Articoli di riviste sul tema "Translations from Ainu"

The article reviews the book by Vasily Shchepkin Ainu Through the Eyes of Japanese: An Unknown Collection by A.V. Grigoriev (2022). The book is based on 18th and 19th-century Japanese manuscript materials and blockprints about the Ainu people, which for a long time remained without proper attention from the research community. It presents not only translations of the manuscripts, but also analyzes the history of their creation and examines the evolution of the image of the Ainu in Japanese society. Particular attention is paid to the personality of Alexander V. Grigoriev, who assembled the Ainu collection of rare materials in 1879–1880.

The Manuscript by Matsuda Denjūrō 松田伝十郎 (1769–1843) "Tales of the Northern Barbarians" (" Hokuidan ,” 北夷談) is a valuable source on the history of Russian-Japanese relations, the development by the Japanese of the northern territories inhabited by the Ainu, relations and barter between them and the Japanese. The written source consists of seven notebooks. We used the manuscript that is kept in the National Archives of Japan ( Kokuritsu K ōbunshokan, 国立公文書館), established in 1971. The material is posted on the official website of the archive. The time of its creation falls on the first years of the Bunsei 文政 era, which lasted from 1818 to 1831. It describes the events from 1799 to 1822 in chronological order, i.e., the events that occurred during the 24 years of Matsuda's service in the lands of the Ainu. The manuscript is written in cursive (Japanese: "grass writing," sōsho 草書). The second half of the first book of the "Stories" deals with the bear festival and the world of inau . The text is accompanied by numerous sketches. Matsuda was probably one of the first who briefly described the festival and various inau , cult objects of the Ainu. For comparison with the statements of the Japanese official, the opinions of authoritative Russian researchers on these topics are used. The illustrations in the manuscript are of great value. They provide additional information that is missing from the text itself. Matsuda’s descriptions refer to November – December 1799. The “Hokuidan ” manuscript has not yet been translated into any of the European languages, with the exception of Russian. The author of this article provides translations of fragments of the written source in the chapters of published collective monographs [Klimov 2020, pp. 214–254; Klimov 2021, pp. 277–334; Klimov 2022, pp. 151–170]. The translation was carried out from the published text of the Japanese manuscript in the ten-volume series of written monuments titled Collection of Historical Materials About the Life of the Common People of Japan (Nihon shomin seikatsu shiryō shūsei 日本庶民生活史料集成) in the fourth volume [Matsuda 1969, pp. 77–175]. In addition to this series, the "Stories" were published in Old Japanese in the fifth volume of a six-volume series of written monuments called Library: Northern Gate (Hokumon sōsho 北門叢書), published in 1972.

Japonica in the Archives Left After Bronisław Piłsudski in the Cracow Pau-Pan Academic Library 8. Kimiko Torii’s Letter To Bronisław and Mitsugo Yokoyama’s Letter Written on Board S/S Dakota The present material constitutes the eighth installment of the presentation of Japanese documents preserved with Bronisław Piłsudski’s archives in the Academic Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Lettres (PAU) and Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) in Cracow and includes two letters in facsimile, transliteration, and interpretation in Polish. The first of them has been written in Japanese but in Roman characters (rōmaji) with few insertions in French. Its author, Kimiko Torii was the wife of the renowned Japanese ethnographer and anthropologist Ryūzō Torii who traveled extensively and conducted fieldwork in many places studying numerous cultures, the Ainu, especially the Kuril Ainu, included. Bronisław was personally acquainted with the couple – Ryuzo translated (from German) and published Bronisław’s work “The Aborigines of Sakhalin” (English translation in CWBP 1, 222–235), and Bronisław went to the railway station in Tokyo to see Kimiko off on her way to Mongolia to join her husband there – both conducted research in that country but the primary reason for Kimiko was to go on invitation from a local prince to Harqin (today in Inner Mongolia in China) to replace another Japanese lady in teaching in a school for Mongolian, primarily the prince’s, children – Misako Kawahara. Both ladies left several memoir publications each on their stay and experience accumulated in Mongolia, Kimiko coauthored also some works of academic importance with Ryuzo. Basic data on all the three persons and details concerning some of the publications mentioned have been provided. The letter is personal and, explaining circumstances, constitutes a plea for excuse for failed encounter on a snowy winter evening (beginning of February 1906) at the Toriis’. The other letter has been written by a person from Hiroshima Prefecture named Mitsugo Yokoyama who happened to board S/S Dakota on the way from Japan to the USA as a stowaway. Freezing while in hiding, he was offered a warm blanket from “a Russian” which helped him to survive. The letter does not mention the donor’s name and was probably written as sort of a statement for the captain but also as a letter of the deepest gratitude toward the “Russian”. Finding the moving letter in Cracow allows a supposition that it had been handed over to Piłsudski by its receiver. Kazuhiko Sawada succeeded in tracing the lot of the then lucky beneficiary who survived the journey and his and his family hard times in America (he had six children, five of them allegedly still alive in 2005). Some remarks on the language of the letters and on Bronisław’s nature have also been made. It is the first among all so-far published installments in the Japonica series emerging in co-authorship: Ms. Anna Grądzka prepared the tentative versions of the decipherment of the manuscript originals, and their transliterations and translations within the framework of her MA thesis in Japanese studies at Nicoalus Copernicus University in Toruń.

This article represents the everyday life and work of the British missionary John Batchelor, the founder of Ainu studies. In his mature years, John Batchelor (1854-1944) moved to Japan, where he studied the origins, traditions, religious beliefs, and culture of the Ainu. Born in England, Batchelor professes Christianity, so he decides to go to the Hakodate Anglican Church in Hokkaido, Japan. Having started his missionary activity in this country, John masters the local Japanese and Ainu languages. Thus, a missionary settled in Hokkaido studied the daily life of the Ainu assimilated by the Japanese. As a result, he opens the Airui-Gakkou school for the Ainu, and is working on the book «Japan’s Ainu». As a result, the Hokkaido Government Office publishes the Ainu-English-Japanese Dictionary at its own expense. Then a translation of the New Testament is published. In his book In the Footsteps of the Ainu, John says that the Ainu language has fallen into disuse and has become obsolete as the Japanese have replaced it. He also collects interesting materials and describes different stories from the everyday history life of the Ainu in his work «The Life and Education of the Ainu», published in English. Returning to England, D. Batchelor completes his fourth edition of the Aino-English-Japanese Dictionary. When Japan- United Kingdom relations began to escalate, John decided to leave Japan. Thus, his missionary activity smoothly flows into research. He spends his whole life in Japan, fighting for the rights and freedom of the Ainu people. In addition, the article discusses the circumstances that prompted Batchelor to study the Ainu. Later, his «English-Ainu» dictionary becomes an indispensable basis for many Japanese and foreign linguists. An important role in the fate of the Ainu was played by the book «Ainu and Folklore». As a result, the problem of the Ainu became known to the whole world, the people were taken under the care of the UN. The article also included direct statements by D. Batchelor, a critic of the linguist-anthropologist Chiri Mashiho.

