Cryptograms

Cryptograms

I think this means we have positive birds and negative birds in Austria from 1950

Don’t you love all the cryptic symbols that are used instead of words?  I need a Google Translate for symbols.

The most memorable experience translating pictures was in a bathroom in some village in Poland. We stumbled into a very small café, only to find out it had been a favorite of Steven Spielberg during the filming of Schindler’s List.  What this meant practically was a small place to eat bursting with customers.  Small wonder it was a favorite, I can’t remember having much to chose from. But the bigger dilemma came when we tried to use the bathroom.

Each restroom was one passenger and unoccupied, the only empty seats in the house.  On one door was a square and on the other a circle. Now I think I would have chosen a triangle for myself, but that wasn’t an option. I searched my intelligence and experience for any help. Anthropology in Mexico! The ancient columns, carved before blue prints and written explanations, were said to represent female soldiers because they were round, not square.  Polish Restroom Anthropology as it turns out, says that the female is a square.  I think.  What I do remember is that I guessed wrong.  No problem going in, but an embarrassing one coming  out.

So, with a history of making guesses as to the cryptograms across Europe, we studied the train map.  This diagram lets you know what type of train you will be taking and which cars are first class.  Or more importantly for me, which cars are for hoi polloi, us plebeians, the unwashed masses, or in the case of Austria, pretty well washed and in Eastern Europe well-oiled by Friday afternoon. 

The train diagram had extra information. The first of the second class cars was without any extra explanation.  The second one had the profile of a person, with three concentric circles coming from their face, and a finger in front of her mouth.  Either it meant, “Be prepared to sing, ‘This little light of mine’,” “Check your breath,” or “No talking. “ All the snorers and shhshh-ers would be in there, not fun!

The next car had a seat with a cross on top, which could mean, Christians, or  disaster victims or handicapped.  Probably either way, no dancing in that car.

The last car had a sign that said kino.  Sounds good on a long train ride, however, although it was a word, a description was in the key.  A kino- cinema in both Slovak and German, for children, three hours listening to Disney in German. 

Needless to say, the normal car was pretty well occupied.  But thankfully, the bathrooms didn’t have a square and a circle on them or any other cryptogram, but instead German, and English, something I can feed into Google Translate if necessary.