From LOJBAN%CUVMB.BITNET@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU Wed Dec 13 09:22:44 1995 Reply-To: Don Wiggins Date: Wed Dec 13 09:22:44 1995 Sender: Lojban list From: Don Wiggins Subject: PLI: Re: metaphor translation To: John Cowan Status: OR Message-ID: > "Road to Babylon" is a literary reference type metaphor, which assumes that > the speaker and listener have a common biblical referent. Babylon was an > actual city, and actual roads led to it. is more general than > and is more general than . seems like the > best fit when translating the idea of a "road"; for example would > not be right, because it does not carry the sense of "road-route". Using > as you propose obscures the metaphor. There appears to be curious miscommunication here. I took your lojban to mean "the road to Bable". "Bable" not being a place, but the state of a multiplicity of languages. To reach a state does not require a "road", but a method. I think that the metaphor would be better served by "pluta" which is a bare route, "dargu" has the connotation of being an improved-surface which is travelled upon. .i ti pluta pa'e la bebl. .i co'omi'e dn.