Re: Multilingual translation exercise, part 2

On Fri, 14 Jun 2002 11:01:38 -0400, John Cowan <jcowan@...>
wrote:

>"I'm going to rock this child in his cot," sighs Orgon, son of Ubu.  "I'm
>going to wolf down mutton, broccoli, dumplings, rich plum pudding.  I'm
>going to drink, not grog, but punch."  Orgon drinks hock, too, rum, Scotch,
>plus two hot brimming mugs of Bovril to finish up with, which soon prompts
>him to nod off.  Running brooks drown out his snoring.  I stroll to rocks on
>which I too will nod off, with Orgon's dozing son, with Orgon, son of Ubu.
>
>Condors swoop down on us.  Poor scrofulous lions slink out, scrutinizing
>dingos with scornful looks.  Chipmunks run wild.  Opossums run, too, without
>stopping.  North or south?  I wouldn't know.  Plunging off clifftops, bison
>splits limb in two.  It hurts.  Ivy grows on brick, rising up from stucco
>pots to shroud windows or roofs.
>
>From Ubu's bottom drops his own bulk in gold.
Well, it's hard to resist a translation that includes the phrase "Chipmunks
run wild"! But whether the lions are affected with tuberculosis or morally
degenerate (which meaning isn't immediately clear), Tirelat doesn't yet
have the words to describe their condition. The list of drinks in the first
paragraph is also beyond my vocabulary. (I assume Bovril is a brand name of
some kind, so that could go untranslated.)

So I'll start with just "Chipmunks run wild". I'm assuming the narrator
actually observed the chipmunks. Now I just have to come up with a Tirelat
equivalent for "run wild".

Sa kittari vzhirviven ve manta shandi mizal.
[sa "citta4i v\@"Zi4v\iEn v\E "manta s`andi mi"zal]
sa  kittari  v -zhirvi-ve-n  ve  manta      shandi  mizal
NOM chipmunk 3p-wander-ON-PF LOC all.around without limit
"Chipmunks wander about without restraint."
(ON = observed, nonpast)

Pretty verbose. But maybe it would be acceptable to object-incorporate
"manta" into the verb, and omit "shandi mizal" (which could be adverbially
rephrased "mizalshaini", but that's not much better).

Sa kittari vmantazhirviven.
[sa "citta4i v\@"manta%Zi4v\iEn]
sa  kittari  v -manta     -zhirvi-ve-n
NOM chipmunk 3p-all.around-wander-ON-PF
"Chipmunks wander about."

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