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Uncle Garabed’s Notebook (May 7, 2011)

Armenian Proverb

Not everything round is an apple.

 

Did Moses Have Horns?

When Michelangelo sculpted the likeness of Moses, he included strange protrusions jutting out from the forehead of the sculpture. It is probable that Michelangelo was guided by the mistranslation of the Biblical verse, Exodus 34:29, as “Moses had horns” instead of “Moses’ face shone.” When St. Jerome’s Vulgate, the Catholic Church’s Latin translation intended to be the definitive interpretation of the Bible, was composed in the 5th century, Jerome took the verb “karan,” a Hebrew word meaning to be radiant or cast a glow, to be a literal form of the noun “keren,” which means a horn. The popular perception that, to most people, these odd bumps looked like they were meant to be horns became widely accepted and was copied by other artists, thus spreading the misunderstanding.

 

More Truth than Poetry

The illusion that exalts us is dearer to us than 10,000 truths.
…Alexander Pushkin

 

News from the Crane

There is a rumor going about that the Turks are going to rename the city of Diyarbekir as Dikranagerd with the added suffix “an” to make it Dikranagerdan. They will then claim that the name Dikranagerd used by the Armenians was appropriated from Turkish origins. Because, you see, if you break down Dikranagerdan into three parts, dik, rana, gerdan, it would translate into straight, pretty, neck.

 

A Slight Misapprehension

Edo: Did I understand you to say that you’re married 25 years and your wife still looks like a newlywed?

Bedo: No, I said I’m married 25 years and my wife still cooks like a newlywed.

 

What’s in a Name?

Shahbazian: Persian in derivation, identified as a descriptive term, shahbaz is defined as royal falcon.

CK Garabed

CK Garabed

Weekly Columnist
C.K. Garabed (a.k.a. Charles Kasbarian) has been active in the Armenian Church and Armenian community organizations all his life. As a writer and editor, he has been a keen observer of, and outspoken commentator on, political and social matters affecting Armenian Americans. He has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Reporter and the AGBU Literary Quarterly, “ARARAT.” For the last 30 years, Garabed has been a regular contributor to the Armenian Weekly. He produces a weekly column called “Uncle Garabed's Notebook,” in which he presents an assortment of tales, anecdotes, poems, riddles, and trivia; for the past 10 years, each column has contained a deconstruction of an Armenian surname. He believes his greatest accomplishment in life, and his contribution to the Armenian nation, has been the espousing of Aghavni, and the begetting of Antranig and Lucine.
CK Garabed

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