Meadly Poetry -- A Challenge

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(clearing throat) Ahem. This is my version. Not as surreal as I'd like it, but mine own. And by the way, I have nothing but admiration for Joe's recipe, which I have made several times (and have a batch going at the moment). Now Dan, how about you? Bet you can get weirder.

Dybbukwocky


'Twas braggot, and the slimy toes
Of Dybbuk dabbled in the waves
At Meadwench shore. The Meadly groves
Dropped meadly fruit, outraged.

"Beware the Dybbuk, Ancient Joe!
The toxic jug, the mead gone sour!
Your brew frustrations are his toy
To satisfy his lust for power!"

He took hydrometer in hand,
And finely measured his SG;
Away upon the Meadwench sand
Dybbuk sneered and scratched a flea.

And, as in yeasty thought he stood,
the Dybbuk, with his carboy came
which burbled as it jounced along
And nearly burst there into flame.

Harumph! Haroo! our Hero blew
The Mead Alarum Horn!
The Dybbuk's hair stood on his head,
His heart from body torn.

What mighty blast that felled our foe,
So timely and so well!
And from that horn a mead was born:
The Melomel from Hell.

'Twas braggot, but the Ancient Joe
Brews honey, fruit and cloves
He chortles as the bread yeast works
Around him gambol - slithy toves.
 
(taking a bow) Thank you, David and Dan. Or maybe I should blame you, Dan, for perpetrating this foolishness on our unsuspecting bandwidth. :-* Just kidding, you know I hold you in respect only second to Dr. Sigmund. I suspect he could come up with something very strange.

...Dr. Siggy? Are you too busy to cook up your own meadly version of Jabberwocky?

Miriam
 
Yes, here I am Miriam. Here is a little of my own kibitzing, just for you. :-)

yiddish1.gif
 
And something for Oskaar. So many apologies for my bad grammar!


Twas blistavost, i hodati sklizavo toves
Je okretati se i kardanski in wabe;
Svi mimsy preterit od be borogoves,
i tren utvrđen brijeg prebujati.

Paziti Jabberwock, moj sin!
ralje taj gristi, šapa taj uhvatiti!
Paziti Jubjub ptica,
i izbjegavati frumious Bandersnatch!

On je uzeo njegov vorpal mač pod kontrolom :
Čeznuti vrijeme manxome neprijatelj on pret i pp od SEEK --
Na taj način odmor on mimo Tumtum stablo,
I ustao neko vrijeme in misao.

I, kao u uffish misao on ustao,
Jabberwock, sa oči od plamen,
Je došao kolebati se preko tulgey drvo,
I ogrtač od nepromočive tkanine za kišu kao je došao!

Neki dva! Neki dva! I preko i preko
vorpal oštrica je otišao smijuljenje - prigristi!
On slijeva Internet potpun, i sa svoj glava
On je otišao galumphing leđa.

I nagljenje ipak slain Jabberwock?
Oporaviti se moj oružje, moj zraka dječak!
O frabjous dan! Pozvati! Pozvati!
On hihotati se u njegovoj ono što pruža užitak.

Twas blistavost, i hodati sklizavo toves
Je okretati se i kardanski in wabe;
Svi mimsy preterit od be borogoves,
i tren utvrđen brijeg prebujati.
 
Dr. Siggy, I am overcome, speechless, on the floor laughing my fool head off! The Jabberwocky in Yiddish!! You are a genius! I see that Lewis Carrol came across as "Levi Karel" and that the perfidious J. is "der Yammervoch"...delicious. And the tumtum tree was particularly funny because in Hebrew, "tumtum" means a fool, a half-wit. Oy!

Miriam, wondering if it comes across as strange in Croatian as it did in Yiddish
 
My turn . . . . :)



In Boulder did the mazers roam
while bee-nymphs gamboled in the glade
Vickie judged with Valkyrie endurance
because she does not spit.

So are you new to mead dear guest?
The amber hues, the bouquet that lures!
The booths doth beckon but please beware
that insidious GotMead crew!

He took his tasting glass in hand
long time the ambrosia he sipped
Then rested he, on a poolside bench,
And then the session closed.

And as he rose to amble off
Then Oskaar came, with glass aflame!
Come drink with us, the night is yet but young!
Agrin with Smealgol's smile.

His took his glass in hand again,
the night it reeled! The scenery spilled!
The world coalesced, he was at rest
at the roots of the Mead Berry tree.

Try this! Now try this! The voices called
The meads flew by in dizzying array,
Jab and Pewter, Summersols and GentlKnight
They all had some to share.

And hast thou tried the bread yeast?
said the Ancient of Joes
That may be well, your mead is swell
but do not forget the wine.

And as in meadley revels he stood
his head did fog, a poolside splash
the ripples came rippling through the mirth
and returned him from whence he came.

