The Life of Ludovic Zamenhof creator of Esperanto

Paraphrased from the work of Edmond Privat “The life of Zamenhof.” 1980 Esperanto Press Bailieboro Ontario Canada. Available for $3 from http://esperanto-usa.org/en

He was born in Lithuania Dec 15 1859 the first of five boys and three girls. The family was poor. To understand the man one needs to understand the background. At that time the Russian Zar had conquered Lithuania and ruled with a cruel iron fist. The Russians purposely got the local ethnic groups to mistrust and fight each other. A major problem was that the following ethnic groups did not understand each other's languages. Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Jews, Germans, Slavs. When a child was missing the Russians spread rumors that the Jews drank children's blood in secret rites. They would spread the same rumor to other groups but just change the group so that groups would hate each other. Jews, slavs, Russians and Germans were not native to the area but were forced in or came in under other circumstances. They all had their separate living areas and spoke their native languages in their own area. Most did not know enough of each others languages to hold a good conversation. Hate and mistrust ruled which is just what the conquering Russians wanted. The Russians mercilessly put down two uprisings and now set each group against the other . And it worked get them fighting amongst themselves and they are not a threat to you. Divide and conquer.

Ludovic's father was very stern and but a hard worker who worked several jobs to support his family. He was a schoolmaster, teacher, translator and even took on a censor job. Ludovic's mother was kind and sweet and totally devoted to her children.

According to Edmond Privat who knew Zamenhof and who wrote a biography of Zamenhof. He states that Ludovic was respected even as a young person for being thoughtful and studious although reportedly a little obstinate. He was always polite and faithful. He was so talented at composition that even his teachers admired him. According to Edmund Privat's research Ludovic's mother taught him that all men are brothers and equal before God.

Ludovic witnessed the various ethnic groups yelling and fighting with each other. Is someone got into an argument at the open market groups would start yelling at each other and the Russians would comb by and arrest people for no reason. Russian gangs ransacked and pillaged while neighborhoods of peaceful citizens killing and blinding people for no reason other than they did not speak the same language. He could even see them outside his window as he could see the street from there. So he got the idea in his head that if people could just understand each other that that could mitigate a lot of these problems. No longer could the occupying forces spread false rumors and rule because of ignorance because people could talk to each other and understand each other. In his family was spoken two languages and in school he learned several other languages. His father spoke several languages. Ludovic was quick to pick up languages. Ludovic learned Lithuanian, Yiddish, Polish, French and German. Later in school he learned Greek and Latin and later studied English. He saw the differences in language structures and grammars. He was gifted at learning languages.

As a teenager he decided to find which language which would work best as an auxiliary language between languages. He look at Latin and Greek but their difficult and obsolete grammars and difficult vocabulary s eliminated them. No national language would work as people would not want to learn someone else's language and they were all difficult. He tried a two syllable and a singing language but upon trying it discovered impossible to learn. English had too many problems also. One day as he was walking home from school he saw on a sign a word suffix A little later he saw another sign with the same suffix used with a different word. Perhaps it was something like dent-ist then art-ist. Then the idea came to him about using words common to many languages. Then the idea about using different prefixes to change the meaning. He discovered that using root words with prefixes and suffices made it possible to create thousands of meanings from much fewer words. If international words were used the amount of memorization time and work could be cut way down. He tried out his language worked out the bugs even tested it with poems. Then he got together with a group of his friends and they all tested out the language.

He was a very kind doctor. He often treated poor patients and sometimes treated them for low fees.

He kept working on the new language scientifically testing it making it flow better, getting rid of unnecessary prefixes and suffixes. He refined the words dropping some that were hard to say, dropping double lettered words. Each word and ending was tested and refined for clarity, uniqueness and all had to be able to flow. Most languages begin with poems of war his began with poems of peace. He spent the free time of his student years scientifically refining the language

He went off to medical school and came out a Medical Doctor. After a few years he decided to be an oculist. As Ludovic continued to refine his language He struggled to set up a practice. Money was very tight.

Once he treated a rich patient who died. There was nothing he could do as the patient was terminal. The other doctors involved accepted large fees but Ludovic refused his saying how could he accept money when the patient had died.

In the little Lithuanian town of Vejsieje he attended a baby already consumed by fever and the baby died. The baby's mother was almost mad with grief and her tears and groans haunted him for months.

He decided to give up general practice and to specialize as an oculist. He went to Vienna to take a special course in ophthalmology. He came back to his fathers home in Warsaw in the autumn of 1886 and began to practice as an oculist. Klara Sibernik daughter of a business man in Kovno met him at her brother-in -laws. She was intelligent, lively, energetic and kind-hearted and she had closely observed the young doctor. They fell in love and she loved his language. She encouraged him to publish it but they searched and no one dared to take the risk of publishing it. When Clara's father found out about the language and liked it so much he offered to help publish it as a wedding present. They were married Aug 9, 1887. The publishing was delayed in the censors office but at last the censor probably thought it was a harmless niavity and it was approved to be published. It was published in Russian, Polish, French German and English all with the same introduction, reading matter, poems, the complete grammar of 16 rules and a vocabulary of 900 roots. Ludovic by declaration gave up his rights because “an international language, like a national one, is common property.” The work was signed with with a pseudonym “Doktoro Esperanto.” Esperanto means “one who hopes.”

