[lojban-beginners] Re: A beautiful metaphor

[Nick Bornak <n.bornak@yahoo.com>]

So it's true that the things that are translated tend
not to forward the further development of the
language.

But here is a particularly elegant metaphor for the
importance of philosophy.  Enclosed is William
Wallace's translation of the original German, which I
also include.

.ipaunai xu lo djica be tu'a lo grute cu na citka lo
rutrceraso .a lo perli .a lo vanjba ki'u lo du'u vo'i
gu'e rutrceraso ja perli ja vanjba ginai grute .iku'i
cafne spuda lo prijyske lo du'u du'e loi prijyske cu
zasti jenai drani .ida'inai loi prijyske na se cmima
lo drani prijyske .ije'u lo rutrceraso cu grute

"Would anyone, who wished for fruit, reject cherries,
pears, and grapes on the ground they were cherries,
pears, or grapes, and not fruit?  But when philosophy
is in question, the excuse of many is that
philosophies are so different, and none of them is the
philosophy -- that is each is only a philosophy.  Such
a plea is assumed to justify any amount of contempt
for philosophy.  And yet cherries too are fruit."

"...wie wenn z. B. einer, der Obst verlangte,
Kirschen, Birnen, Trauben usf. ausschlüge, weil sie
Kirschen, Birnen, Trauben, nicht aber Obst seien. In
Ansehung der Philosophie aber läßt man es sich zu, die
Verschmähung derselben damit zu rechtfertigen, weil es
so verschiedene Philosophien gebe und jede nur eine
Philosophie, nicht die Philosophie sei, - als ob nicht
auch die Kirschen Obst wären."

So, what do you think? I tried to stay much more true
to the original than I had elsewhere, before.
Unfortunately my German is poor.  I'm particularly
fond of gu'e ... ginai reinforcing the natural
grouping of those tanru connectives, but I'm not sure
it's permitted.  I'm not sure {vo'i} works the way I
want it to work. I'm not particularly happy with the
use of {se cmima} to indicate that none of the current
philosophies are the philosophy, but I got the feel
from the text that no part of them is either, and
replacing with a {no da}-type of sentence seems clunky
when I try to do it.

-- mu'o mi'e merus.


 
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