A. Z. Foreman: Serious Philology, Silly Behavior
@azforeman.bsky.social
Russian-American linguist, 1st amendment nerd, translator. Posts re: medieval literature, free speech, translation, poetry, & linguistic history of Arabic, English and other languages.
Reposted by A. Z. Foreman: Serious Philology, Silly Behavior
ICYMI: Part One of my thoughts on how the “free speech culture” movement contributed to the moment of historical censorship www.popehat.com/p/how-free-s...
How "Free Speech Culture" Is Killing Free Speech: Part One
Blurring The Lines Between Official Censorship And Individual Criticism Built The Intellectual Foundation For Trump's Assault On Free Expression
www.popehat.com
September 22, 2025 at 1:31 PM
ICYMI: Part One of my thoughts on how the “free speech culture” movement contributed to the moment of historical censorship www.popehat.com/p/how-free-s...
I finally surrendered to the Ghost of Things Contemporary and published a poem about a current event
A.Z. Foreman brings us a sonnet cut short, for our time. This poem brings it all home.
www.muleskinnerjournal.com/omar-in-gaza...
#writingcommunity #litmag #flashfiction #literature #writers #fiction #fictionsubmissions #fictionwriter #poets #poetry #poetryjournals
www.muleskinnerjournal.com/omar-in-gaza...
#writingcommunity #litmag #flashfiction #literature #writers #fiction #fictionsubmissions #fictionwriter #poets #poetry #poetryjournals
September 11, 2025 at 4:30 AM
I finally surrendered to the Ghost of Things Contemporary and published a poem about a current event
A poem of mine about Nabokov has been published in the Threepenny review
Nabokov – The Threepenny Review
www.threepennyreview.com
August 30, 2025 at 2:53 PM
A poem of mine about Nabokov has been published in the Threepenny review
C’est de loin la meilleure traduction française de Dante que j'ai jamais lue. Elle saisit quelque chose de lui qu'aucune autre version française n'arrive à rendre.
Fortement recommandée.
Fortement recommandée.
July 27, 2025 at 6:16 PM
C’est de loin la meilleure traduction française de Dante que j'ai jamais lue. Elle saisit quelque chose de lui qu'aucune autre version française n'arrive à rendre.
Fortement recommandée.
Fortement recommandée.
A poem I wrote about vanquished soldiers through history is now published in the New Verse Review
Poem by A.Z. Foreman
A.Z. Foreman, "Arma Virumque"
www.newversereview.com
July 24, 2025 at 7:32 PM
A poem I wrote about vanquished soldiers through history is now published in the New Verse Review
Where would I go to understand the versification principles of rap music? I know traditional English literary versification but the system rappers use is hard to figure out beyond "there's a basic four-beat thing going on".
Weirdly this will be relevant to my dissertation about pre-Islamic poetry
Weirdly this will be relevant to my dissertation about pre-Islamic poetry
June 27, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Where would I go to understand the versification principles of rap music? I know traditional English literary versification but the system rappers use is hard to figure out beyond "there's a basic four-beat thing going on".
Weirdly this will be relevant to my dissertation about pre-Islamic poetry
Weirdly this will be relevant to my dissertation about pre-Islamic poetry
Two poems by Saadi translated by yours truly in the Los Angeles Review
Two Poems by Mushrifuddin Sa'dī Translated by A. Z. Foreman - The Los Angeles Review
Ghazal to the Camel DriverOh camel-driver, slow your pace. That's my soul's peace that goes away.The heart I had now leaves with her, a piece of me she stole away.Parted against my will from her, help...
losangelesreview.org
May 17, 2025 at 4:43 AM
Two poems by Saadi translated by yours truly in the Los Angeles Review
I have seen takes you people wouldn't believe.
Bill Kristol on fire with AOC's talking point.
I watched David Brooks' eye glitter remembering Bloody Sunday.
All those moments will be lost in time, like Hannania's Mea Culpa.
Time to cry.
Bill Kristol on fire with AOC's talking point.
I watched David Brooks' eye glitter remembering Bloody Sunday.
All those moments will be lost in time, like Hannania's Mea Culpa.
Time to cry.
April 19, 2025 at 10:16 AM
I have seen takes you people wouldn't believe.
Bill Kristol on fire with AOC's talking point.
I watched David Brooks' eye glitter remembering Bloody Sunday.
All those moments will be lost in time, like Hannania's Mea Culpa.
Time to cry.
Bill Kristol on fire with AOC's talking point.
