
As for the other men, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting -- sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out to the world as Durham's Pure Leaf Lard!Although as someone who grew up in one sausage-making town and went to college in another, my own view is more like this passage:
He had dressed hogs himself in the forest of Lithuania; but he had never expected to live to see one hog dressed by several hundred men. It was like a wonderful poem to him.Subacius's book deals with Upton Sinclair's use of the Lithuanian language in The Jungle. Background: a fair number of Lithuanians immigrated to the U.S., to work in the stockyards and mills, and the generations that followed provided the gridiron with some of its greatest names, like Butkus and Unitas. By pure chance, Sinclair happened on a Lithuanian wedding reception near the stockyards in Chicago one afternoon in 1904, and fell in love with the folk there; the first chapter of The Jungle is a fictional recollection of that party. Subacius analyzes it in detail.
Subacius's philological examination of Sinclair's use of Lithuanian compelled me the most: the different dialect variants that Sinclair recorded, the competing orthographies (this is the second book I've read recently that went into detail about Lithuanian orthographic change, believe it or not), and the complicated linguistic history of both Chicago and Lithuania.
It's an oddly melancholy book as well. In effect, Subacius reconstructed a lost era of immigrant history in much the same way a historical linguist will reconstruct a lost tribe, from the few names left behind and the scraps of their speech recorded by outside observers. The pictures Subacius includes of the old Lithuanian Chicago taverns, homes and churches, now burned down or variously demolished -- one church torn down to build a parking lot! -- add to this tone.
On the other hand, like the wedding feast of The Jungle's first chapter, there are fun bits too! For instance, the first two Lithuanian translations of The Jungle were printed in Chicago, in 1908. One was called Raistas, 'The Swamp', and the other was called Pelkes, 'The Bog'. I love that.
Also, tavern owners in that era's Chicago would publish verse in Lithuanian to attract customers. Subacius reprints such an ad (translation by Elizabeth Novickas):
Pas Bierzinski visad szoka Jauni, jaunos, kurie moka. Nes lietuviai ju pazista Jam prielankus, kad iszvysta. At Bierzinskis's they come to dance Boys and girls who love to prance The Lithuanians all know him well, Just to see him they feel swell. Kad Chicagon atkeliausi, Niekur rodos tu negausi, Pas Bierzinski tik ateikie Viska gausi, ka tik reikia. So if to Chicago you have come, No where will you find such wisdom. Come on by Bierzinskis's place All your needs they will embrace.That's wonderful.
No Sinclair here, just a Lithuanian-American anecdote. My paternal grandmother (a full-blooded Lithuanian: born in Philadelphia, of immigrant parents) had the maiden name "Yackus". My father learned years later that there's no letter "y" in Lithuanian-- the name had originally been "Jackus" (pronounced the same), but the parents changed the spelling once the kids started coming home from school with black eyes.
Posted by: Dennis Brennan | April 25, 2006 at 06:51 PM
What was the other book, if you don't mind me asking?
Posted by: King-Walters | April 25, 2006 at 10:06 PM
Snyder's The Reconstruction of Nations : Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999. Recommended, incidentally.
Posted by: Carlos | April 25, 2006 at 10:21 PM
you're flirting with me, aren't you? xox
Posted by: la loca | April 26, 2006 at 10:11 PM
Carlos,
I enjoyed your review about my book on the Lithuanian Jungle. Thanks a lot! It was fun to read it!
Best regards,
Giedrius Subacius
Posted by: Giedrius Subacius | May 17, 2006 at 07:35 PM
Carlos,
I enjoyed your review about my book on The Lithuanian Jungle.
Thanks a lot! It was fun to the review!
Best regards,
Giedrius Subacius
Posted by: Giedrius Subacius | May 17, 2006 at 07:44 PM
I would like to purchase a copy of The Jungle, translated into Lithuanian.
Where can I find it?
Posted by: randall martin | September 29, 2006 at 06:34 AM