Finnegans Wake

by James Joyce

riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

On the surface this is the River Liffey, flowing past the Church of Adam and Eve in Dublin into the bay near Howeth Castle. It is also the second half of the last sentence of the book. Here Joyce metaphorically connects Dublin with Eden and introduces the leading two characters Anna Livia Plurabelle (or ALP or the embodiment of womanhood - "all ladies present" - and as we later find, an embodiment of the River Laffey. She passes character two - Howeth Castle and Environs (HCE, or Anna's husband, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, the embodiment of man, "Here comes everybody") Man and woman have met in Eden and in Joyce's circular Vicoesque world; the new cycle has begun. That is the first graph.

Achdung! Pozor! Attenshune! Vikeroy Besights Smucky Yung Pigeschoolies. Tri Paisdinernes Eventyr Med Lochlanner Fathach I Fiounnisgehaven. Bannalanna Bangs Ballyhooly Out Of Her Buddaree Of A Bullavogue.

what the hell. This is one out of thousands of these in this book. Start with "attention" in German (achdung with a little pun hidden inside), Russian (Pozor)and garbled French. Viceroy sees three young (jung reference to Carl) schoolgirls (pige is girl in danish). Three litl Irish children (Tri Paistini Eireannaigh in old Gaelic) adventure with (eventyr med in Danish) a Giant in Clear Water (F.I.f.i in gaelic). Ale Woman (beanna leanna in Gaelic). buddaree is aelic for a rich irish farmer. Ballyhooly is a town and drinking song Ballyhooly Blue Ribbon Amy wo is likely the ale woman. Bullavogue is the town Boleyvogue in Wexford.

Three quarks for Muster Mark! Sure he hasn’t got much of a bark And sure any he has it’s all beside the mark.

The word quark comes out because the speakers are seagulls who happened to be mocking the corpse of ancient Irish King Mark floating to its home. The taunt is in response to what his Queen Iseault is doing at the moment with the King's friend Tristam.

Hastan the vista! Or in alleman: Suck at! — Suck it yourself, sugarstick!

"Or in alleman" means "Or in German" with the French word for Germany bring "allemagne." And with that intro it makes perfect sense that the referenced German word is actually ancient Hebrew. Suck at is Sukkoth which is the Feast of the Tabernacles.

Yet this war has meed peace? In voina viritas. Ab chaos lex, neat wehr? — O bella! O pia! O pura! Amem. Handwalled amokst us. Thanksbeer to Balbus!

meed is an old word for merit. In Vino Veritas - In wine truth, is changed to this. Voina is Russian for war. ex. Voina i Mir by Tolstoy. Veritas becomes Viritas or separately. Ab chaos lex - Out of chaos law neat wehr is a combo of dutch niet waar and german - nicht wehr meaning isnt that true. So it means "yet this war merits peace. In war separately, out of chaos, law isnt that right. Oh bella... (From Vico - pious and pure wars), Handwalled (chosen) among us thanks be(er, HCE is a barkeep) to Balbus (latin for stammer like HCE) 2 lines, six languages.