CDLIV

Introduction
The First One | The Previous One | The Next One |  | The Last One

A picture of a seated person, sad.

Res yuli ur, is kwori.

Res yuli ur, is kwori.

"If one is not happy, one is sad."

This phrase ended a long-standing debate between those that contended there was a difference between "not happy" and "sad", and those that contended there was no difference. Rage Nasko effectively ended the debate by proclaiming the above in his annual Tweya Rizo Azan address, held the day after the first full moon of the new year. As a result, those that contended that to not be happy was in certain fundamental ways different from being sad were forced to admit (publicly) that there was, indeed, no difference between the two concepts, and the two states of being. Those that refused to do so were imprisoned for the remainder of their natural lives (among them, Anenthal Lapažel, who would later be freed after the death of Rage Nasko).

In the public sector, of course, the debate raged on. After all, if one is not happy, mayn't one simply be content, or blasé, rather than actually sad? In fact, as proponents of this point of view routinely pointed out, there is a word in Sathir, šolu, which means "neither happy nor sad". To this, opponents would reply that a lone exception isn't enough to disprove a proven fact. Further, they suggest that in reality, the word meant "sad", and that because another word existed which meant "sad" already (that word being kwori), speakers erroneously associated the word šolu with a different meaning in order to distinguish between the two. Thus, what would appear to be a counterargument on the surface, was actually evidence in favor of the view that there was no difference between "not happy" and "sad". Such underhanded reasoning so infuriated those who contended the concepts were different that they formed their own society, known as the Tamphas Turyuli, or "The Unhappy Party" (or, as their opponents dubbed them, "The Sad Party").

It wasn't long before news of Tamphas Turyuli reached Rage Nasko. He responded by sending his agents out into the city in disguise, that they might infiltrate and put down these groups of divergent thinkers. One night, a house where a meeting of Tamphas Turyuli was known to be taking place suddenly erupted in flames. Everyone inside the house (servants, included) perished in the conflagration, except for one member that escaped—a new member that had been introduced that very day. From then on, if members ever attended a function and saw a face they didn't know or didn't trust, they'd hold up their hand and say, Res yuli ur, is kwori. The meeting would immediately dissolve, and the members would scatter.

Nowadays, this izanyoža is used whenever one is discussing information which one doesn't want to be heard by outsiders. For example, if parents are discussing a possible separation and their child enters the room, the first one to notice will repeat this izanyoža, and the discussion will end, to be taken up again behind closed doors (or, in this particular case, perhaps on either side of a closed door).


Vocabulary List

  • res (conj.) if
  • yuli (v.) to be happy; (adj.) happy
  • is (conj.) consequently
  • kwori (v.) to be sad; (adj.) sad
  • tweya (n.) moon
  • rizo (adj.) large
  • tweya rizo (n.) full moon
  • azan (adj.) first
  • šolu (v.) to be neither happy nor sad; (adj.) neither happy nor sad
  • amphas (n.) group, society, party (as in "political party") (note: definite form = tamphas)
  • uryuli (v.) to be unhappy; (adj.) unhappy (note: definite form = turyuli)

The First One | The Previous One | The Next One |  | The Last One
Introduction
Back to Sathir Main

This page was last modified on Friday, August 3, 2018.
This website was last modified on .
This page can be viewed normally, as a milk or dark chocolate bar, in sleek black and white, or in many other ways!
All languages, fonts, pictures, and other materials copyright © 2003- David J. Peterson.

free counters