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
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