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La Revuo was founded specifically to allow him to publish his translations and the 

list of his translations is impressive. Most importantly, La Revuo published fragments of 

his translation of the Bible, the most widely read book in the world. La Revuo also 

published his translations of Hans Christian Andersen's The Nightingale, The Child in 

the Grave, and The Flying Coffer; Orzeszko's Martha, Shalom Aleichem's The 

Grammar School, Heine's The Rabbi of Bacharach, Gogol's The Revisor, Goethe's 

Iphigenia in Tauris, Molière's Georges Dandin, and Schiller's The Robbers. All of these 

were later published in book form along with Zamenhof's Lingvaj Respondoj (Answers 

to Language Questions) and Proverbaro Esperanta (Collection of Esperanto Proverbs) 

La Revuo and Lingvo Internacia provided abundant information about the Universal 

Congresses, which Zamenhof and his wife attended every year. Both periodicals 

published his speeches given at the congresses. 

Following the emotional speech in Boulogne, Zamenhof customarily chose some 

specific theme for his congress speeches. In Geneva in 1906 he wanted to present 

homaranismo (see following section, “From Zionism to Homaranism”), his spiritual 

project for bringing together all of humankind in one human family, but was permitted 

to read only the first part of his written speech. In this first part he explained that, in 

addition to its practical side, Esperantism has a much more important spiritual side. He 

severely criticized Louis de Beaufront's notion that “Esperanto is just a language; [that 

Esperantists must] avoid linking Esperantism with any sort of spiritual concept, even in 

private”: 

If we, Esperanto's first defenders, are forced to avoid everything spiritual in 

our activity, we will indignantly tear up and burn everything we have 

written for Esperanto, we will painfully undo the work and sacrifices of our 

whole lives, we will hurl from us the green stars we wear on our breasts, 

and we will shout with loathing, “We will have nothing to do with that sort 

of Esperanto, an Esperanto forced into the exclusive service of commerce 

and practicality.”(Mi estas Homo 171) 

At the opening of the third Universal Congress, held in Cambridge in 1907, 

Zamenhof spoke about the essence and goal of the Esperanto congresses. Following the 

congress, he gave a public speech in the City of London's Guildhall, in which he 

responded to two accusations; firstly, that Esperantists oppose improving the language 

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and, secondly, that Esperantists are not patriotic. 

Dresden was the host city for the fourth Universal Congress, in 1908. Because of the 

schism caused by Ido, Zamenhof devoted his speech to the theme of the stability and 

development of Esperanto and to the role of the Language Committee. At the Dresden 

congress, the Esperanto Academy (Akademio de Esperanto), with Boirac as chairman, 

was chosen to be the upper chamber of the Language Committee. The Dresden congress 

also saw the first meeting of UEA (Universala Esperanto-Asocio), founded the 28

th

 of 

April, 1908 in Geneva. UEA's first president was the Briton Harold Bolingbroke Mudie. 

The Swiss Hector Hodler was its vice president and editor of the review Esperanto. 

The fifth Universal Congress was held in Barcelona from the 5

th

 to the 11

th

 of 

September, 1909 under the protection of the King of Spain, Alfonso XIII. Unfortunately, 

this royal protection, and the king's post-congress proclamation of Zamenhof as a 

commander of the Order of Isabella the Catholic, made an unfavourable impression on 

those who sympathized with the victims of the brutally suppressed Barcelona revolt of 

the previous July. Zamenhof did not even touch on the subject of the revolt in his 

Barcelona address, which was the least important of all his congress speeches. 

In 1910, the sixth Universal Congress was held outside of Europe for the first time, 

in Washington, DC. It was Zamenhof's first trip outside of Europe and he found himself 

in the country where, almost thirty years earlier, he had advocated creating a Jewish 

homeland. He began his opening address with a great deal of pathos: 

Land of freedom, land of the future, I salute you! Land the suffering and 

innocently persecuted masses have dreamt of and dream of still, I salute 

you! Kingdom of humanity, belonging, not to this or that people or church, 

but to all your honest children, I bow down before you [...] (Mi estas Homo 

188) 

He continued less passionately, however, answering the question, “Does our work set us 

on a truly sure path, or must we fear that all our labours will some day prove to have 

been in vain?” He maintained that he had already answered that question in his article