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

--- In conlang@y..., Andreas Johansson <and_yo@H...> wrote:
> >
> >--> Obviously, "River of Stars" is what the Obrenaj call the Milky
> >     Way.  I like the expression, although it means I can't use the
> >     name for a real river in Obrenaja anymore.  Ah well, you can't
> >     make drazno without breaking a few nuts.
>
> Does this mean that the Obrenaj know that the Milky Way's made up of stars,
> or do they merely associate it with stars 'cos it's found among 'em?
That depends on which universe you're talking about.  =P

When the Obrenaj started out as the Antelope clan of Pii, they were
about as technologically advanced as we are, and thus well aware of
the nature of the Milky Way.

Planet Pii has been dormant for many months now, and I've adapted
the Obrenaj to the world of the Creative Conclave, where the tech
level is lower, but a strong fantasy element is present...  I figure
they still have telescopes, but considering the non-trivial celestial
mechanics of the Conclave, there might not even be a Milky Way to
observe.  I'll have to check that.

Then, there's the sci-fi universe "Mille Terrae" I was intending to
build myself...  unfortunately, it kinda bogged down as soon as I
had started the project.  Jovia is situated in that universe.  With
wormhole-borne space travel available, it would be hard to ignore
the nature of the Milky Way.  ;-)



> Hm, no Tairezan name of the Milky Way as yet. A'course, to them the Galaxy
> is in many ways much like the Earth is to us, and it would probably strike
> them as odd to have a special name for the apparent band of light across the
> sky.
I don't quite understand what that second sentence is trying to say...
Especially since we do have special names for the Earth (Earth, the
World, Terra...) and it doesn't strike us as odd.  =P



-- Christian Thalmann