Who knows?

Who knows?

CF, a reader in South Australia wrote with a suggestion and a question. The suggestion was that Green Left should include a regular column devoted to answering questions. So here it is. If you have a question — preferably factual — whose answer you can't find, send it in. If we don't know the answer, we'll print the question and hope that some other reader can provide the information.

CF's question concerns the origins of the terms "left" and "right" in politics, which she was asked by a new reader. Not being sure, she "asked around. Most people were a bit vague. Was it after the French Revolution (seating arrangements in the Assembly) or does it go further back?

According to the Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, "left" and "right" as political descriptions derive from the French Estates General of 1789, in which the nobility sat on the king's right and the Third Estate on his left.

AB in Switzerland (GL gets around!) posed a challenge we hope another reader can meet. He is interested in English translations of the work of Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, "who spent a good part of his life in jail and in exile. I think he died in the mid-'60s. His works are still banned in his home country, I've heard."

AB is the proud owner of a first edition, which was tracked down for him by Bookfinders in Sussex, UK. He'd like to know of other bookshops that might try further searches — or one that already has other English translations of the poet. Can anyone help? n

From GLW issue 5