[lojban-beginners] Re: coi .i.e'o pinka

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On 5/13/05, Sunnan <sunnan@handgranat.org> wrote:
> 
> .e'o ko xe pinka to xendo je dukti kusru toi le xelfanva to tolfa'o toi
> ->  http://handgranat.org/Bran_Van_3000/Mama_Don't_Smoke
>
> Okay, well... we'll just start. 
> Ready? 1, 2, 3, Go. 
>
> xamgu.y .i ma'a bazi cfari .i xu do bredi .i pa. re. ci. .imu'o 

This is all very idiomatic, so there's hardly one right translation.
Just a few comments:

{ma'a} is I, you and others. I think we in this case "we" is {mi'o},
the speaker and the people the speaker is addressing, nobody
else.
{cfari} means that some event starts, not that someone starts
to do something. That would be {cfagau} for example. Or you 
could just say {cfari} "something will start" without any pronoun. 
{pa re ci} is one hundred and twenty-three. You could say
{i pa i re i ci}.
I don't know about {mu'o} there. Maybe {i pa i re i ci i ko}?  

> Mama, don't smoke that much dope. 
>
> .i.e'o doi mamta ko na dampli la'u du'e lo marna 

"that much" is hard. Lojban is missing an amount deictic,
as well as a manner deictic, or at least a general purpose
deictic. I don't have a good alternative, but I would prefer
something like {ko na dampli lo <large amount deictic> marna}

> Don't you worry about me. 
>
> .i.o'u ko mi na xanka

OK, or {dunku}.

> I only get high about twice a day,  
>
> .i.o'u mi reroi marna gleki ti'u ro djedi 

{ti'u} is for time of day, as in eleven forty-five.

{ji'i re roi lo djedi} is "about twice a day".

You could use {do'a}, for "only/at most" here,
though this is not (yet) standard usage.
{do'a mi marna gleki ji'i re roi lo djedi}.

> it helps to keep my blues away.
>
> .i lo go'i cu fanta lo mi betri ro'i 

{lo nu go'i}.

Isn't "blues" more like {lo se badri} than {lo betri}?

> Chris said something about all them long-haired Jesus Christ 
> look-alikes, shining down on me... shining down on me. 
>
> .i la krys. pu tavla fi role clani selkre prenu poi simsa la .iesus. 
> gi'e gusni ni'a mi 

ni'a mi = under me.
Not sure what "shining down on me" means.

> I'm more laid back than you. Yeah, I'm more laid back 
> than you will ever be. 
>
> .i mi surmau do .i mi caca'o go'i do bacai 

That {bacai} doesn't go with {do} though, it says that I will
be more laid back than you.

mu'o mi'e xorxes