Post bfvsgb5muFX

Robert Reynolds Dec 16, 2017 (21:15)

This is a rough draft of a translation of the famous excerpt from Carl Sagan’s lecture on the Pale Blue Dot. I’ve experimentally used Parmaquesta (my first such attempt) to emphasize the depth of his reflection and correspondingly aimed for an old style along the lines of Noldorin Quenya shortly before the Exile. I feel like it has taken far too many neologisms, though that may partly be due to this initial draft being fairly literal. Feedback is welcome!

Akárielwe tana *kaltengwá, ar, qui mo kenda sanna, mo kene tixé. Ta sinome. Ta Marda. Ta we. Sasse, ilquen yeo mo allárie oio, ily’ atan ye okoitie oio, oine aqua koivieryá. I okombe ilyai alassí yo kóloron, tankai *savesselí ta *savestalí ta *auramahtio *sávelí húmelí, ilya *farando yo *komyando, ilya kallo yo *úkallo, ilya *ontar yo nehtar nóríva, ily’ aran yo *alamo, ilya nessa veru melmesse, ily’ *ambatiríte wine, ily’ amil yo atar, ily’ *autar yo *þurmo, ilya *saitar *lengaleva, ilya hastaina káno, ily’ amalkarin, ilya *ingakundo, ily’ *mankarindo yo úkarindo nostaleo quentalesse, oine tanome muluva miesse, wilin’ armasse.

Ambar annípa men naira *ilua ardasse. á Sana pá sírí serkeva’n ilyai tanai hestor ta ingaraní ulúlier itan alkar yo túresse poldelte ole þintai herur astinkio tixeo. á Sana pá oialai nwalmai i *marindor men mino i tixeo inírier *hrailanyaimai *marindolinnar exa meno tixeo. Amarimbai *loihandaltar, *ankóreai te nahta quén i exé, *annaryai *mokieltar. *Úmentielwar, novina *imbaldalta, i *úsáve i samilwe eteminya men Ilusse, hehtainai néka káleva tana tixenen.

Ambarelwa eressea tixe i yána waitaila *ilua morniesse. Mordolwasse – ilya tana *nairiesse – lá ea *hiutale i *arahaþale tuluva rehta wé inwello. Ná wen kare. Quétiéla ná i *meneldíle *luhtaite, ar ké napanin, indóme-karila karaite. Sanarinyan, ké lá ea tanna *únolweo *atanya *valateo i arya lá tana palan *kaltengwa annípa ambarelwó. Nin, *amatanas kólolwá mahta ammelie yo *amofélie quén i exé ar varya yo *nile tana helwa tixé, i er marda’n isistielwe oio.

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*kaltengwe *kaltengwa “photograph, lit. light-writing”
*savesse “religion, lit. belief-system”
*savesta “ideology, lit. belief-collection”
*auramahtie “economy, lit. possession-management”
*sáve “belief”
*farindo *farando “hunter”
*komyando “forager, lit. gatherer”
*úkallo “coward, lit. unhero”
*ontar “creator”
*kemendur “peasant, farmer, lit. earth/soil-servant”
*alamo “peasant, farmer, lit. grower” from Helge Fauskanger
*ambatiríte “hopeful, optimistic, lit. up-looking”
*autar “inventor”
*þurmo “explorer, lit. seeker/inquirer”
*partar “teacher” < *parta-​ “to teach, lit. cause to learn”
*saitar “teacher” < *saita-​ “to teach, lit. cause to know, understand”
*lengale “behavior”
*ingakundo “supreme leader”
*alkarindo “saint, lit. good-doer” < ala-​ + karindo
*mankarindo “saint, lit. good-doer” < √man + karindo
*ilua “cosmic, universal”
*marindo “inhabitant, lit. dweller”
*hrailanyaima “scarcely distinguishable, lit. difficult to separate”
*loihanda “misunderstanding”
*ankórea “how eager, lit. very impulsive” < am- + hórea (interpretation based on Noldorin cognate hûr “readiness for action, vigour, fiery spirit”)
*annarya “how fervent, lit. very fiery”
*mokie “hatred” < Early Q mok- “to hate”
*úmentie “posturing, lit. bad moving”
*imbalda “self-importance, lit. self-worth” < im- + Early Q valda
*úsáve “delusion, lit. bad belief”
*nairie “vastness”
*hiutale “hint”
*arahaþale “outside aid”
*meneldíle “astronomy (profession, not practitioner)” < menel + níle
*luhtaite “humbling, lit. bowing”
*únolwe “folly, foolishness, lit. bad unwisdom”
*atanya “human”
*valate “conceit, lit. pride” from Helge Fauskanger
*amatana- “to emphasize, draw attention to, lit. intensively show, indicate”
*ofel- “to empathize, lit. together-feel” from Helge Fauskanger
*nil- “to cherish”