In Boulder did the mazers roam
while bee-nymphs gamboled in the glade
Vickie judged with Valkyrie endurance
because she does not spit.
 
It's clearly impossible to do any better than "'Twas braggot" -- that was brilliant -- but here's my contribution:

Yeasterwocky

'Twas fining and the yeasty lees,
Did bind up well and flocculate,
Just off-dry was the metheglin,
'twas time to add sorbate.

"Beware the K1V, my son!
The killer trait, the high A.T.!
It might get stunned but it's not dead
At minus two or three"

He put the jug into the fridge
Long time a stable mead he sought --
Two days or three should do the trick,
Or that is what he thought.

And, as he bottled it all up,
The yeast continued to ferment.
The sugar turned to ethanol,
And bubbled as it went.

Brix three! Brix two! And through and through
The Saccharomyces had a snack!
The pressure started building up
Behind the mazer's back.

"And hast thou blown the bottles up?
What have you done, my killer strain?
O trajous day! Dismoo! Dismay!"
He grumbled in his pain.

'Twas fining and the yeasty lees,
Did bind up well and flocculate,
Just off-dry was the metheglin,
'twas time to add sorbate.
 
I just turned the computer on... I love this! Dan's version is SO GotMeadly weird, and Verdelho's undying K1V ("Brix Three! Brix Two!") made me laugh till I was weak. The problem is, I'm the only brewer in the house, so I can't explain my explosions of mirth to the family, who stand around me looking puzzled and worried... ;D ;D ;D

Miriam
 
Thanks Miriam, I'm glad you were amused. FWIW, it was your posting of Joe's Ancient Orange recipe on the WinePress forum that brought me to GotMead and got me started making mead.

This has nothing to do with mead (sorry), but if anyone's interested in translations and parodies of Jabberwocky, here is a website with 58 translations in 29 different languages, as well as 23 parodies with varying themes.

It's fascinating to compare the differing translations into a single language. For instance, in German, the first couple lines are rendered completely differently in the three translations:

Es brillig war. Die schlichte Toven[br]Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben;

(from Robert Scott's Der Jammerwoch)
Es sunnte Gold, und Molch und Lurch[br]krawallten 'rum im grünen Kreis,

(from Lieselotte & Martin Remane's Brabbelback)
Verdaustig war's, und glaße Wieben[br]rotterten gorkicht im Gemank
(from Christian Enzensberger's Der Zipferlake)

Getting back to the subject of mead, not that anyone asked :) but Yeasterwocky is loosely based on my attempts at making lostnbronx's Flash Pyment and Joe Mattioli's CW Mead. I've been keeping the bottled pyment in the fridge, and I haven't bottled the CW Mead yet, so I'm hoping to avoid the fate of the poor mazer in Yeasterwocky.

Now that I've gotten around to delurking and registering, maybe I'll post entries (in prose form!) in the brewlog one of these days...
 
verdelho said:
Now that I've gotten around to delurking and registering, maybe I'll post entries (in prose form!) in the brewlog one of these days...

Welcome, Verdelho, and yes, please do post.

Fala portugues?

Miriam
 
Fala portugues?

Lo, Ani lo m'daber portugesh. (Hmm, it's hard to know how to transliterate the words that don't appear in familiar prayers...) As an American, I'm not supposed to be able to speak any foreign languages. :)

I speak menu Portuguese, that's all: "Dois cafes por favor."
"Quero espada com banana por favor." "Lulas grelhadas por favor."

I chose the screen name verdelho because the most amazing wine I ever had was an 1850 Verdelho. It was the first vintage Madeira I tried, and it's still the oldest, and the best, although I've had a number of other vintage Madeiras since.

When my wife and I saw the bottle in a store, we didn't know anything about Madeira, and were amazed to discover that you could buy 150 year old wine. We decide to splurge and try it, and it was incredible, with tastes of chocolate, citrus, and caramel, and a finish that lasted for minutes. I later learned it was aged in wood for 131 years, and bottled in 1981. And they say mead needs to age a long time! (There, I managed to work a reference to mead into my posting.)

That bottle got us fascinated with Madeira to the point that we actually went to Madeira on vacation, where we saw the same bottle we had paid $150 for (a bargain -- only a dollar per year!) on sale for 500 Euros! While I was there, I learned enough Portuguese to read the menu, so I know the words for mussels, limpets, squid, and snails, but not enough to have a conversation.
 
I drink only kosher wine, but the mere idea of drinking a wine that old makes me feel like a tornado picked me up and deposited me in a time warp. ;D

Miriam
 
Miriam said:
I drink only kosher wine, but the mere idea of drinking a wine that old makes me feel like a tornado picked me up and deposited me in a time warp. ;D

Now, if someone had a mead that old, better be careful! The tornado might pick you up and deposit you at the roots of the Meadberry tree.! ;D ;D ;D

Anyone else want to give this a try?