Poem: "Faeder Way"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the April 1, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by prompts from rowyn, moonwolf1988, DW users Alexseanchai, and Redsixwing.  It also fills the "pursuit of happiness" square in my 3-6-14 card for the Origfic Bingo fest; and the "language and translation" square in my 1-2-14 card for the Trope Bingo fest.

This microfunded poem is being

Comments

[thnidu]

This is amazing! I thought the sexual behavior and the Anglo-Saxon-derived terms "faeder" and "modor" were your invention till I checked first Wikipedia and then your link.

And I love it that it was an amateur birder who discovered it: «But the Dutch potato grower Joop Jukema, a volunteer bird investigator who counts migrating ruffs every year, noticed that there were a few doubters between the normal birds. They used to be taken for females, but Jukema felt uneasy about it. So he turned to prof. dr. Theunis Piersma (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek der Zee, Texel, The Netherlands) to get rid of this feeling, and they dissected a few middle sized birds.»

And I'm extra-amused because I just lately read about the translation into Frisian of Lois McMaster Bujold's The Hallowed Hunt, a favorite book in a favorite series of mine. (Eh??) Oh yes, the connection: the -ma ending shows that those names, Jukema and Piersma, are Frisian. So the circle is complete: fantasy series - alien mating behavior - bird

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> This is amazing! I thought the sexual behavior and the Anglo-Saxon-derived terms "faeder" and "modor" were your invention till I checked first Wikipedia and then your link. <<

I'm glad you liked this so much. I really had fun researching this poem.

>> And I love it that it was an amateur birder who discovered it: <<

I think that's awesome too.

>>And I'm extra-amused because I just lately read about the translation into Frisian of Lois McMaster Bujold's The Hallowed Hunt, a favorite book in a favorite series of mine. <<

Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed that link.

Sigh

[siege]

We're not even halfway through and I think I don't like Capt Judd. :/

Re: Sigh

[ysabetwordsmith]

I don't like him much either, but there are more likable characters in the poem.

[thnidu]

BTW: the Israeli Hebrew pronunciation of the letter-name beth ב is (IPA) [bɛt] or [bet] ≈ (English spelling) "bet" or "bait".

Historically, it's the word for "house", which it originally was a picture of, and it's often seen in the names of Jewish congregations, e.g., Beth Israel (house of Israel, in the sense of the people Israel = the Jewish people). In American English, it's often pronounced like the name Beth [bɛθ] in that context. You may also hear [beis] ("base"), a Yiddish pronunciation.

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's interesting to know.

Re: Thank you!

[thnidu]

Y'r welcome! I was imagining your readers pronouncing it [bɛθ], and shuddering.

[technoshaman]

*snork* I wondered how that cranky captain was gonna get his comeuppance.

A good old-fashioned *mindfuck*.... :)

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> *snork* I wondered how that cranky captain was gonna get his comeuppance. <<

I'm happy to hear that.

>> A good old-fashioned *mindfuck*.... :) <<

Hee! It's fun to tweak the stuffy people.

[thnidu]

This is, so to speak, SO ғџɔʞıй౸ MUCH FUN!!!

*laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

Thank you! I love your creatively rendered adjective too.

Re: *laugh*

[thnidu]

I beg your pardon! It's an adverb, modifying "much"... well, of COURSE it's an adjective too ! :-)

Re: *laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith]

It's okay, I wasn't looking at the role in the sentence so much as the creative spelling.