There was a long time of doubt whether or not it would find acceptance. It also had to compete with Volapuk another planned language. However Volapuk was much more difficult and was not as good as Esperanto. Eventually Esperanto won out as the best and most used international auxzillary language in over 100 countries.

Dr Zamenhof was a very modest person and gave the language to the world. He set a committee to accept or reject changes and removed himself from the picture. He stated that the language should develop on its own and that the words and forms should be tried and accepted by usage of the users.

There were several efforts to drastically change the language but he wrote a basic foundation book with the best basic uses and words and the basic 16 rules of grammar to protect the most important parts of the language.

Dr Zamenhof most often treated poor working class patients for a low fee. Sometimes when they did not have money he did not charge them. He published a book expressing his ideas and “signed it Homo Sum and chose the title Hillelism from the name Hillel.” [Edmond Privat The Life of Zamenhof] Hillel was a famous scholar of ancient Palestine who lived in Jerusalem in the years immediately before Christ. With authoritative knowledge of the Law he always expounded it according to the spirit. “He was Gentle and humble in character, and the old thinker preached love, peace, and study. “Do not do to others what is disagreeable to yourself.” Thus he summed up his whole teaching. According to Hillel, a man ought not to separate himself from others by his outward behavior. Each should consider himself merely a part of the whole.” [Edmond Privat 53]

He felt that peaceful men must unite irrespective of ethnic differences. He liked the motto”What we can do, we will do.” [EP 54]

At the first world Esperanto Congress in Boulogne sur-Mer in France the exceedingly humble modest Dr Ludovic Zamenhof was welcomed and greeted as a hero by almost everyone. He was very embarrassed as not used to going out in public or in making speeches. At the convention he spoke about how people are put down by being forced to speak another's language. But now for the first time we come together as equals, no one is privileged or unprivileged, no one is humiliated or embarrassed, we all stand upon a neutral basis, we all have equal rights, we all feel ourselves as members of one nation, as members of one family. For the first time we stand to each other not as foreigners, or competitors but as brothers who who without forcing on one another their own languages, understand each other but showing love each other and clasp each other's hands not hypocritically as foreigner to foreigner, but sincerely as men to man....Now at Boulogne there is in fact beginning in greater measure the mutual understanding and brotherhood of the diverse-members of the human race. He spoke lovingly and of fairness and modesty .and the hope of mankind, of our sacred duty, of the future with its brotherhood. He finished with a prayer to “turn myself to a Supreme Power in an appeal for help and blessing. But Just at this moment I am not a member of any nation, but simply a man. And he asked God to bring peace to the world, to reunite mankind, help us win against violence,break down the barriers between human understanding, and create love and truth thru the world.

The First Esperanto Congress was a great success.

But in contrast the following winter the Zars forces slaughtered innocent people. Later the Russians secret police set gangs of men in various towns to slaughter peaceful civilians including women and children. Hearing of this needless slaughter of neighbors to neighbors Dr Zamenhof wrote and published a pamphlet printed in 1906 entitled Homaranismo.

“ Homaranismo is a teaching which without tearing a man away from his natural fatherland, language or religion, will enable him to avoid falsehood and contradiction in his national and religious principles, and put him into communication with men of any language or religion upon a neutral basis, on principles of mutual brotherhood, equality, and justice.” [EP 65]

In Eastern Europe at that time (1906) there were two chief grounds of ethnic differences and hatred language and religion. [EP66) Dr Zamenhof states “Let everyone in his home-life speak his mother-tongue as much as he likes, but let him not force it upon” those of other countries, lest he embarrass or offend them. When meeting with them he should speak a neutral language such as Esperanto. Amongst his fellow-believers let him observe his religious customs as he may wish, but with men of other creeds let him act only upon the principle, “Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you.”Let it be recognized that the true religious commandments are found in every man's heart in the form of conscience, and that the chief of these is mutual esteem and helpfulness.

The homarano (member of the human race) must accustom himself to sincerity. Zamenhof made 12 points. 1 Treat mankind as one family. 2 Let this ideal rule your actions. 3 Do not judge a man by his race, but by his deeds. 4 A country belongs not to one race, but to all its inhabitants. 5 Do not impose your racial language or creed upon other men. 6 Put the name “man” above nationality. 7 Let patriotism be simply service to a regional community of human brothers, never hatred towards other men. 8 Let language be a means, not an end. 9 Use a neutral language with men of different nationalities. 10 Let your religion be not an hereditary matter, but really your own. 11 Let your relations with men of different creeds be governed by principles of common humanity and helpfulness. 12 Cultivate with all mankind sentiments which will unite and not separate.

