Re: Shī Shì shí shī shǐ

The following was posted to the list 4 1/2 years ago. I still marvel
that some people's languages are developed enough for this kind of
verbal play ... (If Padraic is still here, I hope he forgives my
presumption in reposting his message.)

> From: Padraic Brown <elemtilas@...>
> Date: December 10, 2002 8:19:49 PM MST
> To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
> Subject: Ambiguity in Poetry?
> Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>
> Here's a winning entry at the 2002 Bardic
> College's competitions this past Summer in
> Castreleon. It won first prize for fewest letters
> used in a poem; but curiously only second prize
> in most problematic interpretation. Two old
> bardic judges did come to blows over their
> respective interpretations, however:
>
> amaramaramaram
>
> The troubles come largely from the poem's lack of
> punctuation and accent marks. It can be variously
> translated as:
>
> Falling in love - the enlivening herb!
> To be in love - the bitter herb!
> Bitter love! on to suicide!
> Spicy-hot love! leads to marriage!
>
> The words that caused all this trouble are:
>
> amar, a verb which means "love";
>
> am-ar, a compound preposition that generally
> means "around", "to", "towards", "on to";
>
> ámar, an adjective that means "bitter", "spicy",
> "pungent", "sweet", or a noun that means
> "smelling salts";
>
> ram, a noun that connotes branchiness, meaning
> "branch", "stick", "gallows" (ram y gigges),
> "maypole" (ram l' amur), "weed or herb".
>
> Anyone have similar to share?
>
> Padraic.
>
>
> =====
> fas peryn omen c' yng ach h-yst yn caleor peryn ndia;
> enffoge yn omen ach h-yst yn caleor per la gouitha.