subjunctive (su)

["Mark E. Shoulson" <cbmvax!uunet!CTR.COLUMBIA.EDU!cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu!shoulson>]

>Date:         Sun, 26 Jan 1992 15:59:31 +1100
>From: nsn%MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu

>Actually, if anyone has been reading any of my recent translations, they
>would have noticed that I translate a phrase of the type

>"If I were a rich man, ladiladiladida, I would be happy"
>as
>{fau le nu'o nu mi micfu kei tozoily. ladiladiladida ly.toi mi gleki}
>or
>{le nu'o nu mi ricfu cu nibli le nu mi gleki}
>though I suppose {le da'i nu mi ricfu} would be better.
>Is there anything wrong with this? I suspect there might be, but can't put my
>finger on it.

If you'll recall, I ran into a similar problem in my translation of Psalm
#137 ("By the Rivers of Babylon", the one with the
smashing-babies-against-rocks).  There's a rhetorical question and a
counterfactual there too.  First there's "How can we sing the Lord's song
in a strange land?" or something.  This isn't a question that wants to be
answered.  I think I used something like "mu'i makau" for that.  Maybe not
very good.  More UI's are needed in the clause, too.  There's also the "if
I forget thee, O Jerusalem..." line.  With a little advice from Lojbab, I
did something like "lenu mi morsisti .ainai do doi .iyrucaloi,iim. cu rinka
lenu co'esa'ali'o", using ".ainai" to indicate that I have no intention of
forgetting.  I don't think I knew about the "da'i"  attitudinal then.

>Nick (nsn@mullian.ee.mu.oz.au)

~mark (shoulson@ctr.columbia.edu)