I watched David Brooks' eye glitter remembering Bloody Sunday.
All those moments will be lost in time, like Hannania's Mea Culpa.
Time to cry.
Toxic nazgulinity
April 18, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Toxic nazgulinity
Reposted by A. Z. Foreman: Serious Philology, Silly Behavior
For another specimen of reconstructed Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation, here's me reading psalm 120 from the Aleppo Codex.
April 3, 2025 at 5:26 AM
For another specimen of reconstructed Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation, here's me reading psalm 120 from the Aleppo Codex.
Not only did I decide that Jabberwocky needs to exist in Middle English, but I also decided that it needed to be recorded.
Lots of Old English words, particularly poetic ones, don't have reflexes that survive into Middle English. This was one very weird way to fix some instances of that.
Lots of Old English words, particularly poetic ones, don't have reflexes that survive into Middle English. This was one very weird way to fix some instances of that.
March 29, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Not only did I decide that Jabberwocky needs to exist in Middle English, but I also decided that it needed to be recorded.
Lots of Old English words, particularly poetic ones, don't have reflexes that survive into Middle English. This was one very weird way to fix some instances of that.
Lots of Old English words, particularly poetic ones, don't have reflexes that survive into Middle English. This was one very weird way to fix some instances of that.
A reading of the famous "Once More Unto The Breach" speech from Shakespeare's Henry V in a reconstruction of very early 17th century pronunciation. The king gets surprised mid-speech.
(This is a relatively conservative accent for the period, w/ even the long mid-vowels still relatively low.)
(This is a relatively conservative accent for the period, w/ even the long mid-vowels still relatively low.)
March 29, 2025 at 8:25 PM
A reading of the famous "Once More Unto The Breach" speech from Shakespeare's Henry V in a reconstruction of very early 17th century pronunciation. The king gets surprised mid-speech.
(This is a relatively conservative accent for the period, w/ even the long mid-vowels still relatively low.)
(This is a relatively conservative accent for the period, w/ even the long mid-vowels still relatively low.)
The beginning of the Shma read by me in Khan's reconstruction of Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation. This pronunciation is the one the vowel diacritics we now know originally represented. This is the closest I think we can come to an idea of how Hebrew was read in liturgy in 10th century Abbasid Tiberias
March 29, 2025 at 7:19 PM
The beginning of the Shma read by me in Khan's reconstruction of Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation. This pronunciation is the one the vowel diacritics we now know originally represented. This is the closest I think we can come to an idea of how Hebrew was read in liturgy in 10th century Abbasid Tiberias
Modern writers' workshops: "Don't make your villain too over the top or on the nose! People don't do evil for evil's sake"
Shakespeare's plays: "Hi audience! I'm the villain! My favorite pastimes are puns and murder! Evil is so fun. Watch me do some now”
Shakespeare's plays: "Hi audience! I'm the villain! My favorite pastimes are puns and murder! Evil is so fun. Watch me do some now”
March 29, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Modern writers' workshops: "Don't make your villain too over the top or on the nose! People don't do evil for evil's sake"
Shakespeare's plays: "Hi audience! I'm the villain! My favorite pastimes are puns and murder! Evil is so fun. Watch me do some now”
Shakespeare's plays: "Hi audience! I'm the villain! My favorite pastimes are puns and murder! Evil is so fun. Watch me do some now”
My god this man is such a whiny little baby
Musk: I mean, have you Tim Walz, who is a huge jerk, running on stage with the Tesla stock price.. What an evil thing to do. What a creep, what a jerk. Like who derives joy from that?
March 29, 2025 at 3:33 PM
My god this man is such a whiny little baby
Every time I do self-translation it feels almost like performing surgery on myself. No matter how good a surgeon you are, you're doing some pretty janky shit.
March 28, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Every time I do self-translation it feels almost like performing surgery on myself. No matter how good a surgeon you are, you're doing some pretty janky shit.
“The Goths were Arians”
Dude racial terminology like that isn’t cool anymore
“ARIANS! I mean A-R-I-A-N-S”
Jeez stop insisting on it it’s creeping me out.
Dude racial terminology like that isn’t cool anymore
“ARIANS! I mean A-R-I-A-N-S”
Jeez stop insisting on it it’s creeping me out.
March 28, 2025 at 5:56 PM
“The Goths were Arians”
Dude racial terminology like that isn’t cool anymore
“ARIANS! I mean A-R-I-A-N-S”
Jeez stop insisting on it it’s creeping me out.
