#3954: "Se bon ki ra" source revisited : Xavier comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Ednair Xavier <zantray@bellatlantic.net>

Good job, Dannenbaum. Thanks for quoting this source and taking us back
to Edner A. Jeanty and Dr. O. Carl Brown, co-authors of Parol Granmoun,
which was published 24 years ago. Having said that, let us recall that 

1) the very first word of the book's title is "PAROL" instead of
"PAWOL", as would the new orthography require it to be;
2) its Kreyol preface (pp, vi-viii) is titled "PREFACE", like the
English or French "preface" (ix-xii); then, in the first paragraph 
alone, there are seven words that the authors spelled in a manner that
is orthographically questionable, ("minm", "jouinn", "M-toujou", "foua",
"pèmèt", "sa-a", "ouè"). Later, we find "kultu", "Ayisyin", etc.
3) in the English preface, Jeanty wrote what he did after he gathered
the proverbs, etc... "I translated them into English. I gave them the
meaning I think they have. The way I give them is the way I'm used to
using them. If you're used to applying them in another way--if you
please--when you see me, tell me!". (p. xi, par. 2)
4) finally, Jeanty writes, in the English introduction that looks like a
500 page, compact essay on Haiti's resources, family values, language,
Haitian Philosophy and Sociology, "I didn't have to go to the people; I
am the people, because I was born of the people, reared in their midst,
and I'm still keeping in contact with the real people. And I want to do
so until the last minute of my life!  

For what it is worth, I have nothing to add, except that there is no
imminent end to this.