Re: Translation exercise: Li Bai's "Drinking alone under the moon"

andrew <hobbit@...> writes:

> I'm surprised that no one else has attempted this translation.
I did, I did! I just had other things to do first
(thankfully no Real Life).

Here it is:

Poten lis la mouve yifiri
pot-en l-is la m-ouve yi-fir-i
drink-ACP COM-company no ESS-below GEN-moon-DEF
"drinking with no company at below-space of the moon"

    As you see, demonstratives like |la| "no" go after
    the noun; Yivokuchi is almost always consistently
    right branching. There are plenty of "prepositional
    nouns" like |is| "company" and |ouve| "below-space,
    place below sthg".

Talas geda vai feri
talas-0 ged-a vai far-i
jug-CON wine-NDF ESS+among flower-DEF
"a jug of wine at among-space of flowers"

    Note the Umlaut |far-| > |feri|, and the abscense
    of number marking.

poten lis la, lisakin la muk
pot-en l-is la li-sakin la m-uk
drink-ACP COM-company no COM-friend no ESS-near
"drinking with no company with no friends at near-space"

Draben nag ye, kivake fir bini
drab-en nag ye kivak-e fir-0 bin-i
raise-ACP cup GEN+1s salute-PRS moon-CON light-DEF
"raising my cup I salute the moon of light"

Litomom ye wer fika kaide
li-tomom ye wer-0 fik-a kai-de
COM-shadow GEN+1s group-CON three-NDF 1pX-COP
"with my shadow a group of three we are"

Bime firi geoy gopotri alde
bime fir-i geoy go-pot-r-i al-de
although moon-DEF accustomed ALL-drink-ABS-DEF NEG-COP
"although the moon accustomed to drinking is not"

    |bime| is |ime| "but" with a prefix |b-| that is
    also used to form conditional verb forms. In fact,
    |ime| could be a fossilized verb form.
    |pot-r-i| is "drinking (n) + DEFINITE".

bime zi tomomi lalube ye seke memederi
bime zi tomom-i lalub-e ye seke memeder-i
although only shadow-DEF imitate-PRS GEN+1s change each-DEF
"although the shadow only copies from me each move"

Maur mawo ede litokh yivech
maur mawo e-de li-tokh yi-mech
around now 1s-COP COM-actuality GEN-P2
"for now I am with the actual-being of them"

    |tokh| is something like "the empirical essence",
    "the actual-as-perceived being"; this metaphysical
    concept has entered the mainstream in this form
    (|tokh yivech| "the way they are"). From the old
    verb /dOx/ "manifest".
    P2 = personal demonstrative, second level of deixis
    ("that person/those people"). Note the fricative
    mutation |yi-mech| > |yivech|.

Dechet yijhesi mi vewode
dechet yi-jas-i mi vewo-de
enjoying GEN-spring-DEF when here-COP
"enjoying spring when it's here"

    Nothing strange here; note both fric. mut. and
    Umlaut in |yijhesi|.

Tomom lunena, etetisa efira
tomom lun-en-a e-tetis-a fir-a
shadow move-ACP-NDF MPH-sway-NDF moon-NDF
"a shadow moving, a swaying moon"

    The eMPHatic mark lets you move an adjective
    before its noun.

socire dafel ye kheod ye
socir-e dafel ye kheod ye
come_see-PRS dance GEN+1s song GEN+1s
"attend my dance, my song"

Ebreci fonfon odecheta mis
e-brec-i fon=fon o-dechet-a mis
MPH-sober-DEF so_far VOL-enjoying-NDF together
"sober yet, we rejoice together"

    |dechet| 'enjoying' becomes VOLitive.

ekaiboch meme khai fere
e-kaibo-ch meme khai fer-e
MPH-drunk-DEF each GEN+1sX leave-PRS
"drunk each of us leaves"

Duaidri bikamidva telsakin wo
duay-dr-i bikamidva telsakin
affirm-PUR-DEF forever friendship A1
"to affirm forever this friendship"

    |du-| (noun->verb); |ay| 'ground';
    |duay| 'plant, (fig.) affirm, settle';
    the PURposive mark |-dr-| is like Latin
    -nd- (?) in |delenda| 'to be erased' (?).
    |bikamidva| has |bik(a)| 'whole, wholly',
    |mid| 'time', |-va| (adverb derivation).
    A1 = adj. demonstrative, deixis level 1 ('this')

diso kai disib eutau Inci Nuti
di-so kai di-sib eu-tau-0 inc-i nut-i
IMP-come 1sX IMP-join ESS-beyond-CON road-DEF star-DEF
"come we, join at beyond-space of the Star Road"


--Pablo Flores
  http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/nyh/lng/

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