From robin@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx Mon Nov 9 04:20:36 1998
X-Digest-Num: 3
Message-ID: <44114.3.21.959273823@eGroups.com>
Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 14:20:36 +0200
From: Robin Turner <robin@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx
Subject: Sufi Story 2 [translation]


re lo pruxrdervicu cu pendo i. pa le pruxrdervicu goi ko’a cu xadju
le cmana mu’i ko’a gunka le lanmegi’a .i ko’a cu mutce cesyvu’e
.i.u’e ko’a ponse lo makfa daskybukpu noi ke’a kakne le nu ke’a
vasru lei djacu .iseri’abo ko'a ze’e noroi ve’e fe’e noroi cu taske

.i bi’u pa le pruxrdervicu goi ko’e cu xadju le tcadu mu’i ko’e
zbasu cutci .i ko’e cu klacpe ko’a le tcadu .i ko’a cu klama .i lo
melbi ninmu ca’avi zutse mu’i le ninmu cu djica le cutci .i le ninmu
cu lafmu’u le skaci mu’i le nu ko’e cu frili visko le jamfu .i ko’a
cu selra’u .i le djacu co’a barfle fi le daskybukpu .i ko’e cu cusku
lu .u’i 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 co’a barfle fi le
daskybukpu" the x3 of the previous bridi, but that might have been a
bit indigestible.

co'o mi'e robin.