A roadside game of cards

A crisp autumn day was perfect for a walk around the neighbourhood. I skipped out of a meeting and went looking for an espresso. On the way I met a small group of men sitting down for a game of cards. I stopped as they dealt the cards out, and watched for a while to figure out the rules. It was a version of rummy. I decided to take a photo before walking on. Behind me I could hear speculation about what I was up to. Whether cards were invented in ancient Iran or in China is a controversy I will not enter. But whatever the origin, the designs and games travelled along the silk route.

State of play

If a man wone him silf bi summe þouȝtis or spechis..forto gendre into him desijr to heuenly placis, myrþis, sportis, dignitees and officis to be had in heuene, ..

R. Pecock, Reule of Crysten Religioun (1927) 242 (Middle English Dictionary)
[Composed c1443]

Sport, game, play; a fun set of connected words. It was a nice sport to read a dictionary in an attempt to trace the connection between these words. I gave up when I came to the quote you see above; reading Middle English really slows me. But the connections between the words seems to go back several centuries more into Old English. But the fact that some of the corresponding words have similar relations in modern Indian languages may mean that the connections between the concepts are much older than the roots of today’s languages. So I let it go, and looked for photos of people at play, in today’s sense of to amuse, divert, or entertain oneself; to take one’s pleasure, have a pleasant or leisurely time.

A chosen few Alone the Sport enjoy, nor droop beneath Their pleasing Toils.

W. Somervile, Chace iii. 141 (1735 CE)

For the young trainee monks released at the end of a long morning service in the Tawang monastery ten years ago, play was football. Clearly they were enjoying themselves at this hectic and physical activity. I had a bit of fun watching the way they were acting out after that long morning of enforced quietness. The children in the other photo, with their balls and kits were a more mixed bunch. Some of them clearly enjoyed kicking the ball around the muddy field in monsoon, but others were still not sure.

Rydyng a hontyng, hym silff to sporte & playe.

(1485 CE) quoted in F. J. Furnivall, Political, Religious, & Love Poems (1903) p. xlvi

In Paro, seventeen years ago, we came by chance on an archery competition. This is a big thing in Bhutan. The competitors, in the photo on the left, are in formal dress. The number of spectators increased as we watched. It seemed to be a team game, because at the end the winning team did a very martial dance. I found later that archery and cricket were the most popular sport among common people, and football the game of choice for monks.

Myrthe and sportes maketh the soule remyse, slacke, and neglygent.

W. Bonde, Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. EEiii (1526 CE)

And that brings me to cricket, with its immense popularity in south Asia, something that W. Bonde would probably have difficulty accommodating in his philosophy. Just after the end of the pandemic lockdown, I saw these boys at an intense game in the middle of the road in Mumbai’s business district, a street away from the stock market. It was a Sunday, and moreover most people were still working from home. So there was no better time to claim a street for a pitch. Note the wicket and the designation of the width around it.

Chearful, he play’d the Trifle, Life, away, ‘Till Death scarce felt did o’er his Pleasures creep, As smiling Infants sport themselves to Sleep.

A. Pope, To Young Lady in Miscellaneous Poems (1712 CE)

This last gallery is a little cheer for the way people spend their leisure hours: carrom in Thimphu eighteen years ago, a Chinese game of strategy seen in Shanghai ten years ago, a photo of people playing cards six years ago on a Sunday in Nanjing, and learning to sail on the lake in Annecy fourteen years ago (proceeding clockwise around the gallery). It seems that 700 or so words out of every million written in English texts use the words play, game, or sport. That doesn’t approach anywhere near the time we spend on it.