Poetry
Esperanto Reading 1
Chapter 8 · Poetry and Song
🎼 Poetry and Song — Poezio kaj kantoj
Esperanto has a large body of original poetry, and Zamenhof wrote some of it himself. Verse is the hardest kind of text to read, because the poet moves words about to fit the rhythm and the rhyme. It is also where the language's sound is most obvious. This chapter shows how the stress rule gives Esperanto its rhythm, and how to read a poem whose word order is not the prose order.
Stress and rhythm
In a word of two syllables the first syllable is stressed (MON-do, VE-nis, SEN-to). In a longer word the stress stays on the second-to-last syllable (fa-mi-LI-on, flu-GI-loj). Because every noun, adjective, adverb and verb has a regular ending, the stressed syllables fall at regular distances. Here is the first line of "La Espero", with the stressed syllable of each long word in capitals:
The line has ten syllables, with the stress on the third, fifth, seventh and ninth: MON, VE, NO, SEN. Count the second line the same way and you find the same pattern: tra la MON-do I-ras FOR-ta VO-ko. This even beat is what makes the poem easy to sing.
Counting syllables
Every vowel letter is a syllable, except in the diphthongs aŭ, eŭ and the combinations with j (aj, ej, oj, uj), which count as one:
| Word | Syllables | Stressed |
|---|---|---|
| sento | sen-to (2) | SEN |
| flugiloj | flu-gi-loj (3) | GI |
| familion | fa-mi-li-on (4) | LI |
| soifanta | so-i-fan-ta (4) | FAN |
Rhyme
Both poems below rhyme in the pattern ABAB: the first and third lines rhyme, and the second and fourth. In "La Espero" verse 1:
| Line | Ends in | Rhyme |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | nova sento | A |
| 2 | forta voko | B |
| 3 | facila vento | A (sento / vento) |
| 4 | al loko | B (voko / loko) |
The next four lines of the verse follow a second pair, soifanta / militanta and familion / harmonion. It is easy to find rhymes in Esperanto, because words in the same class end alike, but a good poet makes the rhyme carry meaning: sento (feeling) and vento (wind) are in the same sentence of the poem.
Free word order
In prose you might say Ĝi tiras la homan familion. In "La Espero" the poet writes:
ĝi la homan tiras familion;
Here familion is moved to the end of the line, so that it rhymes with harmonion two lines below. You can still tell what is going on, because la homan and familion both carry -n: they are the object of tiras ("draws"), whatever the order. The phrase Ne al glavo sangon soifanta comes first, to set up the contrast: soifanta ("thirsting") agrees with glavo and takes its own object sangon, so it means "not to a sword thirsting for blood".
A second poem: Mia penso
"Mia penso" (My thought) is also by Zamenhof and appears in the 1903 Fundamenta Krestomatio. It is quieter and more personal than "La Espero". Here are its first two verses:
Mia penso (verses 1–2)
Antaŭ nokto de somero
Amikino en la rondo
Kantas kanton pri l’ espero.
Kaj pri vivo detruita
Ŝi rakontas kompatante, —
Mia vundo refrapita
Min doloras resangante.
Kial tia senmoveco?
Ha, kredeble rememoro
El la kara infaneco? »
Kion diri? Ne ploranta
Povis esti parolado
Kun fraŭlino ripozanta
Post somera promenado!
| Esperanto | English | Esperanto | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| kampo | field, countryside | somero | summer |
| amikino | (female) friend | kanti | to sing |
| detrui | to destroy | rakonti | to tell |
| kompati | to pity | vundo | wound |
| dolori | to hurt | sango | blood |
| dormi | to sleep | kial | why |
| kredeble | probably | rememoro | memory |
| infaneco | childhood | plori | to weep |
| fraŭlino | young lady | ripozi | to rest |
| promenado | walk, stroll | senmoveco | stillness |
Show a translation
Verse 1. In the countryside, far from the world, before a summer night, a friend in the circle sings a song about hope. And she tells, with compassion, of a ruined life — my wound, struck again, pains me, bleeding anew.
Verse 2. "Are you asleep? Oh, sir, why such stillness? Ah, probably a memory from dear childhood?" What can I say? Without weeping, there could be conversation with a young lady resting after a summer stroll! (The sense is probably ironic: the speaker cannot talk without tears. The line can be read in more than one way.)
Taking it apart
| In the poem | What to notice |
|---|---|
| vivo detruita, vundo refrapita | The passive participle comes after its noun and tells what happened to it: a life that has been destroyed, a wound that has been struck again. re- means "again". |
| kompatante, resangante | Adverbial participles: "(while) pitying", "(while) bleeding again". They give the line its ending rhyme (-ante). |
| Min doloras | The wound is the subject and min ("me") is the object, so the sentence means "hurts me", not "I hurt". |
| Ne ploranta povis esti parolado | Inverted order: the noun parolado comes last, after ne ploranta ("not weeping") and the verb. The meaning of this line is open to more than one reading, so compare a published translation. |
| Rhyme scheme | Both verses are ABAB CDCD: mondo / rondo, somero / espero, detruita / refrapita, kompatante / resangante. |
✏️ Try It Yourself — Ekzercoj
Say the answer first, then click to check.
1. Which syllable is stressed in flugiloj, familion and soifanta?
Show answer
flu-GI-loj, fa-mi-LI-on, so-i-FAN-ta: always the second-to-last syllable.
2. Count the syllables in tra la mondo iras forta voko.
Show answer
Ten: tra-la-mon-do-i-ras-for-ta-vo-ko.
3. Which line-ending words rhyme with mondo and with espero in "Mia penso"?
Show answer
rondo rhymes with mondo, and somero with espero.
4. In "La Espero" verse 1, which two words rhyme at the end of lines 6 and 8?
Show answer
familion and harmonion.
5. In ĝi la homan tiras familion, find the verb and the object.
Show answer
The verb is tiras. The object is la homan familion (both words end in -n).
6. Rewrite that line in prose order.
Show answer
Ĝi tiras la homan familion.
7. What does refrapita mean, and how is it built?
Show answer
"Struck again": re- (again) + frap- (strike) + -ita (passive participle).
8. In Min doloras, who hurts and who feels the hurt?
Show answer
The wound (vundo) is the subject; min (me) feels it.
9. Who sings the song at the start of "Mia penso", and what is it about?
Show answer
A female friend (amikino) in the circle sings a song about hope (pri l’ espero).
10. Name two ways verse differs from prose in these poems.
Show answer
Examples: rhyme at the ends of lines (ABAB); words moved out of their prose order to fit rhyme and rhythm; elision with the apostrophe (l’, mond’); a steady count of syllables per line.
Words used in this chapter
kampo field · nokto night · somero summer · amikino female friend · rondo circle · kanti sing · kanto song · detrui destroy · rakonti tell · kompati pity · vundo wound · frapi strike · dolori hurt · sango blood · dormi sleep · kial why · kredeble probably · rememoro memory · infaneco childhood · plori weep · fraŭlino young lady · ripozi rest · promenado stroll · senmoveco stillness · re- again · rimo rhyme