Poem - The Gypsy & the Judge...

Subject: Poem Add: THE GYPSY AND THE JUDGE
From: InOBU
Date: 02 Sep 02 - 08:48 PM

And so a Gypsy stands before the court and says,
"Lady, look at me. I am a Gypsy.
My child is not your child,
She is my child. A Gypsy child."
And so the judge says,
"You were born here,
Your child was born here,
You are an American."

And so the Gypsy says,
"I was born here,
Because there was no place else to be born,
Your people chose to be born here,
My people chose only to be born.
If there was a place to be born,
a place for our people, for our laws
for our traditions, for our slava, for
our kumpania, our familia, our vitseh
our natsi, THERE, we would be born,
born far away from your distain of our ways,
far away from your Gypsy Squads, far away
from your skinheads, far away from your
drug addictions, street gangs, prostitutes,
far away from your wars with bullets that
bite like mad dogs, bombs that make
trash out of Roma, far far far away
from social workers who try to pull
us away from the purity of our homes,
into the garbage of your slums.

I don't vote, like an American,
I don't pay taxes like an American,
I don't sit on juries like and American,
I don't fight in wars, like an American,
AND when I do… THEN, then, THEN!
take my child away, and give her to a Gypsy."
Larry

Subject: RE: Poem - The Gypsy & the Judge...
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 07:53 PM

After I read this I picked up a book on my shelf called "The Destiny of europe's Gypsies" by Donald Penrick and Grattan Puxon, which, like so many good books is out if print now. It's largely about the Roma Holocaust, which is so often marginalised and forgotten, maybe because in a sense it never stopped.

But at the end the book gets into the matter of aspirations for a homeland, a Romanestan. And there's a quote from activist Ronald Lee which I like:

"What is Romanestan? I will tell you brothers. Romanestan is our freedom, freedom to lve as Gypsies under our laws and our way of life."

I was glad to see you use the term Gypsy in the poem Larry. I think it deserves to be reclaimed for the Roma ppeople, not just thrown away.

Subject: RE: Poem - The Gypsy & the Judge...
From: InOBU
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 09:35 PM

Thanks McGrath
I did, because US Roma, use it without a sence of it being a derogitory term. I have recently heard a rather rarely proud young man tell an American judge that he was a Gypsy and that it was a good thing to be a Gypsy.
Cheers Larry

Subject: RE: Poem - The Gypsy & the Judge...
From: Gypsy
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 11:25 PM

Way to go, Larry

Subject: RE: Poem - The Gypsy & the Judge...
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Sep 02 - 12:55 PM

Reads more easily now the line spacing has been adjusted.

Is there a specific story behind this, Larry? For example, that of the young man you mention?

It occurred to me whether the word Roma might have anything to do with the English word "to roam"", meaning to travel. My dictionary gave it as of unbknown origin, but Middle English, which would probably make it a bit too early, since the Romany peole wouldn't have reached England at thta time.

But it seems a strange thing that if you write Roma as "roamer", it means precisely the same as "traveller".

Subject: RE: Poem - The Gypsy & the Judge...
From: InOBU
Date: 06 Sep 02 - 08:10 AM

Hi McGrath: Rom pronounced grgrom (r in the back of the throat like gargling...) means man in Romaness. Most of the language, over 70%, is Hindi. Pl. Roma, fem. Romni, of roma, romani. It is like many Indian tribes who self refer as "the people". They refer to the rest of the world as Gyzen, gayzo or gadjzo, being the masculine singluar, which in Hindi means civilian, as the Roma where once Rajaput warriors. In one of the great irony's of history, they were once the second highest cast in India...
So you that have wealth,
beware of ambition
for some twist of fate,
may change your condition!
Is this based on a true story.... well...
yes and no...
as always I am working on this and that, and one day will tell you all part of the story.
Cheers, Larry

Subject: RE: Poem - The Gypsy & the Judge...
From: InOBU
Date: 06 Sep 02 - 08:12 AM

PS thanks for the line breaks! Just right! Cheers Larry