In 1799, the military government Bakufu 幕府 transferred the Lands of the Ainu Ezochi 蝦夷地, which had previously been subordinate to the Matsumae Family 松前藩, under its direct control. These territories were divided into the Eastern Lands of the Ainu Higashi Ezochi 東蝦夷地 and the Western Lands of the Ainu Nishi Ezochi 西蝦夷地. The Japanese also included the southern islands of the Kuril ridge, Kunashir and Iturup, in the Eastern Lands; the border between the lands ran along the island of Hokkaido. It is known that by this time Japanese administration had been created only in the southern part of this island. It was extremely important for the bakufu to establish full control over these territories, as well as to prevent the penetration of Russian researchers and traders into the lands of the Ainu. Proxies of the military government were sent there to carry out this task. The diary entries of Matsuda Denju:ro:’s Tales of the Northern Barbarians provide a list of the leaders of the first sea crossing in Japanese history from Edo to Akkeshi in Hokkaido. An analysis of the titles and ranks of the listed leaders allows us to see the seriousness of the military government’s approach to preparing the expedition. This article is devoted to the translation and analysis of the list given in the Tales.

Abstract This is the first Italian translation of some selections from the Ëddoštho* “Reminiscences” of Sadriddin Ajnī (Bukhara 1878—Dushanbe 1954), the author commonly regarded as the leading representative of modern Tajik literature. Ajnī’s Reminiscences, divided into four parts and published between 1948 and 1954, are a collection of lively short-stories where the author described his childhood spent in two villages near Bukhara, as well as his youth and schooldays at the madrasa in the last two decades of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Parts I and II were more often translated into many languages, both in the Republics of the former Soviet Union and in other countries. Translations in Russian (parts I-IV), German and French (parts I-II) have appeared in the 1950s. In English, separate chapters from the work have been published in academic journals from the 1950s onward; the most recent English translation (part I) is The sands of Oxus. Boyhood reminiscences of Sadriddin Aini, tr. by J.R. Perry and R. Lehr (Costa Mesa, Mazda Publishers, 1998).

This article discusses the impact of suspended particles on human health, by providing small definitions of PM2.5, including how they appear, what particles they consist of, and how they harm the respiratory and circulatory systems. In addition, the analysis of the pollution level of the city of Almaty for the last three years from March 22, 2017, to October 6, 2020, with categorical intermediate values of suspended particles was carried out. Careful work was done with the SCV file such as data was skipped in the cells, that is, there were empty values; translation to a single data type; filling in empty cells. It also considers making a decision on the six categories provided to identify the average meeting categories. The authors identified specific categories based on digital readings of values received from sensors, where each category has its own verbal values that are understandable for each person. The indicator displays with weights as a graph for a specific Seifullin-Dulatov sensor location with categorical and without categorical division. Then for each intersection or location of the sensors is shown in a table. It is also revealed which level or category is the rarest among the others and the most common category as well.

This paper focuses on the discussion of the forms of preposition in, the functions of preposition in and their translation in Indonesian. In this research, the theories used are the theory of grammar by Quirk (1973) in the book entitled A University Grammar of English and the theory of translation by Larson (1984) in the book entitled Meaning Based of Translation. For supporting theory, it was used the theory of preposition by Murthy (2003) in the book entitled Contemporary English Grammar for Scholar and Student. The data of this research were taken from the sentences that has preposition in in a novel entitled “The Revenge of Seven” by Pittacus Lore and their translation in its Indonesian version in the same title that was translated by Nur Aini. After the data were collected by underlining the sentences which are related with the topic discussed, they were classified and analyzed based on the forms or preposition in, the functions of preposition in and their translation in Indonesian. Then, the results of the analysis were presented descriptively. Based on the analysis, the forms of preposition in are as single preposition, phrase preposition and prepositional phrase. The functions of preposition in found are for indicating place and time. Preposition in was translated into target language (TL) as di, ke, dalam, pada, selama, dari, and some of preposition in were not translated. Keywords: preposition, grammar, translation

The article discusses the memoirs “The Lord Deposes his Angels” by Aino Kuusinen in the context of the study of genealogy and morphology of Soviet subjectivity. In the Soviet historiography Aino Kuusinen (1886–1970) is known as the wife of the prominent Finnish communist and Soviet politician Otto Ville Kuusinen and as the Comintern staff member. In the middle of 1930s she moved to Japan, where she was supposedly involved in espionage activities for the Soviet Union. From Japan, Kuusinen was summoned to Moscow where she was arrested in 1938 and was in prison until 1955. In 1965, Aino Kuusinen emigrated from the Soviet Union, and wrote her memoirs in German. The first Russian translation was published in 1989. The main addressee of Kuusinen’s memoirs was a Western, primarily Finnish, reader, and in that sense, both a Russian reader and a researcher act as an “unforeseen addressee”, what creates new opportunities for reading and interpretation. The article analyses the main principles of the construction of the author’s “I”, of her identity in ideological, ethnical and gender aspects; how the personal and the socially determined are combined in the identification codes, approved by the author, and in the models of self, constructed in the text as the most notable for the author. The main distinctive feature of Kuusinen’s memoirs as the egodocument is as follows: the narrative of the events of the Soviet epoch (1920–1950s) is presented by “a moral witness (A. Assman), who was inside the Soviet space, but at the same time was in the position of an other; who was in a situation of intercultural transformation or cultural hybridity. This position creates the optics of detachment in describing Soviet life, which is important for understanding the Soviet subject and the time when this subject was formed.

This article is an attempt to restore the original text with the description held in the Crimea the fourth embassy to al-Malik al-Zahir Baybars (1260–1277) to the ruler of the Golden Horde, Berke – fragment of the London of the manuscript of the secretary of the office of the Mamluk Sultan al-Malik al-Zahir Baybars (1260–1277) and his biographer ‘Abd al-Zahir (1223–1293) «al-Rawḍ al-ẓāhir fī sīrat al-Malik al-Ẓāhir» (Garden visible in the biography of al-Malik al-Zahir) with filling of the gaps in the text borrowings from the Egyptian chroniclers Shafi, b. Ali (1252–1329), al-Nuwayri (1279–1333), al-Muf al-Dal (1259–1341), Ibn al-Forat (1335–1405), al-Aini (1361–1453), al-Makrizi (1364–1442), al-Yunini (1256–1326), Rukn ad-Din Baybars (1247–1325), etc. Verbatim translations of excerpts from Arabic works published with translations by V. G. Tizengauzen allow us to establish: 1) the absence in the letters of Baybars and Berke of any information about Berke’s conversion to Islam earlier than 1263 and the presence of direct evidence of his intentions to join this religion; 2) the time of adoption of the religion of Islam by Berke, his family members and the military aristocracy of the Golden Horde in the first decade of may 1263; 3) the number and sequence of embassies of the ruler of the Golden Horde Berke and Sultan Beybars, carried out before the resumption (July 17, 1264) of the fourth Embassy of the Sultan detained by the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos; 4) the time of the fourth Embassy of Beybars in the Crimea (20–21 1264); 5) the presence of the Crimea in July 1264 under the rule of the only ruler – the son of Jouchi Tuka Timur, called by Abd al-Zahir Tuk Buga, and on the coins of his «pre-Muslim» coinage of the Crimea «Ata Tuka syogun» and «Temir Tuka»; 6) the existence of a post station-caravanserai on the route of the embassy, which served as the formation of the city of Solhat around it.

