Re: literal translation for starters

[mark@xxx.xxx]

>From: BestATN@aol.com
>Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 17:27:35 EDT
>
>From: BestATN@aol.com
>
>A word-for-word translation of "This is the future" could be "ti du le balvi"
>which means something like "this thing is the same as the future (thing)"
>How about just "ti balvi"?

Keep in mind also that "balvi" doesn't mean "future"; it means more like
"in the future." So you would use it in a sentence like

le nu mi viska do cu balvi le nu do klama lemi zdani

the event of my seeing you is-in-the-future of the event of your coming to
my house.

"This is the future" is a very colorful poetic and idiomatic phrase. It's
trying to say that the current time is somehow futuristic, perhaps that
it's the future of the past. Something like

le ca temci cu balvi le pu temci
(the now time is in the future of the past time)

which sounds tautological. I think you're after a more racy meaning than
you can get without, well, saying it. But then maybe I've been out of
Lojban circulation too long.

~mark