificial human is a paralyzed personality Ono, uverljiivo je, savr eno, zaista, ali nije to to. / It is believable, perfect really, but it is not it. (176) Ja igram njene role, samo u ogledalu, iskrivljeno. / I play her roles, as in a mirror, skewed. ( 179) Logical and creative [ ] under the free program (180) Mislim da mi se gadi / I think I m disgusted by you (189-90) Pandorina kutija. Nije treba da diram u to / Pandora s box. I should not touch it (190) Ne kovi , Zoran. Predve e se nikako ne mo e Tamni vilajet: Izbor jugoslavneskog SF. Vol. 1. 2nd extended edition. Beograd: Samostalno autorsko izdanje, Boban Kne evi , 1989. 175-190.

ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY - Gole Kau i , Marjetka. Slovene folk song at the crossroads of influences, contacts, and oppositions of East, West, North, and South. Slovene Studies 29/1-2 (2007): 3-17. - Vidan, Aida. Irresistible irreverence: Du anMakavejev s amateur films and the Yugoslav cine-club scene. Studies in Eastern European Cinema 7/1 (2016): 53-67. - Winter, W. Some Aspects of Tocharian Drama: Form and Techniques. Journal of the American Oriental Society 75 (1955): 26-35. - Yu, T. The Earliest Tocharians in China. Sino-Platonic Papers 204 (2010): 1-78. Kaj Peter Frogman, Visiting Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. 1965.