escaecer – forget – olvidar

[Is]

escaecer: pronounced Es-kay-THAYR. In West Asturias, where it is used more widely than in Central Asturias, esqueicer is pronounced similarly. To forget; to cease or fail to remember, to be unable to recall. To leave behind unintentionally, or neglect to take along. To omit mentioning, leave unnoticed. To fail to think of or take note of something. Etymologically the Indo-European root of ‘forget’ means to lose one’s grip of something.

Portuguese: esquecer, German: vergessen, Russian: zabivat/zabit, Irish: dearmad, French: oublier, Persian: faramush kardan.

Usage examples:

“Esqueicéume lu que t’iba cuntar.” [I forgot what I was going to tell you.]
“Escaecilu ya nun dixera nada a Nolo.” [I forgot and I didn’t tell Nolo anything]
“Nun esqueizas el movil si baxas pa Navelgas.” [Don’t forget your cell phone if you go down to Navelgas]
“A guelina se-y escaecio la pildora pal riegu.” [Grandma left behind her pill for brain vascularization]
“Espero que lu esqueiciera.” [I hope that he/she has forgotten]

Folk wisdom:

“A dengun coxu se-y escaecen les muletes.” [No one with a bum leg forgets his/her crutches; one should always remember favors]

Listen to this youtube clip, a filmed version of Xuan Bello’s famous poem ‘Paniceiros’. At minute 1:50, Jose Manuel ‘Cetrales’ d’Anuca, reads a sentence with the verb escqueicer. The poem was read by different people living in the beautiful Asturian village of Paniceiros in County Tineu. The film was produced by Ramon Lluis Bande, an Asturian author and filmmaker based in Xixon. Paniceiros is a poem about a people who forget who they are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3peKIEEQyA

Paniceiros

Conozo un pais onde’l mundu chamase
Zarreu, Grandiel.la, Picu la Mouta, Paniceiros.
Un mundu que perdeu l’aldu los caminos
Xerusalen l.levantada na palma la mano d’un nenu,
Un mundu que yera altu, luminosu, esbeltu,
Naciente ya fonte ya vocacion de riu,
Onde los homes cal.lan ya’l silenciu ia renuncia,
Onde esqueicimos el ser, onde claudicamos,
Un pais onde la casa cai cai l’horru la ponte,
el molin la ilesia l’home tamien cai.
Onde la mirada yera pura cenciel.la,
la xaceda que dexara la nube en cielu.
Onde namas nos queda la memoria
corrompida de la infancia,
la nuesa soleda
L’abandonu de nuesu.