Re: CHAT: TRANS: something slightly more deep (was: TRANS: flutes)

Nik Taylor euecuet:
> yl-ruil wrote:
> >
> > I'm not a Christian, but I thought a bit of the
> > bible would be a bit deeper
>
> Do you belong to any religion, if so, why don't you give a sample of
> that for a translation relay?
OK, I'm game. I'm a follower of what is variously termed Asatru or (my
personal preference) Ostreowth. We worship the ancient gods of England, i.e.
the ones who gave their names to the days of the week and a few others. My
patron(ess) is Erce, goddess of the earth. This passage is a translation of
an Anglo-Saxon poem in honour of Erce. I give the original, the Aredos
translation and then the English. I've used (as always) acute accents
instead of macrons (except in the OE, where I can't be bothered).

Erce, Erce, Erce, eorþan modor,
geunne ðe se alwalda, ece drihten,
æcera wexendra ond wridendra,
eacniendra ond elniendra,
sceafta hehra scirra wæstma,
ond þæa bradan berewæstma
ond þæra hwitan hwætewæstma,
ond ealra eorþ wæstma

Alandhia, Alandhia, Alandhia, máter dhehosio
tuve datu regu omnís, cários aevosio,
agrons aucerentons fleantonscue
coltonscue, meciantonscue
colmons cúcons, ogiules matons
carponscue uárons herendhó
ca carponscue cuidhuns grilaus
carpons omninscue dhehosio.

Erce, Erce, Erce, mother of earth,
May the All-Ruler, Eternal Lord grant you,
Fields growing and flourishing,
Fertile and strengthening,
High blades, splendid fruits,
And broad harvests of barley
And white harvests of wheat,
And all the crops of the earth.

First, a few notes. I have used Alandhia to translate Erce, because this is
the Carastan earth-goddess. The text of the poem would confuse Carastans,
however. It presents the All-Ruler (Woden, cf Norse Óðinn) as granting the
goddess her bounty, but in Carastan mythology Alandhia is the ruler of the
gods, how could there even be a male "All-Ruler"? They might think that the
poem was composed by one of the later (and very arrogant) emperors, as
cários aevosio was an Imperial title.
Here's the interlinear reading of the Aredos:

Alandhia, Alandhia, Alandhia, máter dhehosio
Alandhia-voc, Alandhia-voc, Alandhia-voc, mother-nom earth-gen
tuve datu regu omnís, cários aevosio,
you-dat (s.) give-3p (imperative) ruler-nom all-gen, commander-nom aeons-gen
agrons aucerentons fleantonscue
fields-acc growing-acc flourishing-acc-and
coltonscue, meciantonscue
fertile-acc, strong-causative_infix-acc-and
colmons cúcons, ogiules matons
stalks-acc high-acc, fruits-acc good-acc (matos is archaic and has the
poetic sense of splendid)
carponscue uárons herendhó
harvests-acc-and wide-acc barley-gen
ca carponscue cuidhuns grilaus
and harvests-acc-and white-acc wheat-gen
carpons omninscue dhehosio.
harvests-acc all-acc-and world-gen

This was actually quite hard to translate, as many OE terms were difficult
to render into Aredos, eg the OE term drihten means not only "lord" but also
"leader" and "ruler", while cários means "military commander".

You might be interested to know that on the basis of new source material on
PIE nominal inflections I've overhauled the Aredos nominal paradigms. There
are now three declensions, each with five declensional patterns in. If
you're really all that interested I can mail "before" and "after" paradigms.

Well, there you go. Something Northern and barbaric. Enjoy!

Dan.