Re: Translation Challenge: Foucault's Pendulum

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sally Caves" <scaves@...>

> Did it already!  You'll have to go to ZBB to see it, though. :)  Got stuck
> on "singularity," thinking it was the mathematical term.
Oh, alright!  You twisted my arm! :)   Sorry not to have time to put it on a
web site like Carsten!  BTW, great job, Carsten!

I see others have been doing their work! It's taken me just as long, if not
longer, but here it is in Teonaht, with a glossary and literal translation.
I've also given it the customary Teonaht rhetorical flourishes.

Keyts, elepmavarn, ban ke prebmal nelry il Pendovar.

Ynnehil! Li pomf, tand karn estro aid fenrem celil hsalyr, nomai pendo; aid
bom-hsoyzar harymhhova ev himhheo mazrodantema nomai lis. Yryi, oy pelman
talmim ain evil fimwe meual tasryht-jo, aiba ryppre: li heo aid elepmar evil
nibronnados ilid estrole karnid tyr evil pi nomai lis. Ynnehil pi! ta voto
prerem oba mivvya ev pelmen takremaiht! Ev umrraco mohsamaka il eryn fymjo
ggrendis ilid poto korn nomai dema! Il heo ilid hsoyzo pomfid harymhova uoa
tebrigresp nuehra volwenjo elepma, send etsa adma nibro niggrendis
hilttembro aiddey: ilid pendole nopt le vohos, ilid hynggendisin nakuebakid
le tibronad, ilid pi le mipo elinadihs, evil dro osinid le freminad kriliar,
send ilid kor le nerha voto mivyemar.

Tyr yppre rendo vyhhtresto kömpnettyrtis fompalisp-il: oba vyhhtresto celil
mahlom tsobfen, aiba fompalisp celil kolvar pompfid tsobkkavar. Keyts oba
vyhhresto! Il elep ilid pendovar ometsa trasl vera; ma aid deuo ommetsa
vesa. Send kwa hdar hsan? Poto mimmywem tand karn bomppendor voggriftihs uo
voto viraned, send hil tennil uo evvaiba hil forfo, ö rembaht esdwa hsoyza.

Literally:

Let us observe, readers, when see beforenow did I (non-volitionally) the
Pendulum!

Behold its sphere, from a wire long its placing in the ceiling does it
habitually hang, its swinging here-there by even-time most kingly does it
get. On my part--although perceive it can any person by its breath serene,
magic-and--this [next] do I know: the duration its controlling by the
fourfold-center of the wire's length by also pi does it get. Behold pi! how
unknowable that number by worldly minds! By a rationality (lit.
reasonableness) greater the around- and across-measure of all circles does
it bind. The duration of the sphere's swinging here-there an agreement
strange and old does rule, and that same by five timeless measurements it
does: of the point's suspension the "not-center"; of the plane's dimensions
(sizes) the duality, of pi the threefold beginning, of the root's nature the
secret fourfoldedness, and of the circle the unnumberable perfection.

Also I know commands a metal-loving engine a cylinder, that engine in the
floor centered, this cylinder in the sphere's bowels hidden. Let's see this
engine! The Law of the Pendulum does it not disturb, but its action it
permits. And why? All objects hanging from a wire weightless
unstretchable-and, and airless and hence frictionless eternally will they
swing.

Re-translated:

Observe, readers, when I first saw the Pendovar!

Behold! its sphere hangs from a long wire placed in the ceiling, swinging
here and there with majestic evenness of time. I, though any one can
perceive it in its calm, magic breathing, know this: that its duration is
governed by the "fourfold root" of the wire's length and by pi. Behold pi!
How irrational is that number to commonplace thought! By a greater
rationality it binds the circumference and the diameter of every circle. An
old and strange agreement rules the duration of the sphere's swinging back
and forth, and it does so by five timeless measurements: the singularity of
the suspension point, the duality of the plane's dimensions, the threefold
beginning of pi, the fourfold secret nature of the root, and the circle's
unnumberable perfection.

I know also that a magnetic machine commands a cylinder, the machine being
centered in the floor, the cylinder in the bowels of the sphere. Let's
observe this engine: It does not disturb the Law of the Pendovar, but allows
its action. And why? All objects haning from a weightless and unstretchable
wire airless and hence frictionless will swing eternally.

