Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 23:37:14 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199712110437.XAA06584@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Chris Bogart Sender: Lojban list From: Chris Bogart Subject: le vofli tapla X-To: lojban To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 2607 X-From-Space-Date: Wed Dec 10 23:37:19 1997 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU coi rodo This is translated from a letter I wrote to the newspaper last spring after a series of pointless finals-week riots in Boulder Colorado, where I was living. I thought it would be easier for translation because it was very concrete -- still, I found lots of things that were hard to translate. I translated "rental property" as "zdani" because it seemed not worth the effort :-). A few things were easier to say clearly in lojban -- the x3 of volylitru in the 3rd paragraph fell beautifully into place, although it was awkward in English. One thing that really troubles me is that I find myself using gi'e a lot, but I can't use it within an abstraction, because, IIRC, it returns you to the outermost bridi. I find myself having to start a new sentence or another {mu'i le nu} or something, in order to get on with the thought. Is there a better way around this? Or is it just that Lojban, like Klingon, lends itself structurally to shorter sentences than English? NB I am circumstepping the whole metaphor debate by starting with the magic words: --------------------- ni'ope'a le pa vofli ke terzba tapla cu se zbasu vi la tcidrseintluis ca la 1995nan .i ty joi papaki'o drata tapla cu puza trene se benji fi la kolorados .i ty joi so'u lei papaki'omei cu terzba loi te jmina be pa zdani vi la cmana .i ku'i le di'u tapla pu dukse .i cmima lei nunzba festi seldre poi lei zbasu cu tolmorji vi le cmaklaji .i leka na se pilno cu nalcinri le tapla .i lei zgiku joi fagri joi pulji selsiclu cu fenki ty. .isemu'ibo plipe fi le derxi gi'e volylitru lei klaji le kandi xunre tolselmuvdu kamfengu .i tilju sutra pa'omo'i lei prenu zo'amo'i so'a stedu fi'o minra pa nurmapku .i gau ty. leka sligu joi kubli tarmi cu se ckaji lo'e xance .i gau ty. ka tsali joi fengu joi se livla .i ty. se frili lonu pa'omo'i le blaci bracanko .ibabo le tapla cu surla co jbini lei blaci selpo'i ca'o le jdika savru .imu'obo no drata be lei pulji cradi savru ku joi lei xunre jonai blanu pulji tergusni be'o cu raktu le nenri be le zarci poi se zvati le tapla .i ku'i le tapla cu cinmo co se raktu la'edi'e .i le blaci se porpi sruri no'u le ba'o canko poi ty. jai daspo cu canre le mintu .uadai be ty. .i klaku lei purmo xunre gi'e cirko so'a cmaspisu ca'o lenu denpa lei zenba cerni .i pensi lei banli poi lei tapla joi lei blaci cu puze'u gunma te zbasu zi'e poi se cmima le selxrani dinju poi jai ne'i vreta .i ri'a lenu cinmo se daspo le zungi keiku le tapla vo'a na mipra ca le cerni va'o lenu lei prenu cu de'a zvati mu'i lenu gasnu co jinsa ty. joi ro lei drata nalselpi'o festi co'o mi'e kris