Abstract Recent studies from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA. Nature. 2014) (TCGA. Nature. 2017) and other groups showed that a molecular subtype with chromosomal instability (CIN) is the most common subtype of gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (GEA) and is characterized by aneuploidy without somatic hypermutation. The oncogene KRAS is frequently amplified in CIN type gastric cancer (14.3%) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (10.4%). SHP2 is a phosphatase which is a part of a machinery activating KRAS from GDP-bound inactive status to GTP-bound active status, and our group previously reported that KRAS-amplified gastric tumors are relatively resistant to MEK inhibition but sensitive to MEK/SHP2 co-inhibition. While the combination of MEK and SHP2 inhibitors showed efficacy in pre-clinical models, the translation of this combination has been challenging, in part due to on-target toxicity from inhibitors of the MAPK pathway (Auliac, et al. Cancers. 2020). Therefore, we sought better combination strategy with SHP2 inhibition, using genome-wide CRISPR screen. We conducted primary CRISPR screening with two GEA cell lines (KE-39 and HUG1-N) and CRISPR-KO lentivirus library (Brunello CRISPR knockout pooled library, 77,741 sgRNAs/19,114 genes, Broad Institute Genomic Perturbation Platform) and identified candidate targets both within the MAPK pathway and among upstream tyrosine kinases that may enhance the efficacy of a SHP2 inhibitor in KRAS-amplified GEA. Prior to detailed analyses of potential hits from the screen, we performed the secondary screen with additional KRAS-amplified and -mutant cell lines (CAT12, YCC-1, and GSU) using a custom CRISPR-Cas9 sgRNA library targeting 509 genes of interest including top hits in each cell line data set, and confirmed that knockout of KRAS upstream and downstream genes have additive cytotoxicity to SHP2 inhibition. Given our focus on finding targets that could be readily translated into therapeutics, we focused our analysis on those of most ready translational relevance and specifically chose ERBBs, FAK, SRC, RAFs, ERK1/2, and CDK4/6 as candidate targets. Further analyses showed the potent cytotoxicity of SHP2 inhibition with a pan-ERBB kinase inhibitior (Afatinib) and with a CDK4/6 inhibitor (Ribociclib), with greater efficacy of this combination in KRAS-amplified tumors compared to KRAS-mutant tumors, both in vitro and in vivo experiments. Overall, these results suggest co-inhibition of SHP2 and upstream/downstream of KRAS as a promising treatment strategy against KRAS-amplified CIN-type GEA. Citation Format: Osamu Kikuchi, Tianxia Li, Jin Zhou, Yichen Wang, Klavdija Bastl, Prafulla C. Gokhale, Aine Knott, Yanxi Zhang, John G. Doench, Zandra Ho, Daniel V. Catenacci, Adam J. Bass. Developing combination therapy with SHP2 inhibition for CIN-type gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma with KRAS amplification [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 6377.

Abstract Cancer and immune cells evolutionary trajectories under treatment with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole and the CDK4/6 inhibitor ribociclib. Marie Fongaard1, Leonard Schmiester2, Salim Ghannoum1, Pål Marius Bjørnstad1, Tatjana Bosnjak3, Signe Meltzer Kleivbo3, Knut Selsås4, Stephanie Beate Geisler5, Kamilla Fjermeros5, Sameer Bhargava5, Manouchehr Seyedzadeh6, Unn-Cathrin Buvarp5, Aino Katri Rosenskiold5, Nam Thi Nguyen5, Torben Lüders7, Diether Lambrechts8, Marianne Lyngra9, Arnoldo Frigessi2, Vessela Kristensen1,10, Jürgen Geisler5,10,*, Xavier Tekpli1,* 1) Department of Medical Genetics, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway 2) University of Oslo, Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology (OCBE), University of Oslo, Norway 3) Novartis, Medical Affairs, Oslo, Norway 4) Department of Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Akershus University Hospital, Oslo, Norway 5) Department of Oncology, Akershus University Hospital, Oslo, Norway 6) Department of Radiology, Akershus University Hospital, Oslo, Norway 7) Department of Clinical Molecular Biology (EPIGEN), Akershus University Hospital, Oslo, Norway 8) Laboratory for Translational Genetics, Department of Human Genetics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium 9) Department of Pathology, Akershus University Hospital, Oslo, Norway 10) University of Oslo, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Oslo, Norway< * Jointly supervised the work, shared corresponding authors Background The recent introduction of CDK4/6 inhibitors is regarded as a major improvement in the field of breast cancer therapy. A growing body of evidence suggests that CDK4/6 inhibitors may impact on the recruitment of immune cells within the tumor microenvironment during therapy. Further, CDK4/6 inhibitors may potentially contribute to the extinction or survival of specific cancer cell clones through evolutionary pressure exerted on breast tumors. Clinical trial The NEOLETRIB-study is a multicenter, single-arm, open-label phase II clinical trial. Patients with locally advanced, LUM-A/LUM-B breast cancer, characterized by cT3-cT4 tumors and/or cN2-3 lymph node involvement, receive ribociclib (600 mg daily, 21 days on and 7 days off) in combination with letrozole (2.5 mg daily) for a duration of 6 months in the neoadjuvant setting. Patients with large cT2 tumors are also allowed to participate. Aim of the study Using single-cell analyses at different time points of treatment, we aim at studying the evolutionary trajectories of cancer and immune cells in 30 patients participating in the NEOLETRIB-trial. Methods Tumor biopsies taken before treatment (baseline) and during treatment (day 21 of ribociclib cycles 1 and 6, respectively), underwent single-cell RNA (scRNA), T cell receptor (TCR), and B cell receptor (BCR) sequencing. The sequencing data was first processed using cellRanger and Seurat . Results Initial clustering of the scRNA enabled the identification of the main cell types in breast tumors, which included T/NK cells, B cells, epithelial cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts, myeloid cells and endothelial cells. Focusing on epithelial cells, we were distinguished cancer cells from normal epithelial cells using the InferCNV algorithm. Further, by estimating the copy number events, we determined the genetic background of clones resistant or sensitive to combination therapies for each patient, revealing the dynamics of tumor heterogeneity evolution during treatment. Additionally, we examined CD4, CD8 and NK cell types, identified different cell states within these cell types and inferred pseudotime and immune cell type differentiation trajectories. ConclusionsWe identified the cell types present in tumor biopsies from the NEOLETRIB trial. We characterized the effects of therapies on the evolution of cancer and immune cells and gain insights into the factors influencing sensitivity and resistance to the combination of letrozole and ribociclib. Citation Format: Marie Fongård, Leonard Schmiester, Salim Ghannoum, Marius Bjørnstad, Tatjana Bosnjak, Signe Kleivbo, Knut Selsås, Stephanie Geisler, Kamilla Fjermeros, Sameer Bhargava, Manouchehr Seyedzadeh, Unn-Cathrin Buvarp, Aino Vuoriluoto, Nam Thi Nguyen, Torben Lüders, Diether Lambrechts, Marianne Lyngra, Arnoldo Frigessi, Vessela Kristensen, Jürgen Geisler, Xavier Tekpli. Cancer and immune cells evolutionary trajectories under treatment with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole and the CDK4/6 inhibitor ribociclib [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO3-23-08.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease that lacks regenerative treatment options. Current research focuses on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) as regenerative therapies, but extracellular vesicles (EVs) have shown to be more advantageous. This study compares the regenerative potential of human umbilical cord MSC-derived EVs (cEVs) and platelet-derived EVs (pEVs) in ex vivo and in vivo OA models.In the ex vivo study, OA conditions were induced in human cartilage explants, which were then treated either with pEVs or cEVs. Results showed a higher content of DNA and collagen in the pEVs group compared to control and cEVs groups, suggesting that pEVs could be a potential alternative to cEVs.In the in vivo study, an OA model was established in the knee joints of rats through MIA (monoiodoacetate) injection and then treated either with pEVs or cEVs. Results showed that pEVs-treated knee joints had better subchondral bone integrity and greater OA reversion, particularly in female rats, indicating that pEVs are a viable regeneration treatment for OA and outperform cEVs in terms of efficacy.Overall, the study demonstrates the potential of EVs as a regenerative treatment for OA, with pEVs showing promising results in both ex vivo and in vivo models. The use of pEVs in clinical practice could provide a faster path to translation due to the established use of platelet concentrates in therapeutics. However, further studies are needed to fully evaluate the potential of pEVs for OA treatment and to elucidate the mechanisms behind their regenerative effects.Acknowledgments: The authors thank Dr Fernando Hierro (UIB) for their technical contribution with TEM, Mª Trinidad García (UIB) for the access to radioactivity facilities, Aina Arbós (IUNICS) for her contribution in the histology staining, María Tortosa (IdISBa) for her assistance with the animal care and ADEMA School of Dentistry for the access to the cone beam computed tomography (CBCT).Funding: This research was funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, co-funded by the ESF European Social Fund and the ERDF European Regional Development Fund (MS16/00124; CP16/00124), PROGRAMA JUNIOR del proyecto TALENT PLUS, construyendo SALUD, generando VALOR (JUNIOR01/18), financed by the sustainable tourism tax of the Balearic Islands; the Direcció General d'Investigació and Conselleria d'Investigació, Govern Balear (FPI/2046/2017); the Mecanisme de Recuperació i Resiliència, intended to execute research projects of «Noves polítiques públiques per a un mercat de treball dinàmic, resilient i inclusiu», collected in Pla de Recuperació, Transformació i Resiliència, financed by European Union-Next Generation EU and driven by SOIB and Conselleria de Fons Europeus, Universitat i Cultura i la Conselleria de Model Econòmic, Turisme i Treball (NG0421) and the grant SYN20/03 from IdISBa.

