HELTER-SKELTER — Strongly Cut — Excerpts!
(50+ Little Sonjotkas With Comments)
JOTATA – ATATOJ, 2020
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[ Abstract: This is English translation of poetically-prosaic collection of 50+ slightly shortened (to 11 lines) sonnets called Sonjotkas, that are spitting at our messed transition to democracy, that for 30 years still can't finish, with analyses of bunch of questions, and with propositions for bettering of the messes (if it is read carefully). Translated exactly is only the translatable, i.e. the prosaic, part, where the verses are retold without rhyme, but they take only about 10 % of the whole material, so that in this way it is rendered in a perfect for initial acquaintance form. In the original the title is "Driving through the millet" what is idiom for doing something utterly non-carefully, but I hope that for English reading audience "Helter-Skelter" sounds good enough. The manner of the verses is free-boulevard, with Botev's sarcasm in many places, and of the comments is philosophically deep, i.e. this is not plebeian negation of everything, yet the book is addressed exactly to the common people, hoping that they will try to show a bit of reason, before to come to nihilism and run abroad. Because the democracy, however bad it is, can be bettered from below, if the population succeeds to show that it has at least a tiny amount of brains. ]
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[ The idea for illustration of the cover is the following: a chariot drawn by three ... lions (they a present on our coat of arms), which goes through a field sown with millet (according with the title in Bulgarian and the corresponding idiom for destroying in a rush of the done), so that it has to be seen that this is millet, but the whole chariot is not necessary to show, only the 3 lions, part of the seat of coachman with him, and raised in the air whip. This has to be with dimensions 450 x 450 pixels, because I use 525 x 725 for the very cover and then multiply by 3 (where necessary), and above is the title and the author, and below is this picture in a frame. ]
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CONTENTS (of the entire book)
Beginning with Sonjotka 00-th
Sonjotka 01-st
Sonjotka 02-nd
...
Sonjotka хх-th
...
Sonjotka 49-th
Sonjotka 50-th
Sonjotka 51-st
Post Scriptum
Post Post Scriptum
Remark: Here the whole book is published in 3 parts, namely: in the 1-st part are Sonjotkas from 0 till 17 including, in the 2-nd part are those from 18 till 35, and in the 3-rd part are the left ones from 36 till 51 + PS + PPS.
All Parts, but cut to about 15 %
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BEGINNING
SONJOTKA 00-th
Amidst our stupidity solid and dense
a next thought patriotic shined
in the head of Jotata, to serve
jokes cheerful and compromising.
Sonjotkas light, and with comments
about our eternal messes democratic
prepares he, and will throw them out in a jist
before guys, children, virgins, or ripe women.
Because those, who by us remain,
can't continue for ever in this deadlock,
they must pose questions before themselves.
Comment: Well, this will be also like Foreword to the collection of verses, because here everything looks in the same way: a verse, a comment, and again the same. The idea about this book as if jumped in my head in the end of 2019, in any case before the finishing of my "Mammyland", yet from the very beginning of 2020 I occupied myself with another book (and under a different name), and had also a pair of other things on which I worked, so that at that time I dropped the idea (with just one verse for a sample), but around the "Great Day" (how we call the Easter, and of the great 2020 year — which, as it turns out, will now be remembered chiefly with the Corona pandemic) I decided at once to switch to the "Millet", at least as verses. For some days I wondered how to proceed, either to comment at the moment of writing of the verse, or at the end after all verses, and I choose to finish first all verses and then to make the easiest, the comments, not for other reasons but because at my 70 years I often forget things, and if the work will continue for a pair of months I will begin to repeat myself, more so without whatever plan for the collection, just so … spitting on the move, from my heart! And it turned out that everything went well, where I wrote 52 * 11 = more than 550 lines for about only 10 days, in numbers and words, a crazy marathon, and now I have only to write all comments, where I will have no problems, just that they require time.
OK, and why I named them Sonjotkas? Well, because they are like the sonnets, but I have cut out one of the triplet, so that they are written very easy, just so, until I scratch, how is said, my dick, and at the same time there is some "jota" in them, plus that they are shortened [because the ending –'ka' in Bulgarian is for making of diminutives in feminine]. In general, the name turned out to be a bijou, and the title, "Through the millet" [more or less like "Helter-skelter", something done in a rush, crushing other things that have been done before], is a bomb [how we say], this is perfectly suitable for our absolutely incompetent, vulgar, and so on transition to the democracy. Then the form of the verse is very simple, if we mark the rhymes with Latin capital letters then the sonnet is such: AABB CCDD EFGEFG, or ABAB CDCD EEEFFF, although there are other variations; so, and my sonjotkas are AABB CDCD EEE, what is very good, because this final triple gives didactical, instructive sounding at the end, something like Spanish "olé", and the change of rhyme in both couplets freshens the things, shuffles them.
