Re: Translation (almost) done

On 29 May, taliesin the storyteller wrote:

> Now, the main remaining problem is the line "it was almost too late to
> escape". How does non-Indoeuropean languages translate this line?
Today, in the course of my work, I was at a school where this topic
(escape :-)  ) has a daily relevance. (The school is for "problem kids"
and attempts to escape from it, both with and without serious thought
are nothing new. In fact, today, one kid bolted for the Great Outdoors while
walking with me to my office. (He was stopped by the magic of the basketball
hoop and stayed there shooting imaginary baskets until the staff had
time to come and collect him!)
    Anyhow, about translations:
    I asked the native Hebrew speakers in the teachers' room and
this is what they said: "it was almost too late to escape" would be:

| kim'at  velo hispik livroax |

kim'at  = almost
ve = and
lo = not
hispik = he sufficed (Causative form; ie " he caused to be enough")
li = to (infinitive marker)
vroax = flee, escape

or loosely: "almost and he didn't suffice to escape"


> A similar problem is the line "but not without wondering fairly
> seriously". Plenty of adverbs in English and all the IE-langs I know, so
> how else can this be done?

    I was informed that, in Hebrew, you can't express this with a double
negative. You'd have to rephrase it into a positive construction, something
along the lines of  "if and only if":

| ax verak im yakdiS hirhur ma'amik |

ax = but, however
ve = and
rak = only

ax verak = common idiom for expressing "only" in a more emphatic way

im = if
yakdiS = he will devote
hirhur = consideration, "mental work"
ma'amik = deep


Hope this helps.

Dan Sulani
-------------------------------------------------------------
likehsna    rtem  zuv  tikuhnuh  auag  inuvuz  vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.