From cbmvax!uunet!CUVMA.BITNET!LOJBAN Tue Jan 14 07:10:23 1992 Return-Path: Date: Tue Jan 14 07:10:23 1992 Message-Id: <9201140924.AA01289@relay1.UU.NET> Reply-To: cbmvax!uunet!MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU!nsn Sender: Lojban list From: cbmvax!uunet!MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU!nsn Subject: Wallops of Translations #2 X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu X-Cc: nsn@ee.mu.oz.au To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann Status: RO The second of my translations (again, original on soc.culture.esperanto) was, I think, more succesful. It is two parts of a poem by Soviet Esperantist Evgenii Mikhalski, born in 1897, presumed purged in 1937. Mikhalski wrote very much from the outside of mainstream Esp culture (Kalocsay). Clelia Conterno Gugglimenti dismisses him as a second-hand Mayakovsky; all I can say to that is that Mayakovsky must have been quite a poet. There are nontrivial expressional problems in this translation, but because the typographical arrangement is important, I am only putting in a translation of the Esperanto. Work out the rest yourselves. You'll see how I've had to deviate and take shortcuts here and there. It is cute, somewhow, that the poem could have gone on forever without the gender of {ko'a}, or for that matter the poet, revealed. See Cavafy. WHATSOEVER Quickly. Muscles are tense-lively... The sun is post-horizon. The heart twilights in desire. Life is Golgotha. Two crosses are black. Masses of crows squawk, sensing those about to die. Your hand to me, [girl]friend. Lip on lip of love's trust. Life is Golgotha. Two crosses are black... .......... Wheels screech, doors creak, cars whistle-blow their horns... Shop windows shine... The plaza's circle is bald. The temple peak is heavenward in relief. 12 o' clock. The lights are extinguished. Ghostly shadows slide, from a foggy shawl. She and I in the dense see of banality. A tram carriage was derailed --- and the spark started blue; through the grey sounded a cry, a cry of despair. Life is Golgotha. Two crosses. She and I. II I awoke after a night filled to the brim with love --- it was morning... I look to her face, she sleeps quietly, her beautiful forms of the passionate body are caressed by the sunrays, penetrating though the curtain. Why do I stand silently, do I regret, that the night has has ended, that the illusion doesn't last? I crouch by the bed, long, long do I sit so, look at her, guard her healthy sleep, sleep of sweet repose. Oh enchanting woman! No! More truthfully --- enchanting body, divine body in its nakedness! Thou --- extreme of the beginning --- thou --- beginning of the extreme --- drivest [one] mad by the power of the eternal love-problem. A red disk swims out in a grey sky, dewdrops are pearls in vases on flowers, the wall-painting nuances in rainbow colours... Mischievous rays play on the lips of the one lying, on the lips --- cup of joy... Attracting-exciting fell the cover from the young woman, her snow-white knee demans kisses. She sleeps in peace after exhaustion from the night's immoderate caressing. --- "Goodbye, woman! Today calls me by the town's noise to business..." The last shadows of the morning have withered, --- the day smiles in the serenity of the sunshine. Bleats-whistles the siren of a car. zo ru'a cu tcita le pemci befi la evGEN. miXALSK. be'o poi di'e nomoi ce'o remoi le'i pagbu be ke'a .i tu'e sutra .i trati tsali fa loi sluji .i la sol. cu fe'eba'o pinta .i le cinmo cu ctemurse ci'o leka djica ni'o me la GOLgotas. fa le nunji'e .i xekri fa re kucyga'a tosa'a 1moi pinka toi .i so'e cipnrkorvo cu krixa seja'e lenu zgana lo ba morsi ni'o ko le xance mi doi pendo .i le ctebi le ctebi le nunpra nu lacri ni'o me la GOLgotas fa le nunji'e i xekri fa re kucyga'a; ni'o xislu tagysa'e .i vorme savru .i karce siclu .i le ve'uzda ja'orca'o cu se gusni; i le di'urpanka cukla cu lunbe .i le malsi jipno ne'a le tsani cu sfecra .i la gaicac. cu tcika .i co'u gusni .i le mucti ctino cu sakli gi'e canci vi le grusi poi ne'orbu'umlu se bumru .i mi jo'u ko'a vi le xamsi denmi pe lenu to'e manci .i lo lajre'e carce cu nitli'a le velklali'i .i le fagyspi co'a blanu .i va'o le grusi co'a krixa .i krixa cusku lonu xrani ni'o me la GOLgotas. fa le nunji'e .i re kucyga'a .i mi jo'u ko'a go'i ni'oni'o remai mi cikna ba lo nicte nesekai lo nunpra .i cerni .i mi leko'a flira cu catlu .i ko'a panpi sipna .i lei melbi tarmi be leko'a camci'o xadni cu se satre fi le se soldi'e poi pagre le murta .i ki'u ma mi smaji sanli .i xu mi xenru lenu ge mo'u nicte gi co'u xanri .i mi co'a demyste ne'a le ckana .i ze'ujeze'u zutse gi'e catlu ko'a .i nurgau lenu ko'a kanro sipna .i sipna surla doi ninmu xrula .i na'i go'i .i sa'unai xadni xrula .i xadni censa lunbe .i doi fanmo be lo cfari do'udoi cfari be lo fanmo do'u fekri'a fa lenu do vlipa fi le roroi pranabmi .i le xunre cukla cu limkla le grusi tsani .i lei ctejau dirgo cu melo jemnrmargarita. ne'a loi xrula poi vi se vasru .i le bimpi'a cu ralci tu'a le skari be le tsanybargu .i lei fazykei se dirce cu vitci tu'a le vreta ctebo noi kabri loka gleki; .i trina joi bapli farlu fa le gairbu'u fi le fetcitno .i leri snime blabi cidni cu mukti lenu cinba .i ko'a spina mapti ba'o lenu tatpi lonu nicte satre carmi .i lu co'o ninmu .i le cabdei cu minde be lo nungunka be'o ta'uvru li'u .i le romoi ctino pe le cerni cu ruble .i le dinri cu cisma panpi va'o le solri gusni .i siclu fa le vrubra be le karce tu'u ni'oni'osa'a pinka .i pamai le cusku cu tavla la GOLgotas. noika'u diklo lenu la xrist. morsi ja'e lenu se sfalasna fi lo kucyga'a .i ri .e ru kulnu sinxa lenu cinmo cortu ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Nick Nicholas, Melbourne Uni, Australia. nsn@{munagin.ee|mullauna.cs}.mu.oz.au "Despite millions of dollars of research, death continues to be this nation's number one killer" - Henry Gibson, Kentucky Fried Movie _______________________________________________________________________________