[ And now it becomes necessary to provide a way for citing of Bulgarian, as well from other languages, words, and in the manner how they are pronounced, because I use many jargon words, modify and invent new ones, and so on. So here the key point is one widely met by us vowel, which is like in your "girl" (only not elongated), and which I will mark as 'y', what may be called i-bulgaro, instead or i-greco. Then with single quotes I will give the reading. Also 'j' will be used for softening of the consonants, while 'h' will be for hardening, and together with this 'j' will be used for making of diphthongs (like in may-'maj'), and 'h' for prolongation of vowels; plus that the usage of 'ch, sh, zh' must be obvious. What, apart of everything else, says that the sonjotka is read exactly so, 'sonjotka' (because I am surely not 'Dzhota' but 'Jota', how is the very letter 'j'. ]
Also I decided that the length of them (with the comments), has to be such, that they can enter into one double sheet, what in .doc format by me is a lying (landscape) A4 sheet, divided in 2 columns imitating pages, and the whole amount of the comments will be about 3.5 КВ chars, at maximum 4 with the verse [but here this may turn to be a bit longer, because of my additional explanations for the readers in English in such square brackets like these].
What else? Ah, about the topics and the style. Well, when from the highest state instances they pay no attention at me, then what else remains to me except to spit at them, what they wholly deserve (you look at the notorious Open Letter). All of them up to a single instance, in the Parliament, in the Presidency, in the media (newspapers and TVs), and in other places (even a pair of Churches). Because, look here, if I only spat at them, then surely would have found at least one of them to snap at me, but given that I argue in such details, and in 4 languages, and proposed them a new party, NAPUK, and elaborated a bunch of things, then nobody dares to say even "ah", or "but" to me. But let him (or her, or it) try, this will just give me new material for discussing, and for exposing us in bad light before the world, in foreign languages, because, as I said this several times, the weaker has no other weapon left except the irony and sarcasm, and before as wider as he can make it audience; when in my country nobody wants to publish me (even the media!), then I do this abroad, I have become an Internet emigrant, in order to maintain my tone in my old years, so that I am thankful to the people, to our nice, barbarian little nation, at the very top, yet also at the bottom, of course. Well, enough for the beginning, and I have also filled my allowed space.
Apr – May, 2020, Sofia, 'Blygaria', European Union (at its end)
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SONJOTKA 01-st
Why did You, God, give birth to me in Bulgaria,
and when You did, then why did not put reins on me?
Because people with conscience like me, miserable,
must be used else to cleanse … toilets!
This can be a toilet of the Parliament,
where can smell of … mint/* —
because they cheat us, or of the President,
who drinks tee with guests, and then … pisses.
But what can one like me do alone?
The democracy met by us with problems,
because ours are Augean stables.
[ * Here hides a pun in Bulgarian, because the herb mint is 'menta' and to deceive is 'mentja', and the Parliament is also some 'menta'-mint.]
Comment: Exactly so, if I have not been born in Bulgaria, would I have begun to spit at it? And now I have my spittoon, I beg your pardon, what is a cultural utensil, from somewhere before a pair of centuries, when people liked to spit at the floor (most often after they have chewed tobacco) — so that then and now people in most cases fight with the consequences (the spitting), not with the causes (not to chew tobacco). And because Bulgaria as a whole, from the top and to the bottom (although about the bottom I do not speak here, yet I have some experiences), has insulted me, absolutely undeserved (read my Letter, you can choose a language, maybe in order to exercise it, because my translations are pretty accurate and belletristic, if we don't count one or another typing error), so I return it back to it, everything is right. And don't forget also that I, as having lived on the East and on the West, for more than a pair of months, can compare the things, I am not some John Doe [we say 'Sulju or Pulju', what is not exactly Doe, it is a nincompoop] (if you happen to know him, because I have only heard about him).
Yet I not only spit, I also praise, because, look, you see that I deserve to cleanse toilets, but nobody sends me to such work (I personally suppose that, if they send me to such place, they must then also feed me, and my daily ration, together with the medical and other cares, will surely exceed my still under 4 bus tickets daily pension, to the moment of writing this), but in some countries they have sent intellectuals to do exactly this, in one China, f.ex., neither in concentration camp, how have done some other countries before certain time. So that I, naturally, thank really knee-deep for the cares of our fatherland to such unnecessary (obviously, for what else are they good, except to spit?) intellectuals.
Then the Talking House, sorry, Parliament, obviously, is engaged with producing and spreading of 'menti'-lies, at least in a figurative meaning this is clear. And I would have cleansed with pleasure the toilets there, yet the people don't take me (because I may begin to spit also in the toilet bowls there, could one be sure that I will not do this, if I will have this opportunity). And not only this, but, from the point of view of my educational qualification, with my 2 and 1/2 tertiary educations, got from 3 different countries (to say nothing about my 3 and 1/2 foreign languages, which I use in the moment — because the money is decreased proportionally with the knowledge, right?), not only I will be dissatisfied with these kind and cheerful (i.e. grinning on their photos) elected persons, but they alone also (because they probably have on the average less than 1 higher education, they have to be people from the masses). With what I do not want to say that we must be governed by intelligent persons, God keep me away from such capital error, under democratic conditions the common people can choose only persons with their intellectual level (or, occasionally, lower), no, I am just heaping words, in order to fill the already set by me volume of comment.
