WTN: calypso
James Harbeck
calypso
He came off the boat, onto an island, and he wandered far and long; at last he came to where there was refreshment, and a place to stop and stay. And he partook of the intoxicating beverages, and of the nourishment, and he was at ease. But at length he looked towards the water, and he longed for his wife, who was across it; but he could not leave, because of Calypso.
Homer’s Odyssey, book 5? Maybe. But my Wednesday, after work? Certainly.
How could that be? Was I in hiding, perhaps, from the crypto bros of the apocalypse? Or entrapped by a goddess, kept concealed for seven years, until at last I could step up?
Oh, I was there at the behest of a goddess, to be sure, but she was my wife, who was coming to meet me. I had made my own small odyssey – a six-kilometre walk from the other end of the island, rather than taking the ferry to the dock a hundred metres from my destination – but not all who wander are lost. The Calypso that had me get on the island and was keeping me there was a local calypso band called Shak Shak, performing in the evening at the Island Café (in its new quarters, after the old one was incinerated by a fire a year and a half ago)… and I had to arrive early and bide my time to stake a spot. Seven years? No, but a couple of hours. I was, it is true, served intoxicating beverages by a woman from a foreign land, but they were beers, I had ordered them and would pay for them, and the woman was the Venezuelan bartender.
Why go to such lengths for calypso? My friends, if you’re asking, you haven’t been where calypso is being played live. It really is a musical intoxicant, almost guaranteed to make you come on and dance.
Which is how it got its name. Well, its first name… but then there were wanderings. Calypso music, you see, is descended from kaiso music; both are from Trinidad, the southernmost Caribbean country, just off the shores of Venezuela. Kaiso comes from Ibibio and Efik phrases meaning ‘come on’ or ‘get on’, which are said as encouragement, sort of like “Bravo!” And, as far as we can tell, the word kaiso got so encouraged that it got on and wandered and grew until it became calypso.
Which, of course, was already known as the name of a goddess (specifically a nymph) who held Odysseus in thrall on her hidden island for seven years, until at length he began to pine for his homeland and his wife. The island of Calypso was named Ogygia, as opposed to the island of calypso music, Trinidad (or the island I was on for calypso, Ward’s Island, which is not actually its own island but part of Toronto Island).
And Calypso’s name did not mean ‘come on’ or ‘get on’. No, it came from Greek καλύπτω kalúptō ‘I cover, I conceal’ – because Calypso concealed: she hid Odysseus from everyone else for seven years. This word καλύπτω also has a mysterious resemblance – mysterious because it’s not clear how they’re related; they may have come from unrelated sources and over time gained greater phonetic resemblance because of their similar sense – to κρύπτω krúptō ‘I hide, I cover, I conceal’, the source of our modern crypto.
Well, perhaps in the fullness of time we will find out exactly how Calypso and crypto are related, and exactly how kaiso came to be calypso. At the end, we are told, all will be uncovered, revealed – the cover will be taken away: ἀποκάλυψις ápokálupsis ‘uncovering, revelation’, from ἀπό (apó, ‘away, back’) and καλύπτω. Which is, of course, the etymon of apocalypse… But a revelation doesn’t have to involve incineration; it can just be when the band comes on stage and begins to play.
Which Shak Shak did. And there was no cover – although a jug was passed around, and we put some cash into it. (They also had a tap machine for cards, but they weren’t taking crypto.)
At length, Calypso, in spite of her love for Odysseus, heeded the direction of the gods of her time and gave him the means to make a boat and cross the water home to his wife. And at length, my wife and I, in spite of our love for calypso, heeded the god of the time tables and made it to the boat, got on, and crossed the water home, away from the island and calypso. But we can always listen to calypso at home, even if it’s not quite the same as being there. Here’s a concert video of the Mighty Sparrow, one of the greats of calypso, who I saw in concert more than 30 years ago in Edmonton (not this concert, just to be clear):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B-Sl7l_56g
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