This study presents a groundbreaking approach to preserving the Ainu language, recognized as critically endangered by UNESCO, by developing a bi-directional neural machine translation (MT) system between Ainu and Japanese. Utilizing the Marian MT framework, known for its effectiveness with resource-scarce languages, the research aims to overcome the linguistic complexities inherent in Ainu's polysynthetic structure. The paper delineates a comprehensive methodology encompassing data collection from diverse Ainu text sources, meticulous preprocessing, and the deployment of neural MT models, culminating in the achievement of significant SacreBLEU scores that underscore the models' translation accuracy. The findings illustrate the potential of advanced MT technology to facilitate linguistic preservation and educational endeavors, advocating for integrating such technologies in safeguarding endangered languages. This research not only underscores the critical role of MT in bridging language divides but also sets a precedent for employing computational linguistics to preserve cultural and linguistic heritage.

This Natural Langauge processing is carried particularly on English-Kannada/Telugu. Kannada is a language of India. The Kannada language has a classification of Dravidian, Southern, Tamil-Kannada, and Kannada. Regions Spoken: Kannada is also spoken in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra. Population: The total population of people who speak Kannada is 35,346,000, as of 1997. Alternate Name: Other names for Kannada are Kanarese, Canarese, Banglori, and Madrassi. Dialects: Some dialects of Kannada are Bijapur, Jeinu Kuruba, and Aine Kuruba. There are about 20 dialects and Badaga may be one. Kannada is the state language of Karnataka. About 9,000,000 people speak Kannada as a second language. The literacy rate for people who speak Kannada as a first language is about 60%, which is the same for those who speak Kannada as a second language (in India). Kannada was used in the Bible from 1831-2000. Statistical machine translation (SMT) is a machine translation paradigm where translations are generated on the basis of statistical models whose parameters are derived from the analysis of bilingual text corpora. The statistical approach contrasts with the rule-based approaches to machine translation as well as with example-based machine translation.

Abstract This article centres on three passages about herbs and herb remedies (§91, §92 and §97) selected from the anonymous Syriac pharmacological book which Philippe Gignoux recently edited. It argues that all three passages have parallels in Galen’s On Simple Drugs, while the last section of §91 finds a parallel in Dioscorides’ De materia medica 1.107. The parallels not only help us to decipher several terms which remain unresolved in earlier research, but also facilitate a better understanding of some passages which are occasionally misleading due to the highly abbreviated character of the Syriac text. Furthermore, a comparison between the anonymous Syriac pharmacological text and earlier Syriac translations of Galen shows that our text is a multiple-layered pharmacopoeia which combines both earlier elements from Sergius of Rēš ͑ainā in the sixth century and new terminologies from Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq in the ʿAbbāsid translation movement.

