Yours truly,
Hashimura Togo.
XVIII
Grand Opera in English
To Editor N. Y. Newsprint who can be considerable comical without music,
Dearest Sir:—Cousin Nogi report to me recently with Oscar Hammerstein eyebrows.
“Togo,” he say so, “cannot grand opera be equally grand when pronounced in English?”
“Frequent theaters is now doing so with help of talented soprano,” I say it.
“So glad to hear!” contuse my cousin. “Nextly they will be singing Salome in Japanese, which will be nice education for Japan who wish to be educated so quickly possible, yet like to know what they are talking about while doing so. Now they can’t do, thank you. Of recently famous sing-song play ‘Carmen’ were introduced in Yeddo. Considerable confusion enjoyed. When Hon. Bullfighter emerge forth from slaughterhouse yalling ‘Tor-ee-a-do-da!’ in elevator voice, all Japanese thinkers present imagine it was New York scenery describing Tammany Hall after election while Hon. Jno. P. Mitchel were congratulating himself on cruelty to tigers.”
“While grand opera is in English all persons can understand merely by ear,” I nudge gladly.
“Will not German language lose its health if translated?” require Cousin Nogi.
“Perhapsly,” I collapse. “American language have no beautiful words like ‘lustspiel’ and ‘Sauerbraten.’ Yet maybe they could use some baseball language so all could seem natural.”