Re: first native text!

On Wed, 28 Jul 1999, J. Barefoot wrote:

> On a long car trip last Sunday, I finally discovered the first connected
> _native_ text in Asiteya. It's a classical hymn, though the melody is not
> forthcoming. Probably in a minor key.
Here's the Valdyan version; it might even acquire a melody of its
own, it's prosodically sound (though the last two lines might be
taken together to give the verse four feet).

Sudini dushen,
bryni ayali le dystayt fostene.
Tine dobruve.

Sudei lenei
idainene hine istyn istynat.
Tine dobruve.

Sudi gyrnei foyin
telhyen.


> -The article used is consistently the polite article.
Does that imply that a deity is being addressed, or that some force
of nature is being addressed as a deity? (not either/or, for all I
know I've missed the mark completely)


Anyway, here's the interlinear text and comments:

sudini       dushen
cloud-gen-cp cloak-nom-s

"The cloak of the (cloudy) sky"

Three words for "sky": _lazi_ "night sky with stars" (it's the
collective plural of "star"); _lest_ "firmament", "clear (blue) sky"
(it means "blue" and _lesten_ "into the blue" is a common way of
saying "thataway"); _sudi_, the collective plural of "cloud", used
for "cloudscape", "cloudy sky", that is, when you can't see all the
way up to what's thought to be the floor of the abode of the gods.
The mists and clouds seem to imply the last one.


bryni          ayali  le  dystayt      fostene
mountain-nom-p dp-3pN RFL drape-3p-PRS fog-ins-p

"All the mountains drape themselves with mists"

This implies that the mist makes the mountains hard to see; not
absolutely invisible, but camouflaged, shrouded. The word is also
used for camouflage with psychic powers, when someone makes
themselves or an object hard to see; you see it, but you don't pay
attention to it. It's a "shy" word.

_Ayali_ "all, every" means every mountain separately, rather than all
mountains collectively (which would be _ali_ without the distributive
a-). It's often used as an empathic "all": "EVERYthing".


tine dobruve
2sS  AUG.beauty

"You are very beautiful"

_Tine_ is slightly more emphatic than _tin_ and marks the pronoun as
topic.


sudei       lenei
cloud-abl-s far-abl-s

"From a distant cloud"

Nothing to be said about that :-)


idainene  hine  istyn     istynat
sea-loc-p above lightning flash-3s-P

"Above the sea lightning flashes"

The usual way to say that there's lightning is _lea istynat_, the
impersonal construction, but I've given it its logical subject to
reflect AGT. _Istyna_ with any other appropriate subject means "to
flash like lightning", used of eyes, the wrath of a god, etcetera.


tine dobruve
2sS  AUG.beauty

"You are very beautiful"


sudi        gyrnei    foyin
cloud-nom-p sun-gen-s feather-nom-cp

"The clouds are the feathers of the sun"


telhyen
dusk-loc

"at dusk"


            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
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