Ilmar Laabani pärandi hulgas Eesti Kirjandusmuuseumi Eesti Kultuuriloolises Arhiivis on säilinud mõned näited tema saksakeelsest kirjavahetusest kahe saksa-juudi luuletajaga: kolm koopiat kirjadest tema eakaaslasele Paul Celanile (1920–1970) ja mõned kirjamustandid Nelly Sachsile (1891–1970), kes mõned aastad hiljem pälvis Nobeli kirjanduspreemia. Laaban rootsindas mõlema luuletaja tekste ning tõlkis valiku nende luuletustest ka eesti keelde. Artikkel käsitleb Laabani kirjanduslikku dialoogi Celani ja Sachsiga, mis kujunes kirjade, kohtumiste ning eeskätt luuletõlgete kaudu. Artikli teises pooles analüüsitakse Celani luule eestindusi, mille Laaban avadas Manas 1957–1958. --- In the archive of the Estonian poet Ilmar Laaban, conserved at the Estonian Literary Museum in Tartu, we find three copies of his drafts of letters (in German) to his contemporary, the German Jewish poet Paul Celan (1920–1970) and four drafts (in German) of letters to the German Jewish poet and Nobel laureate Nelly Sachs (1901–1970). Laaban was personally acquainted with both Celan and Sachs, translated their poetry into Swedish, and published a small selection of each in Estonian translation. Celan’s first meeting with Laaban in Paris in 1951 is mentioned in Celan’s letter to Hannelore Scholz (Celan 2019, 94), and in one of Laaban’s letters (1952). Their correspondence began in 1954 and lasted until Celan’s death in 1970. Though it might seem that such a spare, if not to say skeletal group of letters barely constitutes an analysable sample, this article responds with the claim that it offers significant traces of these poets’ “elective affinities”. Indeed, this portion of Laaban’s epistolarium stands as a synecdoche of much richer dialogues. “Dialogical moments” occur both in epistolary communication and in the translation process. Letters usually carry metacommunicative signals, references to other letters, or other texts, expanding the possibilities of interpretation and contextualisation. When researching epistolaria it is not unusual to find only the letters of one party. Reasons are varied: general carelessness with one’s papers, improper sorting of a personal archive, an accident, or an intentional culling and erasure of epistolary texts. In Laaban’s case it is difficult to decide on the reason, as his correspondence (and the whole of his personal archive) only became better tended when he began living with Aino Tamjärv in 1981. There is a tone of warmth in Laaban’s drafts of letters to Sachs, and they both use the informal personal pronoun Du. The only surviving letter from Sachs to Laaban, a postcard for his birthday in 1955 points to a long-lasting friendship, including visits. Laaban’s letters to Celan are more distant, use the formal pronoun Sie and are primarily concerned with choices about translations into Swedish from Celan’s first published poetry collection, Mohn und Gedächtnis (The Poppy and Memory). The first part of this article closely examines the archival evidence on the correspondences, using additional material from the clean copies of Laaban’s letters from the Celan archive in Marburg, mentions of Laaban in Celan’s Collected Letters, as well as Sachs and Celan’s correspondence with each other from 1954 until Celan’s death by suicide in 1970; Sachs died in Sweden the same year. Such analysis yields several textual rhizomes for future research and calls for a more determined search for Laaban’s published Swedish translations of Celan’s and Sachs’ poetry in literary periodicals in Sweden. Contextually, it must be mentioned that Laaban corresponded with literary scholars, visual artists, critics, and journalists who were proponents of surrealism as a generative mode of post-war culture. The focus of the letters Laaban received is narrower here: discussion is limited to the history of surrealism, criteria for a verbal or visual text to be deemed surrealist, and the extent of the network of artists and writers throughout post-war Europe that aspired to its ideals. Laaban reminds his correspondents that surrealism is alive and well in Europe’s peripheries, including the Scandinavian countries. Indeed, Laaban’s first encounter with Celan and his works was in the context of surrealism. According to Celan, Laaban wrote and spoke impeccable French and Estonian, and he regarded him as a Swede, or rather a highly educated Estonian living in Stockholm In contrast to these academic-sounding debates, Laaban’s letters to Celan and Sachs address the question of the in-betweenness and intermittency of exile experience. In addition, there is the broader issue of human illness, suffering and destruction (Zerstörung) in a dark chapter of history that is barely past. Though the Holocaust (avant la lettre) and destruction of Europe’s Jews are not specifically broached, in the experience of one or multiple exiles, Laaban is a “fate-companion” of Celan and Sachs. The second part of this article is an analysis of Laaban’s lengthy article on Celan in the first two issues of the Estonian-language cultural journal Mana (1957–1958), an exile publication with broad international aims that attempted to break away from a singular focus on exile writers and confining arguments about the validity of exile vs homeland. Accompanying the article, as a significant step toward the Estonian reception of key post-war European writers, is a small selection of Laaban’s Estonian translations of Celan’s poetry.

