Re: literal translation for starters

[Robin Turner <robin@bilkent.edu.tr>]

mark@kli.org wrote:

> From: mark@kli.org
>
> >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.

I think you've hit the nail on the head here.  Perhaps

le ca temci cu balvi pe'a

co'o mi'e robin.