quétiéla ná “(it) has been said, lit. is having been said”

Source Text:

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
Pale_Blue_Dot.png
This is a rough draft of a translation of the famous excerpt from Carl Sagan’s lecture on the Pale Blue Dot. I’ve experimentally used Parmaquesta (my first such attempt) to emphasize the depth of his reflection and correspondingly aimed for an old style along the lines of Noldorin Quenya shortly before the Exile. I feel like it has taken far too many neologisms, though that may partly be due to this initial draft being fairly literal. Feedback is

Ицхак Пензев Dec 17, 2017 (21:26)

Walda nanyë, ananta sanan alavéla pa nótimë quettali.

Robert Reynolds Dec 17, 2017 (22:33)

+Ицхак Пензев Ta mára: kestan alavéle tennali itan parin. Ente, i *oquetilve pole napane handelvan Quenyo. Ma quetuvan tennalyali?

Ицхак Пензев Dec 18, 2017 (07:29)

Mauya nin ossana. Uan polë hanquetë rincanen.

Ицхак Пензев Dec 20, 2017 (14:15)

+Robert Reynolds uan tanca ma anánienyel téra.
Thus, I'll procede with a little commentary in English.
Fara- is an a-stem, so I'd call a hunter farando, not farindo.
Cemendur is good, but attested as a personal name, so I'd stick to HKF's neologism alamo, based on the stem ala- "to grow".
Parta- is used in the NQNT as "to compose", not "to teach". I don't know if we'd use early peanta- (QL:72), or a neologism saita- based on √SAY from Ety.
I'm not sure about validity of ala- prefix meaning "good", since we have evidence of its use as "not" (e.g. alfírima "immortal" PE22:124)

In general, I am impressed with the version of the text and appreciate your bold endeavour to respond to such a challenge, though it may contain some purely Western human concepts like "religion", "ideology", "rights" that may have no direct equivalents in Elvish. That is why I am inclined to share some people's opinion that we should better concentrate on filling the gaps in the basic vocabulary for a medieval-like world (as we find in LotR and similar fantasy), and only then upgrade it to modern technology, science and philosophy. But I'd love to be mistaken about this.

Robert Reynolds Dec 20, 2017 (16:26)

+Ицхак Пензев Hantanyel. I've fixed farando and swapped for alamo which I like and I agree that the proper name seems to pertain more to Earth than soil. Plus, it doesn't fit the "lowly" concept of peasanthood in this usage; on the contrary, it's the opposite. I'm dissatisfied with peanta-​ (etymology doesn't seem current) but I agree that √par is quite heavily loaded and I like *saita-​ so I've also changed that. I also agree that ala-​ in that sense can be ambiguous or confusing; I was looking for an opposite to "wrong, bad, evil" that mára is explicitly not if I understand correctly so I've tried another possibility that doesn't seem overloaded: √man and used it as a prefix. I very unfortunately began studying Q seriously only after PE17 went out-of-print so I'm uncertain of the details and accuracy here. I've continued with the prefixed agental form to maintain duality with attested úkarindo (as I've semi-consistently attempted throughout that section) and in other contexts there are other possibilities for saint like ?*manwo, ?*mammo < *manmo, *manquen, manaite (as noun) "blessed one".

Regarding your general comments, indeed it is a tricky topic. One may have to distinguish between the Middle-earth world and general medieval worlds in which concepts like religion may arise: I could not find a fitting word for "faith, spirituality" presumably because the Elves wouldn't really have had such concepts but many other medieval cultures did. Modern, post-medieval concepts can also be tricky in different ways. I agree that a more solid foundation would help any approach.