Saturday, November 24, 2018

Del'phinia (Khomchik/Ivashchenko?)

It does not happen often that fictional countries make it into songs. Here's one -- about Del'phinia (The Dolphin Land), an idealized land, with its own postal service (a fact that makes it just a little bit more credible):

Набегают волны синие. Зеленые? Нет, синие. Как хамелеонов миллионы, Цвет меняя на ветру. Ласково цветет глициния, Она нежнее инея... А где-то есть земля Дельфиния И город Кенгуру.

https://mychords.net/galina-xomchik/90037-galina-omchik-aleksej-ivashhenko-strana-delfiniya.html

Icarie -- a Mid-19 century French Utopia

Etienne Cabet's Voyage en Icarie might be worth more than a passing comment in this blog; but for now -- just two notes:


  • Just as Kazohinia, Icarie has a very logical language ("parfaitement rationelle") -- that in future might be adopted by all people of the planet;


  • The traveler, before seeing the grammar/dictionary book from Icarie, has never heard of this country: "Mais quel est donc ce pays, l'Icarie? Je n'en ai jamais ouï parler. -- Je le crois bien : c'est un pays inconnu jusqu'a present, et qui vient d'etre decouvert tout recemment; c'est une espece de Nouveau Monde" (compare with the way Shwambrania's obscurity is explained!) 

It is curious that the name of the perfect and successful country should remind one of Icarus, who was not quite successful in his undertakings.

Source https://archive.org/details/voyageenicarie00cabe/page/2