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Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 02:22:27 -0400
From: Rob Speer <rspeer@MIT.EDU>
To: lojban-beginners@chain.digitalkingdom.org
Subject: [lojban-beginners] Re: Tao Te Ching
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On Tue, Jul 20, 2004 at 01:09:53AM +0200, Jens-Wolfhard Schicke wrote:
> I decided it would certainly help my lojban if I tried to translate
> something: So here is the first chapter of the TTC

This is a very good translation - I especially like that you've found words
that seem to match the intent of the writing, instead of the literal words
(like "lifri" for "see" and "ci'i" for "ten thousand").

I think you're using "to'e" too much. "to'e" means "the opposite of", so I
would say that "to'e vitno" means "instantaneous", not just "not eternal". I
don't know what a "se to'e cmene" would be (something with its name taken away
from it?) So I would suggest "na'e" in those places.

> .i li'i go'i du li'i go'e. .ije le cmene be le go'i cu frica le cmene be le sego'i .i na jimpe fi le si'o go'i

To make "li'i go'i" a sumti, you need an article: "le li'i go'i". You may want
to use "la'e di'u" and "la'e de'u" instead to indicate the concepts expressed
by the previous two sentences.

I don't know what the original text means - if "spring from the same source"
means that the things referred to are the same in every regard except their
name, then using "du" there is right. Otherwise, I'd say something like
"le go'i cu simsa le sego'i le krasi".

-- 
Rob Speer