In early December, while Lidia was teaching in Marseille, she received news from her family that her uncle Feliks Zamenhof, whom she 'loved very much', had died in Warsaw. Lidia could not leave her course in France and go home to Warsaw for the funeral. That blow was followed a short time later by the death of another of her father's brothers, her uncle Leon Zamenhof.
In January 1934 Lidia finished the course in Marseille and began teaching in Vallauris, Saint-Raphael and Cannes, on the Cote d'Azur. In Cannes the Cseh course again attracted over a hundred students.
Now Lidia had much less free time to devote to writing and translating. Although she hoped to find time 'when I am not wandering all over the world but sitting quietly at home' to translate some modern Polish novels, she never did. She had still not found a publisher for the play Iridion which she had translated long ago.
But her translation of Quo Vadis?, Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel about the early days of Christianity in imperial Rome, had recently been published in Amsterdam, and the reviews began to appear. Esperanto praised the 'smooth, pleasing, very easily readable language' of the translator, but noted that the printer had made too many typographical errors. 'The style deserves all praise for its correctness and immediate clarity', wrote the reviewer, who nevertheless managed to find some minor grammatical points to quibble over. The reviewer in the British Esperantist even remarked that Lidia's translation of the novel was 'much more complete than the French and English translations', better conveying the nuances of the original Polish.
Lidia remained in the south of France during the spring of 1934, beginning new courses in Grasse and Vence, then retuming in May to Bordeaux, where she had been invited to give a second course and was honorary president at the French National Esperanto Congress.
From Bordeaux she wrote 'Auntie' Victoria Bedikian, a well- known Baha'i in the United States: 'I feel very guilty that I have been silent so long, that for such a long time I have not answered your sweet letters and haven't thanked you for your beautiful drawings . . . because of [my] constant traveling my correspondence sufFers a great deal. Will you please forgive me? . . .
'With constant interest I read of the continuing construction of the Temple [the Baha'i House of Worship being built on the shore of Lake Michigan in Wilmette, Illinois]. I hope some time to see it, but I don't know if and when I will be able to come to America. Probably I shall have to stay longer in Europe, especially in France, where I have much work before me. Later, it is my heart's desire to go to Persia to teach Esperanto in the land of Baha'u'llah. But that cannot be for several years. Who knows, whether before that I won't see you in America?
'With extreme regret I read of the death of Keith Ransom-Kehler. [1] I always hoped that I would meet her, but never had the opportunity.
But although that is no longer possible in this life, I haven't lost hope that God will permit that meeting in the next life.'
Lidia was enjoying considerable success wherever she went in France, her classes usually attracting from 50 to 150 pupils. Frequently the number of students increased by the end of the course. People were not dropping out; they were hurrying to join - even after the lessons had begun.
In the summer Lidia returned to Warsaw for a short visit. It was her first trip home in two years. At the house on Krolewska Street, the swallows were still in their nests under the eaves. Lidia had only a few weeks at home before she would be sailing to Stockholm for the Twenty-Sixth Universal Congress of Esperanto. Before she left Warsaw, she made a farewell visit to theJewish cemetery.
'Always, unforgettably engraved on my heart is that gray granite, brought from misty Scotland,' she wrote, 'and here, in Poland, now caressed by sunny rays, now showered by autumn rains, now decorated with flowers placed upon it by faithful hands.' Coming closer to the monument that stood upon her father's grave, Lidia became filled with dismay. A large mark of dirty violet color, like spilled ink, covered part ofone side ofthe stone. 'Rain had smeared the color over the granite, and the monument stood defiled, stained.'
A few thick letters could be made out. Someone had written 'Long live the Esperantist Movement' and a name.
The name scrawled on the monument seemed to her symbolic of what she saw occurring in the Esperanto movement. That movement itself was the real monument to her father, she believed, 'more lasting than the granite and the only truly immortal one'. It had been built, brick by brick, as the life work of Ludwik Zamenhof. This monument, Esperanto, ought to be considered, as the stone was inscribed, 'erected by the Esperantists ofthe whole world'. No person should try to write his own name on it-this would be nothing less than to stain that monument as well. But, she warned, some among the builders came 'bringing in one hand a brick for the monument, in the other hiding a red pencil to inscribe their names in thick letters on the brick.
'The winds of ambition,' she cautioned, 'bring the rains ofjealousy, and few wish to remain unknown among the known. Instead of placing brick upon brick in harmony and order, doesn't it sometimes happen that someone even tries to tear out a brick if it seems too beautiful alongside the others?
'History itself will do justice,' she wrote, 'and will inscribe upon its pages the names of the truly meritorious. Let us only work, each according to his ability, for the beloved Cause, not for our own glory, and sacrificing our efforts and labor, let us not ring the bells of
hypocrisy and not conceal with our hands the red pencil [used to write upon the monument].
'We are building a great, beautiful monument. May it remain clean!'
The day came to leave for Sweden. Lidia noticed that even as she was leaving to go north, the swallows under the eaves were also taking their leave, flying south to Africa, escaping Europe's winter.
Martha Root arrived in Stockholm first. Just as the congress was to open, Martha was, she herself wrote, 'so ill with grippe, only Baha'u'llah knows!' Although she had a raging fever, on the day the congress began she went to the station to meet Lidia, who had been looking forward to this visit with her 'dear Martha' for months.
The Stockholm papers were full of momentous news from Germany. The Svenska Dagbladet carried pictures of German soldiers giving the Nazi salute. The day before, it had carried the screaming black headlines: 'hindenburg dead. The entire tvorld shares Germany's grief. adolf hitler Chief of State submits the decision to a referendum - ivants to be called Head of State but not President. . . Hitler, who only two years ago didnot even have German citizenship, is now dictator over65 million people.' Hitler's takeover of Germany was complete. The article about the Zamenhof family at the congress was dwarfed by the news.
All week the papers were full of Hitler and of Hindenburg's funeral, but this news seemed unable to cast much of a pall over the Esperanto congress taking place in neutral Sweden. Over two thousand Esperantists were in attendance. Martha Root commented, 'All dele- gates remarked that the Swedish atmosphere had a tranquilizing and friendly-making influence upon all guests. Even the little foibles which always occur in big congresses were met with such good humor and forbearing mind that everything in and outside the congress was sunshine here in Sweden.'
The congress sessions were held in the Swedish Parliament House, though the opening was in the splendid Concert Hall. Martha Root dragged herself out of bed again with a temperature 'much over one hundred' to be there and deliver Shoghi Effendi's greetings to the congress.
After the official representatives had made their remarks, Lidia arose to give a short address. 'Once again the Esperanto congress has brought us together,' she told them, 'once again the Green Banner waves above our heads, and once again the beautiful language sounds from mouth to mouth. That language indeed seems to us like a telescope through which we can better see the future, which seems to be rosier than the present. Sweden is a miraculous land; even in the region of Midnight, the sun shines. And if it seems that night is now covering the world, the Esperanto star gives us hope for better days.