[lojban] Sufi Story 2 [translation]

[Robin Turner <robin@Bilkent.EDU.TR>]

From: Robin Turner <robin@Bilkent.EDU.TR>


re lo pruxrdervicu cu pendo i. pa le pruxrdervicu goi koa cu xadju
le cmana mui koa gunka le lanmegia  .i koa cu mutce cesyvue
.i.ue koa ponse lo makfa daskybukpu noi kea kakne le nu kea
vasru lei djacu .iseriabo ko'a zee noroi vee fee noroi cu taske

.i biu pa le pruxrdervicu goi koe cu xadju le tcadu mui koe
zbasu cutci .i koe cu klacpe koa le tcadu .i koa cu klama .i lo
melbi ninmu caavi zutse mui le ninmu cu djica le cutci .i le ninmu
cu lafmuu le skaci mui le nu koe cu frili visko le jamfu .i koa
cu selrau .i le djacu coa barfle fi le daskybukpu .i koe cu cusku
lu .ui li'a le ka cmana pruxrdervicu kei na simla le ka tcadu
pruxrdervicu

Two dervishes were friends.  One of them lived in the mountains
because he was a shepherd, and was very saintly.  Amazingly, he had
a handkerchief which could hold water, so at no time or place would
he be thirsty.

The other dervish lived in the city, because he was a shoemaker [NB
another typical Sufi occupation].  He invited the first dervish to
visit him in the city, and his friend came.  At that moment, a
beautiful woman was sitting there, because she wanted some shoes.
She lifted up her skirts so that the shoemaker could see her feet
more easily.  The first dervish was disturbed.  Water began to drip
from his handkerchief.  His friend said: "Hoho! Being a dervish in
the mountains is nothing like being a dervish in the city!"

Note:
This is a Turkish parable that I retold in Lojban (rather than
translating directly) then translated from Lojban to English, which
is why, even as a loose translation, the English is a bit stilted.
What struck me was that without assignable pronouns, English needs a
lot of redundant information to distinguish between ko'a and ko'e.
I could have gone further  and used ko'i for the woman, of course...

Two lujvo I forgot to gloss:

cesyvu'e x1 is holy/saintly by standard x2
selra'u - x1 is disturbed by x2 causing problem x3 (se position of
raktu)

Come to think of it I could have made "le nu djacu coa barfle fi le
daskybukpu" the x3 of the previous bridi, but that might have been a
bit indigestible.

co'o mi'e robin.



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