Bilboke

Bilboke is mentioned in Leo Tolstoy ’s novel “ War and Peace ”: on the eve of the Battle of Borodino Napoleon was brought a portrait of his son playing bilbok.

 

It was a vivid color painted by Gerard portrait of a boy born of Napoleon and the daughter of the Austrian emperor, who for some reason everyone called the king of Rome. A very beautiful curly-haired boy, with a look similar to that of Christ in the Sistine Madonna , was depicted playing in a bilbok. The globe represented the globe, and the wand in the other hand depicted a scepter .

- L. N. Tolstoy, “War and Peace”

Bilbock is mentioned in The Confession by Jean-Jacques Rousseau :

I dare to go further and say that society can be truly enjoyable only if everyone is not only busy with something, but if the activity itself requires attention. To make bows means to do nothing; It’s as difficult to occupy a woman who knits bows as one who sits idly by. When she embroiders is another matter: she is busy enough so that the intervals of silence are occupied by her work. It is especially outrageous and ridiculous to watch a dozen jerks get up, sit down, leave and come in, do pirouettes in high heels, turn Chinese boobs on a fireplace two hundred times and spend all their mental abilities on a continuous torment: there is nothing to say, a wonderful lesson! These people, no matter what they do, will always be a burden both to others and to themselves. In Motier I went to the neighbors to weave shoelaces; and if I returned to the light, I would always have kept a bilbock in my pocket and would have played it all day so as not to talk when I have nothing to say. If everyone acted in this way, people would not be so evil, their relationship would become more solid and, I think, more pleasant. In the end, let the pranksters laugh as much as they like, but I affirm that the only moral available to our century is the bilboke moral.

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "Confession"

Bilboke is mentioned many times in Maupassant ’s novel “ Dear Friend ”. It is played by journalists of the newspaper "French Life".

Forestier was getting worse and worse day by day, and he placed at his disposal his new excellent but rather heavy ebony bilbock, and now Durois, with a powerful hand tugging at a string a heavy ball, considered in an undertone:

- One two three four five six…

That day, when he was going to go to dinner with Mrs. Walter, he first knocked out twenty points in a row. Happy day, he thought, I am lucky in everything. And in the eyes of the editors of French Life, the ability to play bilbok really gave the employee some weight.

- Guy de Maupassant, “Dear Friend”

French king Charles plays in the bilbock in the play The Lark by Jean Anouil.

Karl: - Give them a young man with a strong grip, a native of their own environment, who will rule them and want to make my French happy at all costs, and you will see that they end up regretting their little Karl with his indecision and his bilbock ... I at least have no general ideas about the imposition of happiness. They still do not understand what an invaluable thing this is.

- Jean Anouil. Lark. Translation by N. Zharkova. Moscow, Art Publishing House, 1969

Also, bilboke is repeatedly mentioned in the novels of Alexander Dumas the father “Countess de Monsoro” and “Forty-five”:

As soon as Orilli entered the front hall, Kelyus, amusing himself with the wonderful ebony bilbock inlaid with ivory, very graciously greeted him.

“Bravo, Mr. de Quelus!” - said Orilli, seeing how expertly a young man caught a ball in a cup. - Bravo!

“Ah, my dear Mr. Origli,” replied Kelus, “when will I finally play the bilbock as well as you play the lute?” “Then,” replied Orily, a little offended, “when you spend so many days studying your toy how many years I spent studying my instrument.”

- The king, tired of playing with dogs, was now playing bilbok .-

- This opinion was only strengthened when at the end of a winding alley lined with blooming oleanders, the King of Navarre appeared in a well-worn felt hat, light brown jacket and gray boots: his face was burning with a blush, he held a bilbok in his hand .-

- Alexander Dumas is the father. Countess de Monsoro. Translation by V. Pillars. Moscow, Eksmo Publishing House, 2007

Bilboke is mentioned in the book by Anatoly Vinogradov “Three colors of time”, also in connection with the portrait of Napoleon’s son .

Mentioned in the story of Jules Verne “The Mysterious Island”. When the volcano erupted, the main characters jokingly exclaimed: “The giant plays bilbok”

• Kataev V.P. Bibabo and Bilboke // Broken Life, or the Magic Horn of Oberon

Bilbock is also mentioned in the verse of Edward Lear “Mosquito Dolgodog and Mukha” (translated by Marshak ) ^[2] :

... Then in the golden sand
We played peacefully in bilbok.

The novel “Rosewood” by Sasha Sokolov also refers to bilboke.

In the play by Jean Genet, “The Handmaids”:

Monsieur is waiting for Madame in Bilbock

Mentioned in the song “Here She is, My Fatherland” by Bad Boys

Here it is, my Fatherland. Poor poverty for her. And the notorious vanity is beautiful in our life.
Three damsels under the window Drank late in the evening. And having drunk, they guessed, What, to whom, what, how much. Apropos, in the evening in the river, When it’s impossible in the bilbok,

^[3]

• Russian-language site about Kendama
• Ukrainian site about Kendama (inaccessible link)
• YUMU Kendama
• Taiwan Kendama Association
• Kendama factory
• Kendama tricks (bilbock)

• Bilboke // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.