Re: Yet another text for translation

From: "John Cowan"

> The sheep bleats,
>    hungry for food,
>    hungry for warmth.
> The sturdy mangrove,
>    roots deep in the water,
>    sways in the breeze.
> And the sloth just watches.
>
> Great comforting leaves.
> Warm distressed wool.
> And the sloth just watches.
In Géarthnuns:

Che nggarhaths la men,
Cha glomansat ürafalöth,
Chö tengüdhaubsöt ürafalöth.
Chau manaburs zhanör la,
Chük baidlöksüp chü mníaksüb bö küreküb,
Chau bövarsaub waur shadvöz.
Chau nggazörs la orha öiü dimtel.

Chak ainsap unap zharíönap.
Chü míngkaks émnözhtölök tengüdhauk.
Chau nggazörs la orha öiü dimtel.

Interlinear:

Che nggarhaths la men,
the sheep-nom pres-aux bleet,

Cha glomansat ürafalöth,  1
the food-acc wanting-nom,

Chö tengüdhaubsöt ürafalöth.
the warmth-acc wanting-nom.

Chau manaburs zhanör la,
the mangrove-nom sturdy-nom pres-aux,

Chük baidlöksüp chü mníaksüb bö küreküb,  2
the-pl root-nom/pl the water-post in deep-nom/pl,

Chau bövarsaub waur shadvöz.
the breeze-post in.the.middle.of sway.

Chau nggazörs la orha öiü dimtel.  3
the sloth-nom pres-aux and only watch.

Chak ainsap unap zharíönap.  4
the-pl leaf-nom/pl comforting-nom/pl great-nom/pl.

Chü míngkaks émnözhtölök tengüdhauk.  5
the wool-nom weathered/aged-nom warm-nom.

Chau nggazörs la orha öiü dimtel.
the sloth-nom pres-aux and only watch.

Notes:

1. The word for "hungry" is "glozhürafalöb", literally "wanting to eat".
Thus the metaphorical usage of "hungry for warmth" doesn't work. I thought
of using the stronger "pshernökhalöth", "yearning for" which I think is
closer to metaphorical hunger, but having "glomans" and "ürafalöth" next to
one another suggests the more concrete hunger of the second line.

2. Poetic license here. Since verbs don't inflect and both the mangrove and
the roots are in the nominative, it is potentially confusing as to what is
swaying. In normal prose, the "root" line would employ a locative absolute
construction, adding "chau nöialörsauv", "the being-loc" at the end of the
line, but that impacts the concision of the original. So I dropped it. By
placing the auxiliary "la" in the same line as "mangrove" (it would probably
normally come two lines down before "the breeze), it makes it clear that
"mangrove" is the subject, and keeps the structure throughout the poem in
Géarthnuns that each line starts with "the".

3. The normal word for "and" is "kfö". It is not allowed at the beginning of
a sentence, but would have had the interesting effect of slightly jarring
the reader and giving this line special significance. Nevertheless, to keep
the "the" parallelism running through the poem, I opted for the
grammatically tamer "orha".

4. "Unap", "comforting", implies offering solace. Didn't know if that's what
was meant here.

5. Also wasn't sure about "distressed" so went for the meaning as in
"distressed wood", "distressed jeans". "Émnözhtölök" means "weathered,
aged"; to hone in on "distressed", one would add "deliberately", but that
makes the line too long, and breaks the parallelism of the "N-ADJ-ADJ"
structure with the previous line.

Kou