Re: North Wind and Sun - Interlinear

Edgard Bikelis wrote:
>    Almost all I know are indo-european (classical) languages, then I
> may not be the best one to consider your language. Well... but as you
> asked, you are the only one to blame, eh eh eh ; ). I guess the '-de'
> is a... genitival suffix, am i right? Otherwise I think you would have
> analised it differently. Anyway... no declensions...? (an affirmation
> with 1/3 of question tone). I would like to know about the verb
> architecture... and are there really different verbs for actions taken
> at night or day? : ) Interesting idea, if so.
>
>    Maybe I'm too fond of 'translationese', respecting half of the
> original, half of the target language, but I would translate
> differently, to preserve the circumloqu... the roundabout expressions:
>
>
> The North Wind and the Sun were disputing for years about this: Which
> one was the strongest?
> Then a (female??) traveler came during the day, wearing a warm cloak.
> They two talked like this: The first one to make him not to wear the
> cloak will know (himself?) to be the strongest.
> The North Wind was so strong to blow as to be impossible (for him?) to
> blow any harder, but
> the traveler still wore his cloak as to remain warm, and the North
> Wind blew even more because of that,
> finally giving up after the attempt.
> The Sun then shone as to make everything warm, and the traveller
> hurried to take his cloak off.
>
> Thus the Sun made the North Wind keep saying that, for years to
> count:  The Sun is the strongest.
>
>
>    Yep, I adorned it a bit : ).
>
>
> Edgard Bikelis.
Still, I like the adornment.  In the line where "the traveler still wore
his cloak...the North Wind blew even more", the -cna clitic indicates
that the North Wind blowing is the cause for the traveler's behavior,
not the other way around.

Overall though, the translationese you've made here is something I
definitely enjoy.  As you can see, a word-for-word translation (what I
have on row 3 of the interlinear) doesn't really explain it well
enough.  I might put in another line, translated more like what you have.

Regarding the night/day thing going on with the verbs, it's actually a
tense marker (more or less) indicating when the action was taken.  The
female marker on "traveler", however, is for agreement purposes, not to
mark the gender of "traveler".

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