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Re: A more challenging poetry translation challenge

From:caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...>
Date:Monday, November 28, 2005, 16:05
--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@Y...> wrote:

>She by the river sat, and sitting there, >She wept, and made it deeper by a tear.
Thank you for the wonderful translation exercise. I was especially taken by the ambivalence of "by." By means of? To the extent of? I have decided upon a few ways to express poetry in Senjecan: 1) alliteration - voiced may be used with unvoiced. 2) non-standard word order 3) alteration of primary and secondary pitch. 4) parallelism, à la Hebrew. ü = labialization; ß = dz); ç = ts) Standard word order: dâân-es cóma n-e-sêd-a, cái tóru sêd-ant-un, river-STAT.sg by 3sg.-past-sit-indic. and there sit-STAT.part.- NOM.sg. n-e-câlü-a, dârs-os rééßa nem e-çâl-ant-un. 3sg.-past-weep-indic., tear-STAT.sg. by 3sg. past-deepen-STAT-part.- NOM.sg. Poetic word order; nesêda dâânes cóma, (8 syl.) / tór'cüe sêdantun, (5 syllables) necâlüa, dârsos rééßa, (8 syl.) / nem e-çâlantum. (5 syllables) Note: 1) the parallelism of the first half of each line (I forget the technical name!): verb, noun, postposition, AND each part has 8 syllables. Likewise 5 syllables in the 2nd halves. 2) the second word in each first half begins with "d." 3) the particple in each 2nd half is preceded by "e": "cüe" and "e-." 4) the "s" of "sêdantun" and the "ç" of "çâlantun" are alveolars. It's a start! Charlie http://wiki.frath.net/user:caeruleancentaur

Replies

Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>
Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>