THE DIFFICULT WORDS:

pendovar.  Where do think THAT comes from?? (pendorem, "hang"; pendovar,
"hanging thing."  Probably should be "swinging thing": hsoyzavar)

isochronism. I chose "himhheo," meaning "even duration."

square root. I choose "fourfold" os, a word meaning "inner thing, i.e.,
root, center.

measurement is a Nenddeylyt word, and has a special object case: greddyr,
grendis. For diameter and circumference it was not hard to add around- and
across-measurement.

dimension. This has so many meanings in English already, but for this
purpose I chose "through measurement," which applies to "size" as well as
the mathematical notion of the measurements throughout space.

root. Well, couldn't exactly give my word for plant root, so I chose again
to use os, "center," "inner thing," to make it correspond more closely to a
mathematical term the Teonim might use.

magnetic. "Metal loving"! Kombya is "sexual love, sexual or strong physical
attraction," so that seemed perfect.

cylinder, "that which gets rolled." -isp is a nominal suffix that suggests
an object that gets the action done to it.

friction. I used the word in Teonaht for "rubbing." Easy.

singularity. This was the most difficult word, and it has come about through
decades, centuries of mathematical study. It means so many things. I know
what it means in astrophysics, but I'm not so sure of its mathematical
significance. I did a lot of research, and came up with "no center." Vohos.
A singularity is a point for which a derivative does not exist any longer,
but every "neighborhood" of which contains points for which the derivative
exists. Clear as mud. Googled it, and found similarly worded passages: a
point at which a given mathematical object is not defined. So a point that
has no observed "center" or derivative. I'm only trying to think of how a
Teonaht mathematician might word it. Teonaht mathematics is not something
I've explored, and I imagine all its terms are pre-Terran, and completely
unintelligible.


Sally

An impressive number of people completed this challenge, including the
inventors of Itlani and Aluhrsa, both of whom have a very fluent grasp of
their language! :)

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Carsten Becker" <carbeck@...>
>> As seen on the ZBB. It's a real challenge, but worth it.
>> See: www.beckerscarsten.de/conlang/ayeri/xmp_pendulum.pdf --

>> TRANSLATION CHALLENGE: FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM
>>
>> Or, a challenge for the semioticians - the first page of
>> Umberto Eco's _Foucault's Pendulum_.
>> This is a relatively complex passage, which should put any
>> conlang through its paces. Is your conlang up to it? Go on,
>> I dare you.
>>
>> << That was when I saw the Pendulum.
>>
>> The sphere, hanging from a long wire set into the ceiling
>> of the choir, swayed back and forth with isochronal majesty.
>>
>> I knew - but anyone could have sensed it in the magic of
>> that serene breathing - that the period was governed by the
>> square root of the length of the wire and by pi, that number
>> which, however irrational to sublunar minds, through a
>> higher rationality binds the circumference and diameter of
>> all possible circles. The time it took the sphere to swing
>> from end to end was determined by an arcane conspiracy
>> between the most timeless of measures: the singularity of
>> the point of suspension, the duality of the plane's
>> dimensions, the triadic beginning of pi, the secret
>> quadratic nature of the root and the unnumbered perfection
>> of the circle itself.
>>
>> I also knew that a magnetic device centred in the floor
>> beneath issued its command to a cylinder hidden in the heart
>> of the sphere, thus assuring continual motion. This device,
>> far from interfering with the law of the Pendulum, in fact
>> permitted its manifestation, for in a vacuum any object
>> hanging from a weightless and unstretchable wire free of air
>> resistance and friction will oscillate for eternity. >>
>>
>> (Dewrad, www.spinnoff.com/zbb/viewtopic.php?t=17730)
>>
>> --------------------
>>
>> In the thread on the ZBB this is from there are also
>> translation of the above into Icelandic and Indonesian -- by
>> native speakers, but unfortunately without interlinears or
>> any other explanations.
>>
>> Have fun,
>> Carsten
>>
>> --
>> "Miranayam kepauarà naranoaris." (Kalvin nay Hobbes)
>> Tenena, Tyemuyang 19, 2315 ya 10:54:38 pd
>>
>