Re: My first translation in Moten! Champagne for all!

(A bit long, I'm afraid - and only remotely connected to languages, but
there's a nice bit of Denden at the bottom.)

On Thu, 3 Jun 1999, Sally Caves wrote:

> Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
>
> Hmmm.  But the lovely thing about the Babel text is that it is pretty
> secular.  Straw, bricks, mortar, a tower, a name for the people, etc.
> Ideally suited, it strikes me, for the urban, mural-painting Charyans!
Don't forget that they are not only urban, but also fun-loving and
often excruciatingly practical. What practical purpose can be gained
by building a tower that scratches the buttocks of the Moon? She's apt
to take offense! If the object is to impress neighbouring peoples, why,
there's already a perfectly good Imperial Palace, with a perfectly good
army to drive the point home... Ah, but the story speaks of the distant
past! But is known that nothing like that happened - no text speaks of
it, and besides, there's not a single god who could have done that. At
the beginning of the world they were far to busy deciding who of them
could marry the world to do anything to the people living on her.

> You might have to work in a few Hebrew place names (Shinar, and so
> forth), and sure... God does come down and jealously confounds the
> work and the language of the humans, but couldn't this role be filled
> by one of the Charyan deities?  Or is there no such jealous, controlling
> goddess in Charyan culture?
There are a couple of great and elder gods, most conveniently
associated with the sun, the moon, the planet Andal itself and two other
planets. Those don't have to do much with the people on the world itself
anymore. Of course, their festivals are celebrated, and their struggles
remembered. And once, perhaps, Andal will be married to one of the other
planets (the sun and the moon being her father and mother - or was it
the other way around - the sources are not unanimous), but the Charyans
rather hope she'll follow their example and marry them both.

Then there are the gods who were powerful when the Charyans still lived
in the South - amongst these there are Yignis and Shesal, Fire and Water,
respectively, and a number of others, like Kamyar, the Fertile Lord.
These gods are powerful and it is unwise to provoke them - it is also
difficult to provoke them since they are so distint and aloof that
it is almost impossible for a mere human, even if he were an emperor,
to attract their attention. They are half-way anthropomorphous, but
most often seen as the forces of nature.

Those great gods begat the gods of the North: the Brother and Sister of
the Kirimanya, the Lord of the Seven (though some sources say Nine) Hells,
the Lady of Life, perhaps even the Nine Teleg (of whom traditionally
nothing is known) and a lot of others.

Of these gods, only the Brother and Sister and perhaps Yergorn play
an active role in daily life. The Brother helps people in need with
practical advice the Sister with those little problems every woman
knows of. Together they tend to bring peace to households torn with
strife. Yergorn ushers the souls into the Hells (but isn't very capable
of keeping them in).

Next to the gods of the North, there are the gods of the vanquished
people.  No-one in his right mind would dare not to worship them. After
all, first you conquer his or her worshippers and then you would dare
to anger the god by not offering compensation! However, if adequately
placated, these gods won't try to meddle in daily life.

The last category of gods, that of the deified dear deceased, is very
active.  The cat goddess Qunayir takes an active interest in young
people who might be attracted to her service. When she was still alive
and human, Qunayir was one of those old ladies you have in every city,
who cares for the stray cats in the alleys. Once she took care of a cat
that belonged to a rich merchant, who built a temple in her honour when
she died, out of thanks.

All these small ex-human gods (the divine philosopher is one of them,
though an ancient one) tend to be extremely jealous, and you have to take
great care in the arrangement of statues on your altar, lest you find
the whole room smashed up one morning due to a divine disagreement. But
they aren't powerful enough to do anything like scatter the people
and make their speech mutually unintelligible. Besides, people already
speak different languages, which is all to the good, because how would
one otherwise know the cultured from the uneducated and the foreigner
from oneself?

Oh, and due to the influence of the conquered Matraian empire, the emperor
is revered as if he were a god, but everyone knows he isn't really, yet.
Although Rordal Twuindal Sedom'chevir is certainly a fine figure of a
man and a good leader, if a tardy paymaster for his troops. And he's a
bit too infatuated with his Vustlani girlfriend, too. But, yes, on his
birthday we'll offer a few prayers to him, certainly. And fortunately,
he's already got this palace, with a tower.

>
> What if your people were handed a text like
> this from Genesis?  What would they do with it?  They seem like a
> textually oriented, curious bunch.  They certainly don't stint at
> chronicling interesting tidbits of Charyan lore and literature!
>
Laugh at it, I think. Everyone knows it's ridiculous. It can't be the
truth, since it's contradictory to what's known as the truth, and it's
a bad story, too, since there isn't a single poem in it. And it's so
implausible - wouldn't it have been easier to just strike their emperor
with some disease? Those builders aren't guilty of anything - they just
obeyed orders, didn't they? Probably had a family, too, no need to punish
them and their children.

On the whole, I think they'd decide not to conquer us, so that they'd
never have to adopt that God, since that would bring disaster as regards
their own gods.

If there's anything that would be worth translating out of the bible into
Denden, it would be the Canticum Canticorum, and perhaps bits out of Kings.


> Sally
>
> Issytra:  "Go for it, I say!"
>
Do tauyuanzo, yemadir'she. Won ga, do aratju.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt