Thursday, July 16, 2009

Desdichaedo?

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to Life on the {Scrap}beach!

I have been asked what my YouTube user id means. It comes {loosely} from the Sir Walter Scott novel Ivanhoe, and it is the name {sort of} that the hero uses when he enters a tournament anonymously. According to Sir Walter Scott, it means "disinherited" and it is what my dad used to call me when I came home late, etc. Scott was mistaken in his translation of "desdichado" as "disinherited" as it actually means "desolate/distraught" but we are fans of the book and the book's meaning is "disinherited".

The actual spelling from the book is "desdichado" {Spanish} and not "desdichaedo" which is my user id. I mispelled it originally, and didn't notice my mistake for quite some time. Once I realized I had added an extra "e" I decided not to change it since it is hard enough for people to remember it as it is ~ I didn't want to confuse everyone all over again.

So, basically, desdichaedo means disinherited.

Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe inspired the French poet GĂ©rard de Nerval {also a Scott fan} to write a sonnet entitled "El Desdichado" in 1853. So I will leave you with the poem.

El Deschidado

I am the man of gloom ~ widowed ~ unconsoled
The prince of Aquitaine, his tower in ruin:
My sole star is dead ~ and my constellated lute
Bears the Black Sun of Melancholia.

In the night of the tomb, you, my consolation,
Give me back Posillipo and the Italian sea,
The flower that so eased my heart's desolation,
And the trellis that twines the rose into the vine.

Am I Eros or Phoebus? Lusignan or Biron?
My brow is still red with the kiss of the queen;
I have dreamt in the grotto where the siren swims. . .

And, twice victorious, I have crossed Acheron:
My Orphic lyre in turn modulating the strains
Of the sighs of the saint and the cries of the fey
.

Kathryn
Life's a beach. Scrpbook it.

7 comments:

  1. Hi desdichado (desdichada, in your case)...I gotta ask...did Dad's methodology work? (laughing now)

    Well, our dear disinherited, here's something to make you smile: “But the thing that I saw in your face no power can disinherit. No bomb that ever burst shatters the crystal spirit.” (Geo Orwell)

    -Liz (who also broke curfew when she was young)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, ladies! I don't want to spend too much time on my dissolute youth {gasp!} but I did get asked about it so I thought I would explain. Now we can just close the door on that part of my life. :D It never actually happened, anyway, since I wasn't a scrapbooker then and if it's not in a scrapbook it never happened!

    Kathryn
    Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED TOO!! Thanks for sharing :)
    with a grin,
    steffogal1

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am sure it is a family thing, passed from male member to male member, through the generations, except for maybe your Uncle Lance.

    I note that most people "sign" their comments, which is a nice thing.

    Regards  —  Cliff

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi, Uncle Cliff! It seems like the kind of thing that if it was going to skip anyone in a generation would skip Uncle Lance.

    I also like that most people sign their comments here. I feel like it is a pretty polite and friendly blog & that makes me feel good.

    Kathryn
    Life's a beach. Scrapbook it.

    ReplyDelete