Abstract: Postcolonial literatures are literatures that have a mobile base and that travel through different geographies. Their transcultural and transnational status is often accompanied by a multilingual textuality that recalls in many ways the functioning of translation as it enables a reading experience beyond national and monocultural notions of language, literature, and community. Approaching literary studies from a postcolonial and decolonial perspective, this essay deals with the potential that heterolingual and translational texts have to multilingualise their readers. In this essay, the fields of postcolonial literary studies and of translation studies come together to craft a translational model of reading for heterolingual texts. Two different multilingual contexts are examined: North American Indigenous communities and their cultures of translation, and the Caribbean and its creolised multilingualism. The textual analysis focuses respectively on a poem by First Nations writer Garry Thomas Morse that illustrates the profound bond between translation and writing in Indigenous language contexts, and two poems by Velma Pollard, a Jamaican writer belonging to the first generation of anglophone Caribbean writers who will allow us a deeper view of Caribbean forms of multilingualism. Mitmekeelsus ja tõlge postkoloniaalsetes kirjandustes Postkoloniaalsed kirjandused on kirjandused, mis reisivad läbi eri aegruumide. Nende kultuuri- ja rahvusülese staatusega kaasneb sageli mitmekeelne tekstuaalsus, mis mitmeti meenutab tõlke toimimist, sest võimaldab lugemiskogemust, mis ületab rahvuslikke ning monokultuurseid arusaamu keelest, kirjandusest ja kogukonnast. Postkoloniaalsetes kontekstides tuleks mitmekeelsust ja tõlget pidada pigem teineteist täiendavateks kui teineteisele vastanduvateks nähtusteks. Tegelikult on postkoloniaalne kirjandus peamine nüüdiskirjanduse korpus, mis nõuab keeleülest lähenemist, sest selle kirjanduse keelelist maatriksit pole võimalik kätkeda endiste koloniaalkeelte piiridesse, vaid see hõlmab nii põliskeeli kui ka koloniaalkontakti järgselt välja kujunenud kreoolkeeli. Samuti nõuab selline kirjandus tõlkelist lähenemist, sest eksisteerib arvukates keeltes samaaegselt. Lähenedes kirjandusteadusele postkoloniaalsest ja dekoloniaalsest perspektiivist, käsitleb artikkel potentsiaali, mis erikeelsetel ja tõlkelistel tekstidel on oma lugejaskonnas mitmekeelsuse kasvatamisel. Artikli peamiseks väiteks on, et postkoloniaalsetes kirjandustes kattub tõlge kui tekstide liikumine lähtekeele ja sihtkeele vahel lähte- ja sihtkeelte loomingulise teisenemisega ning et tõlke staatus tänapäeval pakub kasulikku terminoloogiat, kõnelemaks postkoloniaalse kirjutuse esteetilisest väärtusest. Nii kasutatakse postkoloniaalse kirjandusuurimise ja tõlketeaduse väljasid üheskoos, et luua tõlkelist mudelit erikeelsete tekstide lugemiseks. Esimene vaadeldav erikeelne tekst on Kanada looderanniku piirkonna kwakwaka’wakw rahva seast pärineva Garry Thomas Morse’i luuletus „500 rida“ („500 lines“). Luuletus on näide erikeelsuse ja tõlke koostoimimisest tähenduste sõnastamisel, mida poleks võimalik väljendada ei inglise ega ka kwak’wala keeles. Samuti on tegu asjakohase illustratsiooniga selle kohta, kuidas tõlget ja erikeelsust sageli peetakse erinevateks või isegi vastandlikeks tegevusteks: kas kõneldakse mitmeid keeli või siis tõlgitakse nende vahel. Tegelikult ongi kirjandusliku mitmekeelsuse uuringutes keskendutud peaaegu eranditult kirjutusele, milles üheaegselt kasutatakse mitmeid keeli, ning tõlketeaduses on keskendutud rohkem ülekannetele ühest keelest teise. Üks selle artikli eesmärkidest on näidata, mil määral need kaks praktikat on omavahel tihedalt seotud nii loomeprotsessis kui ka lugemisviisina. Luuletuses „500 rida“ loovad tõlge ja erikeelsus ainulaadse stiili ning kutsuvad esile tõlkelise lugemiskogemuse, sest kwak’wala keelest inglise keelde tõlkimine on ainus viis seda luuletust lugeda. Teine oluline piirkond, kus koloniaalkontakt oli põlisrahvastikule hukutav, on Kariibi mere regioon, kus omavahel võistlevad Euroopa võimud kehtestasid istandusesüsteemi. Eri saartel aset leidnud erisuguste orjastamis- ja koloniseerimislugude tulemusena moodustab Kariibi piirkond võib-olla maailma kõige ulatuslikuma ja mitmekesise kreoliseerumispaiga. Seetõttu on Kariibi kreooli keeled välja kujunenud eri arenguteid pidi ning neil on vägagi erinevad suhted piirkonnas esinevate Euroopa keeltega. Teise artiklis käsitletud luuletaja Velma Pollardi loomingut iseloomustav joon on keelelise, sotsiaalse ja kultuurilise käitumise segamine tekstis, mis tundub tervikliku ja orgaanilisena, ning selle kõige lihtsa ja orgaanilisena paista laskmine. Keeletoimetaja koolitusega Pollard on pühendanud suure osa oma kirjanduslikust ja teadusloomingust Jamaica rahvalike ja kreoolitraditsioonide ümberhindamisele, alates Jamaica kreooli keele süstemaatilisest uurimisest kuni kreooli keele kasutamiseni tema enda loomingus ning teiste autorite teoste lähilugemiseni. Kirjanikuna kasutab Pollard läbivat koodivahetust standardse Jamaica inglise keele ja Jamaica kreooli keele vahel. Tegelikult haarab tema stiili pindmine lihtsus lugejat teksti kiirel esmalugemisel üksnes selleks, et suunata teda lõpuks tagasi teise lugemise juurde, milles tõuseb esile tema kreooli poeetika, mis komplitseerib kogu teksti tähendust. Kui Euroopa kirjanduslugudes on keel olnud olemuslikult kirjandusteose juurde kuuluv, ei ole see nõnda postkoloniaalsete kirjanduste puhul, sest kirjanduslik tekst on algusest peale avatud mitmele keelele ning kirjanik langetab kaalutud otsuse. Kui Garry Thomas Morse’i luuletuses on tugevasti esil keeleline ilmajäetus, mida rõhutab üheainsa lause kordamine, näib nii Morse’i kui ka Pollardi luuletustes toimivat mittevaliku ning „nii-selle-kui-teise“ poeetiline keel. Koos näitlikustavad need luuletused postkoloniaalsete kirjanduste „teiskeelset kujutelma“.

Abstract: The present article will address the role of translation in the very first stage of Estonian language theatre history, during the so-called August Wiera period in the activities of the Vanemuine Society. We aim to map and define the early Estonian translational drama through the concepts of “self” and “other” considering its performative aspect. Four tentative categories emerge when looking at the mechanisms of theatre translation of the time that can be described as degrees from total domestication to foreignization. Artikkel on pühendatud Eesti teatritõlke loo varaseimale järgule 19. sajandi teisel poolel, kui eestikeelne professionaalne teater tegi siinmail oma esimesi samme. Tähelepanu all on eelkõige nn Wiera teater, millest kasvas hiljem välja üks Eesti mõjukamaid kultuurinähtusi, riigi ainus kolmeliigiteater Vanemuine. Uurimismaterjali moodustavad nii selle repertuaari kuulunud tõlkelavastused kui ka nende retseptsioon. Artiklis kaardistatakse ja analüüsitakse selle aja teatritõlget „oma“ ja „võõra“ suhete kaudu, uurides nende vastassuhet performatiivsest aspektist lähtudes: kuidas tuleb teatritekstides esile tõlkija hääl ja milliste strateegiatega on võõrast omakultuuri transponeeritud ja rekodeeritud. „Oma“ ja „võõra“ suhe on Eesti varase teatritõlkeloo üks kesksemaid küsimusi, mis tõuseb esile kõige erinevamatel tasanditel. Seda võib näha repertuaaripoliitika vaidlustes, teatripoleemikas, arvustustes ja ülevaadetes, kuid ka tõlkevalikutes. Need mõisted ei ole neutraalsed ja seostuvad erinevate hoiakutega: nõnda nagu omaks peetavate struktuuride puhul on ka võõrasust sellist, mida taunitakse ja soovitatakse vältida, ja ka sellist, mida tunnustatakse, kiidetakse ja imetletakse. Nii selle aja teatritegijad kui ka kriitikud teadvustasid endale teatri kultuurilist ja ühiskondlikku mõju ning teatrilt oodati publiku õpetamist ja kasvatamist, kuid lisaks sellele ka laiemat panust kultuuri rikastamisse ja väärindamisse. Selle kõrval oli tähtis ka teatri meelelahutuslik funktsioon: nii repertuaarivalikuid kui ka tekstimanipulatsioone põhjendati sageli vajadusega pakkuda publikule lõbusat ajaviidet. „Oma“ materjali ja selle loomise praktika puudumisel mängiski sellel varasel etapil tähtsat rolli just tõlkedraama. Materjali täpsemaks analüüsiks on uurimuses eristatud nelja mehhanismi, mis kirjeldavad „võõra“ ülekandmist omakultuuri: 1) täielik kodustamine, mille puhul lähtetekst assimileeritakse sihtkultuuri; 2) osaline kodustamine, mille puhul jääb sihtteksti tajutav võõrasus, ent seda on siiski publikule lähemale toodud ja mugandatud; 3) võõrapärastamine, mis tähistab „võõra“ markeeritud eristamist „omast“ ning 4) „võõra“ sihilik väljajätt, kui võõrast peetakse liiga kaugeks, et seda kodupublikule esitada. Et aga teatritõlge on keeruline polükodeeritud struktuur, on analüüsis silmas peetud, et enamgi kui teistes kirjanduse põhiliikides opereerib tõlkija korraga eri mehhanismidega ning võib osa elemente ja koode üle kanda kodustades, teised aga võõrapärastades. Sealjuures on publik ja kriitikud vahel isegi kõige võõramaid struktuure ja elemente vastu võtnud algupärase ja omana, s.t „võõras“ ja „oma“ kujunevad eri agentide koosmõjul, kusjuures tähtsat rolli mängivad siin nii performatiivsus kui ka taju. Artiklis näidatakse, et kõigil neljal analüüsitud mehhanismil on eesti varases teatritõlkepraktikas oma koht, kuid neist levinuim on osaline kodustamine, mis kujundab suurel määral selle aja teatri näo ja näib vastavat ka publiku ootustele. Teisalt jääb mõnikord just võõrapärastav kõige rohkem eristuma ja kõneainet pakkuma, isegi kui tegu on haruldase ja erandliku sündmusega. Tõlgete eri tasandite analüüsist tulevad esile küllaltki märkimisväärsed erinevused tõlkemanipulatsioonide määras: kõige vabamalt käsitletakse väljendusplaaniga seotud tasandeid, nagu näiteks kompositsiooni, vormi ja värsitehnikaid, ent teisalt ka kultuurilisi ja sotsiaalseid koode (reaale, nimesid, olusid). Manipulatsioone leidub siiski ka sisutasandil: muutuda võivad ideoloogilised ja kontseptuaalsed sõnumid, vahel koguni süžee. Peale lisanduste kohtame sageli ka väljajätte ning needki võivad teatud mõttes olla performatiivsed: selle strateegia kaudu tulevad samuti esile tõlkija ja teatri taotlused, hoiakud ja hinnangud. Väljajätud võivad olla ühelt poolt motiveeritud näitlejate puudulikest oskustest, teisalt aga võidakse neid põhjendada sihtpubliku ootuste ja eeldatava tasemega – tüüpiliselt on siis jäetud välja keerulisemaid värsitehnilisi koode, lihtsustatud kompositsiooni ja poeetilist struktuuri ning vähendatud algupärandi koomikat. Üks artikli hüpoteese on, et eesti varases draamatõlkes on tõlkija hääl eriti selgelt väljendunud: asjaolule, et tegu on juba ajalooliselt vabama tõlkežanriga, lisanduvad ka ajastuomaselt vabad tõlkenormid, sh väljajättude, lisanduste, muganduste ja kompilatsioonide aktsepteerimine, mis lubasid tõlkijatel tekstidega üsna meelevaldselt ümber käia ja neid enda eesmärkidele vastavalt ümber kirjutada. Nii pole tõlkija mitte üksnes vahendaja ja looja, vaid osaleb multiagentses teatripraktikas samuti ühe agendina, kes võib olulisel määral lavastust mõjutada. Originaaltekstide ja tõlgete võrdlev analüüs toetas püstitatud hüpoteesi: ilmnes, et mõnikord on tõlkija hääl eksplitsiitne – nt kui tõlkija oma ühiskonnakriitikat või õpetussõnu näidendisse sisse põimib – vahel üksnes aimatav väikeste muudatuste kaudu, kuid siiski alati tajutav. Eesti varase draamatõlke performatiivsus avaldubki esmalt tõlkevalikute tasandil: tõlkija agentsus tuleb tõlkemanipulatsioonide kaudu üsna selgelt esile. Ent veel olulisem on, et draamatõlget võib vaadelda ka kui tekstide ja publiku vahelist interaktsiooni oma sotsiokultuurilises kontekstis. Nii on varane teatritõlge performatiivne ka oma laiemas kultuurilises mõjus: see loob žanre, genereerib eesti teatri lavakeelt, suhestab eesti teatrit muu Euroopa teatriga, osaleb aktiivselt eestlaste kultuurilise identiteedi kujundamisel. Selle analüüs aitab mõista nii kultuuriarengu dünaamikat kui ka seda, kuidas noor arenev kultuur ennast tajub ja mõtestab suhtluses võõraga. Just siin on ka draamatõlkel oluline ja seni ehk liiga vähe tähelepanu pälvinud roll ning mitmedki oma ajastu fenomenid tulevad selles eriti hästi esile. Võõrast peetakse küll sageli kultuuriliselt kõrgemaks ja arenenumaks, kuid teisalt hoiatatakse sageli ka võõralt põllult valimatu noppimise eest. Võõras on ühtaegu midagi, mis aitab ennast paremini mõista ja identifitseerida, kasvada ja tugevamaks saada, ent samas võib selles olla ka midagi, mida tajutakse ohtliku ja soovimatuna, nii et seda tuleks tõlgetes peita või koguni täielikult kõrvale heita.

