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

On Sun, Sep 01, 2002 at 10:06:05PM +0200, Christian Thalmann wrote:
[snip]
> I especially enjoyed naming the Milky Way in Obrenje.  What do you
> guys call it in your langs?
Do you *really* want to know? ;-) (For Ebisedian, that is... :-P)

>  Unlike constellations, which are very
> much dependent on the local stellar neighborhood, all human or alien
> cultures will see the bulk of their native galaxy in their night
> sky... except if they're in some lonely intergalactic star system.
> And I assume the Ebisedi have something entirely different anyway.  ;-)
[snip]

Imagine, if you will, a 3-dimensional analogue of the surface of a bowl of
chicken soup, where scattered patches of grease float over scattered
patches of water. One corresponds with the _K0'nori_, the "fire lands",
regions of energetic instability, and the other corresponds with regions
of stability. Now imagine bits of vegetable and meat floating among these
grease and water patches. They correspond to the _kacoo'ri_, the
landmasses, where the Ebisedi dwell.

The hot soup beneath the surface of the water represent the
higher-dimensional "ether" of the Ferochromon, existing as it were
"beneath" or "parallel" to the 3-dimensional physical world, affecting it
in indirect ways. (But here the analogy breaks down, because there is
nothing corresponding with bits of vegetable or meat inside the soup.)

Of course, the Ebisedi are fortunate that there is no equivalent of
somebody stirring the soup with a spoon of astronomical sizes, causing
universe-wide destruction. :-)

Now imagine little bits of powdered pepper on the surface of the soup,
corresponding to the occasional _Ka'l3ri_ or _vyy'i_, and you have a rough
picture of how the Ferochromon is organized (as far as 3D "space" is
concerned).

Viewed this way, it should be clear that the sky the Ebisedi are familiar
with consists of bright spheres, corresponding to the _Ka'l3ri_ (perhaps
even one close enough to be regarded as the analog of the sun), and in the
background, faintly-glowing, glittering "streams", corresponding to the
_K0'n0ri_, like many Milky Ways interspersed with each other, occasionally
with distant landmasses visible either on their own, or as a shadow
against the backdrop of the _K0'n0ri_.

Of course, this doesn't account for the "clouds" of particles usually
floating above the landmass, which would be analogous to clouds in our
sky.

Keeping in mind that many _Ka'l3ri_ are not stable phenomena -- although
most large ones are quite long-lasting and even named by the Ebisedi, many
smaller ones come and go, or may be periodic, etc. -- and you have a much
more interesting and dynamic sky than we have on Earth.


T

--
Your inconsistency is the only consistent thing about you! -- KD