From cbmvax!uunet!cuvma.bitnet!LOJBAN Sat Dec 28 19:09:38 1991 Return-Path: Date: Sat Dec 28 19:09:38 1991 Message-Id: <9112281925.AA11638@relay1.UU.NET> Reply-To: David Cortesi Sender: Lojban list From: David Cortesi Subject: senseless acts of beauty X-To: Lojban mailing list To: John Cowan , Ken Taylor Status: RO There's a delightful piece of writing making its way around the net with the following theme: Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty. I just had to try to translate it. You will probably be able to improve on the following attempt: ko di'i tigni ge zu'o spaji fi ka xendo gi zu'o li no te zukte li'i melbi Literal back-translation (Vocabulary used is at end of message): ko di'i tigni ge you! repeatedly-perform both: zu'o spaji fi ka xendo activity-of [you] surprise [zo'e] by quality-of be-kind-to gi zu'o li no te zukte li'i melbi and activity-of the-zero reason-for-act-of experience-of beauty Analysis & feeble justifications: omission of "le" before "zu'o," "li'i," "ka" etc. Not sure about this: "zu'o [bridi]" like any abstractor is a sumti, and the added indirection of "le zu'o [bridi]" does not seem necessary to me. But this is an area that puzzles me and I would appreciate comment. "[You] practice..." It seems to me that "ko di'i tigni" is better here than possible alternatives such as "ko di'i rinka." I realize "tigni" probably has the sense of a theatrical performance. That is precisely the meaning I get from the English: these acts should be done "for effect," demonstratively; hence theatrically. "random kindness" Feel free to do something with "cunso" (random); I decided to focus on the element of surprise, which seemed central to me. The x3 of "spaji" is the act that causes the surprise, which was convenient: "spaji fi ka xendo" is exactly "surprise with kindness." "senseless acts" "Mu'inai" could have been useful here, had it not already been preempted (per the cmavo list) to mean "despite motive...". So: how does one deny the existence of a sumti? A senseless act is a "zukte" for which there is no x3. The best I could find for this was "li no." Since this was the important element I brought it to the front. "li no te zukte" is an act whose motivation is zero, nought. However, zero is a real thing, and a senseless act is one with no real motive. (Perhaps "the empty set" would do for a motive, if I knew how to say it?) Here's the list of words I used; there were quite a few more that I considered but you can find those for yourself. melbi meb mle beautiful beautiful to...in aspect...by standard... spaji saj surprise surprise/startle...by... tigni tig perform perform...for/before audience... xendo xed xe'o kind be kind to...by being/doing... zukte zuk zu'e act act/do...with purpose/goal...; entity di'i TAhE regularly tense interval modifier: regularly fi FA 3rd sumti place tag: tag 3rd sumti place ge GA fore and logical connective: all but selbri forethought and gi GI connective medial forethought connective medial marker ka NU property/quality abstractor (-ness); x1 is quality/property exhibited by [bridi] li LI the number convert number/operand/evaluated expression to sumti li'i NU experience abstract: x1 is x2's experience of [bridi] no PA 0 digit/number: 0 (digit) te SE 3rd conversion switch 1st/3rd places zu'o NU activity (event) abstractor; x1 is abstract activity of [bridi]