The International Terminological Key - universala esperanto

– Granted, the lion's share goes to instruction books, dictionaries, and
propaganda material. But high-brow classical literature is well represented
too: SHAKESPEARE, PROUST, GOETHE, CERVANTES, TOLKIEN, Omar KHAYYAM,
GOGOL, TAGORE, KAWABATA, LUSIN etc. etc. Even a special liking for ancient
authors seems to have taken hold lately: CHAUCER (Canterbury Tales), VILLON
(Ballades), RACINE (Andromaque), SENECA (Octavia), SOPHOCLES (Antigone) ...
The truth is, that hardly any great author remains untranslated into
Esperanto, because every nation, and especially ethnic minorities, grasp this
opportunity for proudly displaying their cultural worth to the outside world.
So, in Esperanto you will find works which never even appeared in English !
And the quality is usually high, not just low or mediocre !
Original prose and poetry are not at all rare, either, though naturally little
known outside the Movement itself. There is even the em-barrassment that
mere beginners try their hand at writing poems, thinking themselves divinely
inspired, just because the language is so easy to manipulate and so
expressive that it quite naturally lends itself for poetry ― good or bad.
Interesting to note, comparative analyses have been made of translations
into several languages, for example of VERLAINE's “Feuilles mortes”. The
Esperanto version, if done by a competent poet, invariably turns out superior
(sic) to other versions in fidelity to the original, in form as well as
expressiveness. Strange and hard to credit about a planned language, but
nevertheless simply true.
4. I have never come across an esperantist before, and yet I travel quite a lot
!
– You may be right at that, but how are you going to distinguish an
esperantist? The Movement admittedly has an emblem ― a fivepointed green
star (symbol of the five continents) on a green background (symbol of the
hope for mutual understanding) ― but if you don't know this, you are not
going to recognise it. Moreover, only inveterate zealots care to advertise
themselves that way. Don't forget that theirs is a diasporic community and
that to see (and hear) them in action, you will have to attend the local club
or go to an occasional meeting, which are to be found in nearly every great
city, sometimes even diversified as these people tend to group themselves
together according to religious beliefs, hobbies, or political convictions.
5. How can you go on the international tour you claim, if everything is going
on only in local club s?
– That is what esperantists realized themselves from the very beginning. So
they started out worldwide correspondence, a very intense and lively mail
indeed, which is still alive and kicking, today in the form of user groups on
the INTERNET. Then they issued news and information periodicals on the
national and international level, too numerous to list. And last but not least,
they organized and still organize gatherings on the national and
international scale, also too numerous to list, which are announced and
advertised also to the outside world but invariably meet only a deaf ear.
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