View source for Lojban Anthem English translation


[[Lojban Anthem|Here is the Lojban Anthem in Lojban]].

The following is the translation by me ([[User:tsali|tsali]]).

<blockquote>
Language of exactness mixed with inexactness too,

let your quality of the expression of ideas be given

to the voices of the Earth, who need a new way

for people to communicate with one another.

Language!  Lojbanic!

Minds who confuse the many who wish

to understand, be carried to the source from the listeners.

Please be said clearly, and mix

that which half-way ends up inside the boundaries of bad grammar.

Ideas expressed through language!  Lojbanic!
</blockquote>

I read Lojbab's translation (below) a few years ago, but couldn't remember much of it when I wrote my own translation.  I believe that my translation is correct.  {le selmenli} is that which has a mind, not what's on the mind.  And the place structure of {bevri} is to...from, not vice versa.  Furthermore, {farvi} is that which develops, not the development, so {le norfarvi} should be something like {le nu farvi sisti}.  [[User:Bob LeChevalier|Bob LeChevalier]], go and write a new anthem! <nowiki>:^)</nowiki> -[[User:tsali|tsali]]

*... Crap. Probably 1991-2001 gismu place structure incompatibilities. This will not do. OK, I'll rewrite it in the erroneous parts... -- [[User:Nick Nicholas|nitcion]]
*... selmenli => selpensi; do'u bevri ko le cfari lei zgatirna => cu selmuvdu ko le cfari fa lei tirna. norfarvi, I don't know what to do with; I'm inclined to leave it alone, since the 'stagnation' meaning is, I think, still encompassed by it.

----

Original revision: ''.i doi selpensi co cfipt be le so'imei poi djica''

le ka jimpe cu selmuvdu ko le cfari fa lei tirna

*''How does that parse? [[jbofi'e]] doesn't like it; it barfs on the ''cu'' of ''cu selmuvdu''. If I replace ''doi'' with ''le'', then it's fine (though then ''selmuvdu'' has two x1 places: the ''le'' phrase that comes before the selbri and the ''fa lei tirna'' at the end). Maybe it doesn't like long things after ''doi'', or doesn't allow them to be treated as sumti?Hm, if I replace ''cu selmuvdu ko'' with ''do'u selmuvdu ko'', it parses and appears to mean roughly what is intended. But then the rhythm is a bit off, of course, since ''do'u'' is two syllables compared to one for ''cu''. Maybe I should replace ''do'u'' with the shorter and still grammatical ''vaukeikuvauku'okube'odo'u'' zo'o.<nowiki>Hm^2</nowiki>, I think this is an evidential sentence preceded by a vocative... which would explain why the ''cu'' wasn't allowed there, since it didn't separate the selbri from any arguments. So perhaps jbofi'e was right in barfing when it saw ''cu'' without a sumti before it.<nowiki>Hm^3</nowiki>, I just noticed that lojbab's original version indeed had ''do'u'', rather than ''cu'', before the selbri (which was ''bevri'' in his version.) --[[pne]]''
**Touche. I know why I did it, and I know that this grammar will one day fall. Changed to ''le ka jimpe do'u pagre ko le cfari fa lei tirna''. And no, that needn't be the other way round. Think about it...

The translation then becomes:

Thoughts which confuse the many who wish

to understand, be portals to the originators for the listeners.

----

Here is the original translation by [[User:Bob LeChevalier|Bob LeChevalier]].  Note that there is no translation of the chorus, as it was added by [[User:Nick Nicholas ick Nicholas|nitcion ick Nicholas]] when he composed the melody.

<blockquote>
O, language, both exact and non-exact,

Let your characteristic mode of idea-expression

be given to the voiced ones of the earth, who need this

new method of mutually communicating between minds.

O ideas which confuse the many who desire understanding,

Let yourself be carried from those who initiate you to those who listen.

Please be clearly expressed, stirring

the stagnation caused by the limits of Grammar.
</blockquote>