Re: [lojban] Translation Help

[Philip Newton <philip.newton@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 18:03, Warrigal <ihope127+w@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 7:26 AM, ftmassana <ftmassana@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello,
>> I'm writing a book in which appear a phrase in lojban, and need help
>> for translation. If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>> The phrase is:
>>
>> "Eternity is not measured by time. Time does not dream with moments.
>> The moments are written with eternity."
>
> Honestly, it's difficult to tell what this means. For example, does
> "the moments are written with eternity" mean "eternity is the tool
> used to write the moments", "the moments are written in the same place
> as eternity", "the moments are written such that they will last an
> eternity", or something else? Translation requires the original
> material to be clear and precise.

Similarly, does "Time does not dream with moments" mean "Time does not
dream together with moments" (e.g. you can't find a bedroom where
'time' and 'moments' are lying next to one another, sleeping), "Time
does not dream using moments" (e.g. one cannot use 'moments' to
measure the way that time dreams), or something else?

As in many(?) natural languages, "with" is ambiguous between
comitative and instrumental.

And does "Eternity is not measured by time" mean "The person who
measures eternity is not the person 'time'", "The person 'time'
measures many things, but 'eternity' is not one of them", "Eternity is
measured, but the measuring unit is not time", "Many things are being
measured by [the unit] time, but eternity is not one of them", or
something else?

Negation is even more tricky semantically (as the developers of Lojban
found when they tried to codify it, IIRC).

mu'o mi'e .filip.
-- 
Philip Newton <philip.newton@gmail.com>

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