Dude racial terminology like that isn’t cool anymore
“ARIANS! I mean A-R-I-A-N-S”
Jeez stop insisting on it it’s creeping me out.
This is either delusional or a lie. “Young men don’t have bank accounts” is flat-out not a thing and Mark “Ethereum” Cuban of all people is an unreliable narrator on this point
Young men don't open bank accounts. They are too expensive. They download coin base or Robinhood app and buy crypto. That's their savings
If one party pushes that number higher. They vote for em. Gensler/Biden caused those savings to go down. The demo with the biggest change was young men
If one party pushes that number higher. They vote for em. Gensler/Biden caused those savings to go down. The demo with the biggest change was young men
This is legit the dumbest thing I've ever seen him say
March 25, 2025 at 7:41 PM
This is either delusional or a lie. “Young men don’t have bank accounts” is flat-out not a thing and Mark “Ethereum” Cuban of all people is an unreliable narrator on this point
What do you call it when you get frustrated trying to hypothetically vocalize an Ugaritic text written in consonantal script?
Irritable Vowel Syndrome
Irritable Vowel Syndrome
March 25, 2025 at 6:05 PM
What do you call it when you get frustrated trying to hypothetically vocalize an Ugaritic text written in consonantal script?
Irritable Vowel Syndrome
Irritable Vowel Syndrome
How big does a qamatz have to be before it constitutes a qamatz Gadol? Does it have to be a qamatz descended from Aaron?
March 25, 2025 at 4:06 PM
How big does a qamatz have to be before it constitutes a qamatz Gadol? Does it have to be a qamatz descended from Aaron?
Think that the beginning of Ecclesiastes should be translated “Total bullshit, said Gatherman. Total bullshit. It’s all bullshit”
March 25, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Think that the beginning of Ecclesiastes should be translated “Total bullshit, said Gatherman. Total bullshit. It’s all bullshit”
"She's a tongue that lived two thousand years
And ran a blockade to kiss mine.
They have turned into twins, like lips
On which two hopes combine."
— Salman Masalha on the Hebrew language (tr. Mine)
And ran a blockade to kiss mine.
They have turned into twins, like lips
On which two hopes combine."
— Salman Masalha on the Hebrew language (tr. Mine)
March 23, 2025 at 1:40 PM
"She's a tongue that lived two thousand years
And ran a blockade to kiss mine.
They have turned into twins, like lips
On which two hopes combine."
— Salman Masalha on the Hebrew language (tr. Mine)
And ran a blockade to kiss mine.
They have turned into twins, like lips
On which two hopes combine."
— Salman Masalha on the Hebrew language (tr. Mine)
MAGA people seem capable only ever of acting like they are running a political campaign. Like, all they can do is play to the crowd regardless of how stupid it is from the perspective of actually achieving objectives.
Hegseth using “she/they” as an insult just boosts Judge Reyes’ conclusion that the transgender ban is based on animus, not a genuine concern for military preparedness.
March 23, 2025 at 1:35 AM
MAGA people seem capable only ever of acting like they are running a political campaign. Like, all they can do is play to the crowd regardless of how stupid it is from the perspective of actually achieving objectives.
Two of my translations (a Yiddish poem by Avrom Sutzkever and a French one by Victor Hugo) came out in Lunch Ticket today.
Also yikes I really need to remind myself to give half a damn when I take headshots.
Also yikes I really need to remind myself to give half a damn when I take headshots.
Two Poems translated by A.Z.Foreman - Lunch Ticket
Two poems translated by A. Z. Foreman: The Heart's Voice by Abraham Sutzkever and Night of the Fourth: A Remembrance by Victor Hugo.
lunchticket.org
March 22, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Two of my translations (a Yiddish poem by Avrom Sutzkever and a French one by Victor Hugo) came out in Lunch Ticket today.
Also yikes I really need to remind myself to give half a damn when I take headshots.
Also yikes I really need to remind myself to give half a damn when I take headshots.
If you were born in the 80s, science fiction authors mostly did not actually offer you a future of jetpacks, flying cars and 4-hour work weeks.
They offered you a messed-up cyberpunk dystopia.
Here you go, enjoy
They offered you a messed-up cyberpunk dystopia.
Here you go, enjoy
March 20, 2025 at 9:17 PM
If you were born in the 80s, science fiction authors mostly did not actually offer you a future of jetpacks, flying cars and 4-hour work weeks.
They offered you a messed-up cyberpunk dystopia.
Here you go, enjoy
They offered you a messed-up cyberpunk dystopia.
Here you go, enjoy