He suggested that in every town a place should be made where members of the community could meet as brothers of homaranoj of other religions, devise along with them neutral customs and festivals and so help in common the gradual elaboration of a general religion for mankind, philosophically pure, but at the same time beautiful, poetic, genial. There would be heard ethno-philosophical discussions, uplifting and ennobling hymns. The young should be brought up as soldiers of truth, goodness, justice and world-wide brotherhood, and produce in them a love of honest labor providing spiritual rest for the aged, consolation for the sufferer, opportunity to unburden the conscience and so on. Later Zamenhof only retained the proposal to establish a community for free-thinking people who had nod spiritual satisfaction in the existing churches. To this dream he gave up the whole of his life.

Esperanto has an”inner idea” which has several aspects. “We wish to create a neutral basis upon all mankind can intercommunicate in peace and fraternity, without obtruding upon each other their national peculiarities. Esperantoland will became a school for training of mankind reconciled in brotherhood. Even Zamenhof's verses expressed a feeling of united humanity waking into consciousness. Esperanto provides neutral ground for relations between all nations. From this mutual help will spring greater friendliness and esteem between national groups, and the barriers which prevent their peaceful intercommunication will disappear. [EP 99] Zamenhof felt that a neutral moral basis had to be established as well as a linguistic one. The banner of the homarano must be raised the higher against the flood of chauvinism.

In 1913 a new edition of the pamphlet on Homaranismo had appeared. In a preface Dr Zamenhof distinguished three things very clearly: Esperanto is an international language. The “inner idea of Esperantism” is an undefined feeling and hope for brotherhood between men, on the basis of a neutral language. Homaranismo is a special and quite definite politico-religious program “which represents my purely private faith.” He felt that people should use Esperanto for communication between speakers of different languages and should live in accordance with neutral ethics, observances and arrangements of life when working with people of other nationalities and religions. In other words No one has the right to humiliate people of other nationalities by forcing them to speak his language or force on them the national culture. People need to practice sincerity, toleration for different faiths, and fulfillment of the morality of brotherhood. He said “to fortify their religious neutrality and to save their posterity from falling back interacial-religious chauvinism.”Believed in separation of church and state. He stated a freethinker is not an atheist rather a man who believes in none of the existing religions. His community should establish neutral festivals, observances, calendar, etc. He felt that there were thousands of folks who did not believe their own religion only making use of its outer framework. Being baptized, married and buried according to its rites. By acting thus they are promoting disunion between men. This is bad for children who soon notice that their parents actions and words do not match. People are drawn together more when they both accept the same religious principals. Whereas those who have simply forsaken different religions remain strangers to each other. A negative atheism cannon fill the human heart. Dr Zamenhof stated “Leaving to all men complete liberty to hold such inner beliefs as seem best to them, we propose merely to create a neutral exterior framework, which in ethics and observances could unite within it all men who think for themselves, independently of what their philosophical and theological beliefs or hypotheses may be. We propose to establish A neutral system of ethics which would make men men and would abolish the abominable national chauvinism and the hate and injustice existing between nations and races.

To a congress of young Christians he replied: “I am only a freethinking Jewish homarano; but ...what could be more beautiful in the world than complete observance of the teachings of Jesus?” [EP122]

He had grown weaker with old age and had difficulty breathing. On 14 Apil, 1917 at age 80 he died at home probably of congestive heart failure as he could not sleep laying down but had to be in a sitting position nearly all of the time.

But he saw the material side of the barriers very clearly. Accordingly , he had proposed practical measures for making love possible. “He gave men his unifying language, that wonderful fruit of harmonizing genius. He set upon thousands of lips an instrument of fraternization. On thousands of lives he has conferred joy, meaning, and usefulness. He did not want to preach, but to help.” [EP 122]

“An interesting example of his desire to help mankind is his invention of a fully elaborated typewriter in 1891-92.” [EP 122] “In this he showed himself a man of his time: a great healer of mankind. He lovingly bent over the sick and poisoned body. He understood the causes, and responded to the needs. Not only words, but deeds; not only advice, but medicine.” ”His mind was wise and calm. This calmness of his personality was noticeable in every way. Simple, thoughtful, true.” They who spoke with him loved and respected him. Today his study has been preserved.”Yes the man was great. Great in public and great in private life. What are we with out petty affairs, our groveling disputes, our criminal timidity?” “He loved us all. He left us a duty: to make known all that he offered mankind.” [EP 123] Our world needs to have the terrible language barriers broken down. Esperanto is the most time and cost efficient answer. Thousands have died needlessly, unnecessarily. It was wrong. We have the opportunity to save lives, to stop much misery due to language non understanding. Ant it takes just a few minutes a day. Let us tell others about this man and his language and the Inner Idea of Peace, Brotherhood, Ample for all, Liberty and Justice for all. The opportunity is there to help make this happen. Does one choose to the most good that one can do that gives greater satisfaction and happiness or choose the selfish route which gives just fleeting happiness.