Subject: Re: Broken phone status?

From: "Evgueni Sklyanin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 13:43:48 -0000

--- In lojban@y..., Invent Yourself <xod@s...> wrote:
> What will be interesting is hearing each person justify the 
corruption
> they performed.
OK, let us start with myself. This is the text I have received
from xod (the numbering is mine):

[1] la cmendrik. ca zbasu le kevna be le da'amoi ke fetsi nobli 
po'u la .alisn,djosel,n. be'o le xance poi ke'a tatpi jebo 
masno muvdu le xirma trixe stizu 

[2] .i C cargau le xirma gi'e cusku

[3] ``.i ju'ocai do ze'aba bancu fu'idai fi ko'a 

[4] .i ja'o ko'a masno .a'i xirkla 

[5] .i ko'a xamgu nanmu je ji'a virnu banli je zmadu fi le kamdarsi 
fe roda poi mapti pa'e cnemu fi le zumdamba fo ke'a 

[6] .i mi ba'o 
dunda ko'a ro <le> da'amoi ke fetsi nobli ke'e tixnu be mi 

(<le> inserted to make the sentence grammatical)

[7] .i ko'a du la malzgan.''

I admit that after having passed this through jbofi'e and 
contemplated the result I have become so frustrated that I 
might allow a fraction of my anger and protest to slip into
my translations. Nevertheless, I'll try to articulate my woes.

[1] I suspect that the tanru {le da'amoi ke fetsi nobli} "the
penultimate noble woman" is supposed to mean "princess". 
"Penultimate", perhaps, in the row of succession (?). Still,
I refuse to accept it for regular usage - too grotesque and
counter-intuitive. It might provide a funny crossword definition
though (how about that idea: a crossword with Lojban definitions 
and English entries?).

There is little to comment in the rest of the sentence. 
"The princess" takes 2nd place of {kevna}, hence the cavity/hole
is made inside her body.

My translation:

-- With his hand moving wearily and slowly towards the saddle,
Schmendrick made a hole in Alison Jocelyn, the penultimate princess.

[2] The only sentence having survived the ordeal with (almost) no
damage.
-- He turned the horse and said: 

[3] Why {fi}?! The 3rd place of {bancu} is the criterion of 
comparison. According to the gi'uste definition it should be
a {ka} abstraction. I could understand {mi} taking the 2nd place
{do bancu ko'a} as "overtake" though I would prefer
to fill x3 explicitely with {le ni pluta clani} or something
like that. {mi} as x3 does not make sense to me. Hence, the
meaningless translation
-- "No doubt, soon you'll easily transcend in his qualities. 

[4] Someone has mistaken {ja'o} "thus, therefore" with,
perhaps, {se ja'e} "results, because of".
-- Thus, he is a slow rider. 

[5] With the both {je} replaced by {gi'e} this sentence would make
much more sense. However, {je} being a _tanru_ connective we have
a single monstrous tanru
{(xamgu (nanmu je ji'a virnu)) (banli je zmadu)}

I could not find a better solution than to vaguely translate
the first component (xamgu (nanmu je ji'a virnu)) as "valor".
Note that in the relative clause starting with {poi} and describing
what the protagonist does exceed in bravery the relative pronoun
{ke'a} take the 4th place of the tanru {mapti pa'e cnemu} which I
translate as "to reward justly/righteously" that is means the
thing which constitutes the reward whereas the 3rd place 
(the activity rewarded) is taken with {le zumdamba} "the fighting".

-- In the way of valour, he is great and braver than any deserved 
battle reward.

[6] For the "princess" see [1]. 

-- I have already granted him to all penultimate princesses who 
are my daughters. (or, fathered by me)

[7] {la malzgan} = mabla + zgana = "Evil Eye" (or "Voyeur"?)

Dixi et animam levavi.

mi'e .evgenis.