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lunarr-luminaria

chopinliszt

it is mid-winter in Paris, circa 1835
“i triple dare u to lick that frozen pole lol” says sand to liszt
liszt gives sand a confused look, walks over, and tries to lick a terrified fryderyk chopin’s face

(cr: @mosoli)

poor chopinetto 😭😭😭

slaviclore

helpiminahotairballoon

Józef Kurowski, ‘Fryderyk Chopin Making a Toast’, 1837

i have no clue what’s going on in this drawing… i know it’s very blurry but can anyone read the stuff he’s saying? it’s in polish.

slaviclore

I love stuff like this. Thanks a lot for posting, I've never seen it before. It is in Polish, but I could only make out like half of it (maybe because a lot of it is near-nonsense). I found a description online here, which has it as:

St. Louis a St. Germ[ain] 25 Aoȗt 1837".

A teras Panie Jelskim! / Do Ciebie po sprzyjacielskim / ‘Pan Bóg Ci robił glowa sifim / ...a Tyś zawszę zdrof i rżifim!!"

Assuming the transcription is right (and it seems good to me), it's probably a toast to Ludwik Jelski, one of the Polish exiles in Paris associated with Adam Czartoryski and his "literary society" of revolutionaries and rebels, of which Chopin was also part.

The language takes some artistic license in the orthography to force a rhyme (and also possibly to make him sound drunk/like he's slurring), which makes this... not easy to translate -- but god help me I think it's something like:

And now, Mr Jelski / To you in camaraderie / 'God made you a head of filth/ ... but you are always healthy and living!!"

I think "sifim" is supposed to be from "syf", which is like a dirty/filthy mess, and might literally be a reference to syphilis, intentional or not idk.

And I thiiiiink rżifim is supposed to be a forced-to-rhyme (with sifim) and deeply incorrect variant of żyw or alive/living.

That's August 25th in French on the glass.

Thanks again! so cool

helpiminahotairballoon

Omg thank youuuuu!! it’s always very interesting to learn about chopin’s interactions with other polish exiles in paris. And epecially thank you for the fact that it’s rhyming, it always gives me a headache trying to translate stuff like that 😭

and yes, his fingers are as creepy as salad fingers.

chopin polish frédéric chopin

cardinal-cannot-copia

beggars-opera

Oh ho HO let's see what villainy is afoot today *opens up the 1891 London Illustrated Police News*

petermorwood

Ah yes, "The Illustrated Police News", Daily Mail / Express * (or possibly Sunday Sport / National Enquirer) of its day

* Mail & Express are ~~famous~~ notorious for, when at a loose end, publishing Madeline McCann / Lady Diana stories despite their increasing lack of currency.

In much the same way, IPN published nearly 200 Jack the Ripper front-page stories in the four years after those murders ended. Illustrated stories, of course. Also like them, IPN featured many anti-immigrant "here to take your jobs" stories.

IPN got good mileage from murder (mostly horrible, sometimes ghastly, occasionally just shocking), violent or scandalous goings-on (with illustrations to show how violently scandalous) and things to be outraged at (with illustrations to assist in being outraged...)

It was also partial to the adjective “fair”...