One of the writers of this paper visited America at the end of the ‘90s and came across a curious translation dilemma as a foreigner. In some of the seemingly inauspicious districts of the city, there were signs saying “No Loitering” on the displays of shops or walls of residencies. These signs were causing anxiety for her, because she did not know the actual meaning of the phrase of “No Loitering”. (Her dictionary was still packed away.) Apart from being curious about the meaning of the phrase, she was rather afraid of performing “the act of loitering” since she had no idea what it meant. When she was settled she looked up to the meaning of the term “loitering”: “waiting, hanging around, lingering, dallying, etc…” (Oxford Encyclopedia). The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English defined “to loiter” as “to stand in a public place, usually with no particular or obvious purpose.” Based on this, if a person spends time hanging around or dallying in a public place with no purpose, the act of this person is called “loitering”. In the eyes of the newcomer, we suggest that “loitering” might be equal to more or less “doing nothing”. A person who is acting in the way described is almost inactive. When we view the issue from this framework, the person does not seem to be doing anything dangerous or precarious. In essence, what right or reason does someone have to command another “do not stand here”? Actually, a person who comes across such a warning can comfortably (if ironically) say that they are doing “nothing”. Loitering as a Sign of “Doing Nothing” From a semiological point of view, loitering can be seen as an honest act that reveals its intent of doing nothing by itself, because by definition loitering indicates to a lack of purpose and inactivity. On the other hand, loitering does not conjure up innocence associated with a natural state of inactivity. In fact, it conjures up possible danger, threat and crime. It does not signify doing nothing, but on the contrary it points to the possibility of being able to do “a very bad thing”. Closest to its definition, loitering might seem like an honest act; it can also be considered as the interval between inactivity and possible negative action. In this respect, loitering can be seen as the double-layered mythological sign of Barthes: namely, loitering at a denotative level is coded as innocent and honest – doing nothing signifies doing nothing. However, ideologically at a connotative level, loitering reveals itself as an action by which doing nothing is turned into doing something. Within this setting, if we accept that the subject does loiter with a “bad intention”, we can observe that the seemingly innocent acts of “lingering” and “dallying” can easily turn into proper camouflage instruments that conceal these “bad intentions”. Doing nothing can be considered to function as a curtain that briefly conceals the act of doing something or the possibility of doing something. Within this scope, loitering can also be a direct representation of a slippery possibility. We recall a specific type of postcards which was once quite fashionable. The characteristic of these postcards is to allow us to see two different images on the same surface. When those postcards are viewed from a definite angle you can see a picture of, for example, New York which is taken in daylight, and when viewed from another angle, this time the night vision of the same setting can be observed. When loitering is in question, there is a similar mechanism at work. The idea that we want to point out is that, due to the slippery nature of the category of the term loitering, neither of these pictures – each one depicting one side of the term – can be absolute. This is because of the permeable nature of these pictures. In fact, what is “real” is the very act of changing the angle while viewing the pictures: to be able to see the two pictures/definitions simultaneously. Loitering is a real conjunction point, a transformation point that we can not grasp between the two pictures/definitions: an interval point of innocent acts of dallying, lingering, and a threatening act of crime. In other words, between being a mythological and a denotative sign, loitering is the sign of possibility itself. The dominant paradigm of modern urban life defines “non-functionality” as inauspicious, immobile and therefore risky. Loitering can also be coupled with non-functionality, and this association would have two consequences: firstly the perception of the term alters toward a negative tone; secondly it opens up an area where we can discuss the body, the city and the concept of movement respectively: The loitering human body which is alive but non-functional in the public space brings to mind a series of possibilities that originate from a potential energy which is not in use. This is usually taken to be something “bad”. Namely, a person who loiters is not expected to give money to a beggar, but is often seen as likely to seize money from another person by violence. A city is a system depending on flow. In other words, it is a system depending on the flow of vehicles, people, goods, money and waste. For such a system depending on movement there is no place for stability. Thus, individuals should either take part in this flow or they should not act as a point of resistance that would be an obstacle to the movement. The late capitalist period has a “psychic” effect on urban life and individuals. Recently, this effect has been discussed with other approaches within discussions around the concept of Risk Society. Risk Society starts where the systems of security norms do not function against the threats (Beck). It is located in a new definition of modernity in which risks that are related to economic initiatives, security of employment, health and environment have increased intensively. Abundance of possibilities and uncertainties, and polysemy in Risk Society, create an intensive agenda. Concerning the psychological implications of Risk Society on individuals and their acts, Beck argues that our horizon also darkens due to risks. Hence, risks say what should not be done, but not what should be done. Risk management demands that precaution is taken through avoidance. A person who designs the world as a risk loses their ability to act in the end. The remarkable aspect of this development is that the increase in the intention of control turns this intention into its opposite (Beck). In this context, loitering can be considered as one of the risks in everyday life due to its ambiguous definition and perception. Returning to the earlier quote from Beck, the visuality of the “No Loitering” sign which tells what should be avoided or what should not be done in a commanding tone identifies a “risk zone”. In fact, while this sign functions to warn people concerning the area that the act of loitering can take place, it also embodies, constructs and strengthens the possibility of risk. Is Loitering a Crime? The prejudice supposing that loitering is dangerous reveals itself strikingly in legal matters. The “Chicago Anti-Gang Loitering” law, which was approved in 1992, allowed police to arrest persons who “remain in any one place with no apparent purpose” (“High Court Rejects Chicago Anti-Gang Loitering Law”) in the presence of a suspected gang member and who then fail to disperse satisfactorily when warned by police. Thus, it is possible for perceived loiterers to be arrested under the same law, although it is not proven that these people had been previously convicted of a crime, had committed a crime before their arrest, or were planning to commit an offence. “Before lower courts found the law unconstitutional in 1995, Chicago police issued 89,000 dispersal orders under the ordinance and made 42,000 arrests. The majority of people arrested were black or Latino” (“High Court Rejects Chicago Anti-Gang Loitering Law”). A group of justices considers the freedom to loiter a part of constitutional right. For example, Justice John Paul Stevens said, ‘the freedom to loiter for innocent purposes is part of the liberty’ protected by the U.S. Constitution. People in Chicago who stop to ‘engage in idle conversation or simply enjoy a cool breeze on a warm evening’ should not be subject to police commands. (“High Court Rejects Chicago Anti-Gang Loitering Law”) The second group claims that “Chicago Anti-Gang Loitering” law did not focus on specific criminal conduct and suggests that Chicago city lawyers redrafted this law to make it illegal to loiter, to “establish control over identifiable areas or to intimidate others from entering those areas” (“High Court Rejects Chicago Anti-Gang Loitering Law”). They argue that the lawyers are obliged to bring onto the agenda a better definition of the conduct for it to be accepted as a criminal act. A U.S. Constitutional Court abolished the “Chicago Anti-Gang Loitering” law in 1999, with ongoing discussions over the complicated nature of the issue. The legal uncertainty in the concept of loitering proves that the foreigner who had difficulties in understanding the notion was right in her concerns. All these things strikingly point to the possibility that somebody who is hanging around, chatting or lingering on a beautiful day can be arrested at any moment. The main reason the term “loiter” is obscure to the foreigner is not only because of the definitive meaning of loitering, but because the ambiguity of the term is still preserved after that. Thus, the person still has some hesitations about whether her behavior belongs to this category. The reason for her hesitation is based on the suspicion she has: she only intended to relax, dally and hang around (loiter); however, all those behaviors could be read (perceived) to suggest that she is about to engage in a criminal “bad” act. While the concept of social perception, which refers to the initial stage of evaluating the intentions of others using their body movements, hand gestures, facial expressions, and other biological motion cues (Allison, Puce and McCarthy), would explain the reason behind this reading, it is also possible to suggest that this kind of reading is conveyed by broader social norms. So, the problem which the foreigner experienced is the difficulty to create signs of doing nothing differentiating from the behaviors which are perceived as socially unacceptable. Last Word Nothing is the definition of a void. The aim of this essay is to discuss how loitering makes this void visible and representable. As defined earlier, a sign is a surface of meaning, an interface. Doing nothing, which is an intellectual or philosophical category, is represented in different ways in different cultures by some acts which form interfaces, and sometimes it is made visible. When signs of doing nothing are being discussed, one of the most important problems is related to defining and naming the acts. As congruent with the purpose of doing nothing, loitering would be the best representation of doing nothing. However, even if loitering does not include an intention to harm, it is considered that the state of danger continues since it is rather difficult to make this visible and comprehensible through bodily signs. Loitering is a state of inactivity, incapable of creating the signs that will make its intention obvious. Yet it signifies the storm itself by being perceived as the silence before the storm. References Allison, Truett, Aina Puce, and Gregory McCarthy. “Social Perception from Visual Cues: Roles of the STS region”. Trends in Cognitive Science 4 (2000): 267-278. Barthes, Roland. “Myth Today.” Mythologies. Trans. Annette Lavers. London: Vintage, 1990. Beck, Ulrich. The Reinvention of Politics: Rethinking Modernity in the Global Social Order. Trans. M. Ritter. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997. “High Court Rejects Chicago Anti-Gang Loitering Law” 17 July 2006. http://www.ndsn.org/summer99/courts3.html>. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Ed. J. Crowther. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Oxford Encyclopedia English-Turkish Dictionary. Ä°stanbul: Sabah, 1990. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Timur, Sebnem, and Melike Turkan Bagli. "A Bodily Sign of “Doing Nothing”: Loitering or the Silence before the Storm." M/C Journal 9.3 (2006). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0607/05-timur-bagli.php>. APA Style Timur, S., and M. Bagli. (Jul. 2006) "A Bodily Sign of “Doing Nothing”: Loitering or the Silence before the Storm," M/C Journal, 9(3). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0607/05-timur-bagli.php>.