Re: Rabbit

On Tuesday 24 June 2003 07:02 pm, John L. Leland wrote:

... a translation of a poem about a rabbit (which is the first time I
saw it. I've been busy.) This inspired me to not just translate it into
Kélen, but to do so with some view to verse structure:

la-xúsa pa 'nénéja kéñ;
pa rién antóxa wá
kexien anjéxona;
ilxéw ñi'nnóña rá
ñi ri maróxiena;
aT sexe 'nxiéna wá to pa 'nénéja wá;

Interlinear & Notes:
la-xúsa pa 'nénéja        kéñ;
O xúsa PA brown-ness ?
xúsa is a word I just made up for something small & pet-like.
anénéja is specifically the brown used to refer to hair or skin color.
PA relates a whole, here elided & therefore referring to xúsa, and a
part, namely 'brownness'.
kéñ is the question marker
'O xúsa, have you brown-ness?'

pa rién  antóxa      wá
PA 2ps slow-ness not
'You have no slow-ness'

kexien anjéxona;
*         opposite
*kexien is one of those conjunctions that is emphatic, and is only used
when the second phrase/clause is something expected, so 'instead' in
this context.
'Instead [you have] the opposite.'

ilxéw ñi'nnóña rá
*       NI death come
*ilxéw(e) means 'eventually', but since it's derived from the root -xéw-
'late', it means something that is hopefully put off for a while, as
opposed to illónen 'someday' as in 'Someday, my prince will come..'
ñi indicates that something has had a change in state.
ñi ... rá maens 'come'
'Someday, death will come'

ñi ri   maróxiena;
NI 2p *
*maróxiena means someone who is remembered with sadness, because they
are no longer there, because some part of them has been lost. -ró-
means 'lost'.
'you will become mourned'

aT sexe                'nxiéna      wá  to     pa 'nénéja      wá;
&   SE+3p.pl-goal knowledge not SRC PA browness not
SE indicates something (knowledge) has a source & a goal/experiencer
to is a source particle
'and they will not know that you were not brown.'

That was fun.
Accented vowels are long, unaccented are short.
/ie/ & /ié/ are diphthongs, so count as one syllable

-Sylvia
--
Sylvia Sotomayor
sylvia1@ix.netcom.com
kelen@ix.netcom.com

Kélen language info can be found at:
http://home.netcom.com/~sylvia1/Kelen/kelen.html

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