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I have an old carved coconut, with a Spanish phrase carved into it, which I think says:

De un lyr yo soy esclavo desde oy ano d 1778

Or at least, that is my guess at the phrase - you can see what is actually carved in the attached image.

Can anybody confirm what that means? I'm fairly sure of most of it, but I can't work out what the "devnlyr" (not pre-supposing spaces) might mean.

Coconut carved in 1778

fedorqui
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Steve
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    Amazing coconut and amazing inscription. I'll try to search something. My first thought is that it can be "de un lirio soy esclavo", writing the i's as y. "Lirio" is the name of a flower. Maybe a love declaration? – Charlie May 17 '21 at 15:33
  • @Charlie - Ah - that's an interesting thought. Far more poetic! – Steve May 17 '21 at 15:37
  • Actually, now that you mention it, I'm thinking that the imagery carved on the door is lots of lilies (the English translation of "lirio", I believe). I know a lot of similar objects were produced by British and American sailors, to pass the time on patrol off West Africa. Maybe this was a lovesick Spanish sailor, pining for the beautiful lily he left behind? – Steve May 17 '21 at 16:43
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    Indeed, the door seems to have lots of lirios (lilies) carved into it. I'll add my comment as a response. – Charlie May 17 '21 at 16:49

1 Answers1

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Given that the door of the coconut, as you noticed, seems to have flowers (probably lilies) carved into it, I'd suggest the following as the meaning of the inscription:

De un lyryo soy esclavo desde oy. Año de 1778.

Or in modern Spanish:

De un lirio soy esclavo desde hoy. Año de 1778.

The English translation (courtesy of Gustavson) would be:

Of a lily I am the slave as from today. Year 1778.

I haven't found the word lyr or lir in any Spanish dictionary in the last five centuries. Hence I discarded the de un lyr yo soy option. Besides the yo would be redundant, I don't think the author would carve an unnecessary word into the coconut (too much effort wasted).

Charlie
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  • I love it. Yes - I had been hunting around for what "lyr" might be and couldn't find anything. If it was a sailor, I wonder whether his "lirio" was waiting for him when he returned home? – Steve May 17 '21 at 17:07
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    If it was a specific day, I'm imagining it might have been a wedding gift to his bride. Or maybe he carved it to celebrate the birth of his daughter? A declaration of his commitment. – Steve May 17 '21 at 17:22
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    I'd suggest this similar translation where, because of proximity, there is a clearer rhyme between "slave" and "today": Of a lily I am the slave as from today. – Gustavson May 17 '21 at 19:36
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    Could "ano d" be an abbreviation of "anno domini"? – Tanner Swett May 18 '21 at 01:27
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    In my opinion, the D In ANO D is a ligature of D and E. The same goes for the first D in the text. Although this ligature is quite common I couldn't find an UNICODE allocation. – Krauss May 18 '21 at 05:18
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    @TannerSwett precisely that what I was going to say, the D before the year has a dot (which the D's in 'desde' haven't). That's an abbreviation of Spanish de. Also, I think it's año and not ano because the N has a small horizontal stroke at the end (which the N in 'un' hasn't). – Charlie May 18 '21 at 07:21
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    As an interesting coincidence (I think!) on this translation. In the 1950s, my grandmother was a cleaner, and had commented on how much she liked it. That Easter the owner (a librarian) gave it to her as an "Easter egg". My grandmother's name was Lily. She never even realised what language it was written in. I wonder whether it was pure coincidence because she had commented on it, or if it was a secret message from the librarian. – Steve May 18 '21 at 08:54