In Competition No. 2714 you were invited to supply a poem that begins ‘’Twas brillig…’ and continue, in the spirit of Lewis Carroll, using your own neologisms.
‘Jabberwocky’ has, of course, spawned countless parodies and been translated into many tongues. Frank L. Warrin’s frabjous French version, ‘Le Jaseroque’, appeared in the New Yorker in 1931. Here are the first couple of stanzas:
Il brilgue: les tôves lubricilleux
Se gyrent en vrillant dans le guave.
Enmîmés sont les gougebosqueux
Et le mômerade horsgrave.
Garde-toi du Jaseroque, mon fils!
La gueule qui mord; la griffe qui prend!
Garde-toi de l’oiseau Jube, évite
Le frumieux Band-à-prend!
The germ there of a future assignment, perhaps, but back to the comp du jour where the challenge was to maintain some level of comprehensibility amid the whimsy and verbal pyrotechnics. It was an impressive entry, by and large. Honourable mentions go to Walter Ancarrow, Jonathan Taylor and Stephen Wrigley. The winners, printed below, get £30 each.
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