And what concerns the President, whoever he can be in the moment, I don't know him at all (and also do not … want to know him, because I don't vote, there's nobody for whom to vote, but let this be our secret), so that I have no intentions to insult him, I simply suppose that he can't drink only champagne and cognacs, this can endanger seriously his liver, neither only coffees (this burdens the heart), while cups with tea are healthy, as well with natural like with verbal, especially the latter. And I mention the word "pisses", because it is used by our whole population, and if I say dehydrates or defecates then my common readers can not understand me, and imagine that I say something insulting for him, but in this way it is clear that in the natural necessities there is nothing insulting.
And I am writing all this in order to help our democracy, because it, really, met with serious difficulties, like also those of us who are leaving (have left) it.
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SONJOTKA 02-nd
Our country was not gilded,
but it was also not much bad,
and the older brother with a best eye
looked at us: Bolgaria, oh, well!
Because is clear: alphabet, language,
with Cyrillic letters 'zh', 'ch', 'sh' — bijou!
More liberal, warmer, like in a … slipper
one enters there — that's what I'll tell you [in Russian].
Yet we have demo-soared,
have turned our sights to the West,
and have landed directly in the … mud!
Comment: Well, this is something that all of us know, but I have not said that will write only unknown things, I am cheering the people like folk's bard, so to say (I create myself image, because the entire Bulgarian public turned its back at me, so that I am just forced to whiten myself somehow, be it even with jokes), and for this reason sometimes I can squeeze some funny word here and there for the sake of rhyme.
So that our country was not, and as if has never been gilded (I beg priest Paisius of Hilendar [he has written one History Slavonic-Bulgarian in 18-th century] to excuse me), but was with the highest reputation among the Russians, what is impossible for me not to know, because I have lived for 4 and something years there back in my time; we were not able, and have never been able to compare us with the socialist countries from Central Europe, like Poland, Czechoslovakia, not to mention the GDR, we were better only than Romania (yet I may be wrong, because in some aspects we were better, but in others were wide behind them — f.ex., they made personal cars, while we have never managed to do this), but the Russians simply respected us much higher than the others. Anyway, as I said, this is obvious, because only in Bulgaria there were no Russian troops, but to be looked at with the best eyes by the older brother is not without significance.
Then this, about the alphabet, it is clear, and even can be (and must be) stated that we use it much better than them, we have 2 letters less, have clearer phonetics, and so on (I suppose that will come again to this question), and, if you will excuse my strange rhyming of language with slipper [because it is so, in Bulgarian the words are 'ezik' and 'terlik'], then by us is, naturally, warmer, our country was more free than their, Russia was more lumbering, more inert (due to its enormous size). So, and that from time to time appear some Russism, well, Jotata is such guy, Russophile, he is ready to stick to it like a spread with butter piece of bread [what is a pun of a kind, or telling that this -phile is the same like in our 'filia'-piece-of-bread, or also Latin filial] (I mean, when it falls on the ground, what, as you know, happens always with the buttered side to the floor). (And if you can not grasp why I stress with italic on some words here, you can wait to appear the prepared by me humorous etymological book "Jotolmach", or something of the kind [it is already published but in Bulgarian], where I explain a heap of words from many languages.)
But we, naturally (what else can be expected from a barbarian, sorry, nation), decided already with the first steps of our democracy, to turn our backs exactly to the Russians (about what I will continue in the next "point"), and headed to the West, with brains pecked out by gulls from UDF [the notorious right-wing even not party but coalition], applying the model of judgment of the frog from that fable (or just saying), that when the bull is strong and shod, then it is necessary for the frog also to be shod, and with the new (bull-) shoes it will become strong like it (or, rather, him). I beg your pardon for this worn-out comparison, yet it is such only for me, and to the young generation, which has no basis for comparison, this may not be known, they may think that it must have been done so, that we have to look at the West (for to avoid the Sun shining in our eyes, ha-ha).
And looking at the West, and aiming only at it (even if it is rotten etc.), we, quite naturally, landed directly in the mud, plopped there, and moved neither deeper (not that this was necessary), nor out of it. What reminds me one old anecdote, that they have asked Radio Yerevan whether Bulgaria has reached the bottom, and the answer was that, yes, it has reached it, and then they asked further, well, and what does it now do, and the answer was that it … keeps digging deeper! By us the sinking down into the mud stopped, really, with the introducing of our Money Board, yet as recompense for this it simply fixed us at the bottom, froze our currency and the salaries and the evolution and everything that could be frozen, and become something like state within the state. So that here can't be said like in the proverb that there is no bad without good, no, here the opposite is true, that there is no good without bad! Well, but if it has not happened so, then would have I had the possibility to spit at our democracy?
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Etc. ...
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END Of The Abridged Book
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