Re: Another little translation exercise

>From: Irina Rempt <ira@...>
>Subject:      Another little translation exercise
>
>A motto occurred to me that I read on a seventeenth-century house in
>Haarlem (my native town) and that I've more or less adopted as my
>own:
My father, whose mother was Dutch from "Goor", wherever it is,
made sure I could recite:

"If a task is once begun,
Never leave it till it's done,
Be the labor great or small,
Do it well or not at all."

I've tried to live by it, but I never realized that the sentiment, at
least, might have a Dutch origin.

>
>   Beginnen can ick, volherden wil ick, volbringhen sal ick
>
>In English:
>
>   I can begin, I want to persevere, I will succeed.
>
>In Valdyan:
>
>   Vesta veran, terna puran, farenin.
>
>vesta     veran       terna     puran         farenin
>begin-INF can-1s-PRS  persevere desire-1s-PRS succeed-PERF-1s-FUT
>
>_farenin_ is perfective future; the simple future _farin_ "I will
>succeed" is too indefinite for the meaning, as it might imply that
>it will always be in the future.
>
>Anyone else want to have a go?
>
>   Irina
>
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NGL, vector tense flavor:

Mi ka yirun,  mi di tiroron, mi la dulaor.  OR:
Mik yirun, mid tiroron, mil dulaor.

(using Vector Tense contractions of modals and tense)

I am able to begin, I want to persevere, I will have succeeded.

"la" is a future perfective tense marker. The verbs are not conjugated
in Vector tense, the root form is used for all tenses but the
infinitive. The infinitive is formed by infixing -ir- before the first
vowel of the root.

Jerry Koenig

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NGL vocabulary proposals:
*dulaor::-to succeed. From dul, join; baor, goal.
*toron::- to keep on, to persevere. (NGLers, I'm still looking for a
second for this word :) We may need it!)