Re: [lojban] Re: a very difficult translation

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On 9/8/05, Matt Arnold <matt.mattarn@gmail.com> wrote:
> Here's another toughie for me later in the same text, since I find tenses
> difficult.
> "he saw his ship, and upon her prow the mariners."
> The spatial tense of "upon this was that" is what's throwing me. 

You can use {cpana}, no tenses needed.

> When I try:
> {.i ko'a viska leko'a bloti .e lobu'u bloti nazbi lo bende}
> Jbofi'e tells me the phrase "upon the boat nose" is not being applied to
> "crew" but treated as its own sumti, which causes {lo bende} to be treated
> as x3. 

Right. {bu'u} is working as a selbri tag of {bloti nazbi} there, before it
gets converted to a sumti.

> Most variations I've tested have resulted in jbofi'e giving me no
> output at all.

You could say {lo bende ne bu'u lo bloti nazbi}, but {bu'u} is not really
"upon", and in any case {lo bende noi cpana lo bloti nazbi}. But perhaps
you can also say something like:  

  ko'a viska le ko'a bloti .e lo nu cpana le by nazbi fa loi xaspre

because what he sees is not just the mariners (which happen to be
on the prow), but sees the event "the mariners on the prow".

mu'o mi'e xorxes