Message-ID: <364834AE.C22D88BB@bcc.bilkent.edu.tr>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 14:42:23 +0200
From: Robin Turner <robin@Bilkent.EDU.TR>
To: Lojban list <lojban@onelist.com>
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Subject: [lojban] proverbs and parables
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From: Robin Turner <robin@Bilkent.EDU.TR>

coi rodoi

Firstly, thanks to all who have read, commented on and corrected my
translations of Turkish proverbs and parables - I find this helps my
language develop more quickly than spending hours poring over the
Book then forgetting it all the next day!  My other motivation in
translating this stuff is that I think it would be a nice idea to
build up a bank of proverbs and parables from a variety of
cultures.  This would be an excellent way to test/demonstrate
Lojban's precision and universality ("satci je rolpre", in my last
posting!) and stretch its ability to deal with allusive and
figurative language.  It would therefore be good if other people
could contribute translations of proverbs/parables from other
languages/cultures, particularly lesser-known ones (directly, that
is, not via an existing English translation).

In the long term, it would be nice to see a sizeable collection from
a variety of languages/cultures which (after proofreading, of
course) could go on the FTP site or even be published as a booklet
(I recently read a posting on the Auxlang list that over 30,000
books had been published in Esperanto, so we've got a way to go yet
- though of course this could just be symptomatic of Esperantists'
tendency to wild exaggeration!).  Such a collection would put some
weight behind Lojban's claim to be culturally neutral, and would
also be encouraging in the sense that by learning Lojban one can
read texts from a wide variety of cultures which will not always
exist in English (or other natlang) translation.

co'o mi'e robin.


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