beowulf: John's translation

[cbmvax!uunet!mullian.ee.mu.oz.au!nsn]

Hm. Don't know how *I*'d do it, but there was something opaque about the
translation, a bit too many ellipses (yes, you *can* have too many). Lessee.

>le temci cu cliva               .i fulta le boxna
>.i cnita le cmaca'a             .i le ribnau djica

cnita le cmaca'a? Is this the same subject as of fulta (ie Floater is the
name of the boat)? Well, why not {gi'e cnita} just to be safe?

>re'o le lotcra cu badydzu       .i le flecu cu gu'orgau

No, you disrupt the meter (or the loose version of it) for no good reason.
{cu badydzu le lotcra} is sufficient.

>po'u le jamymai xagmau          .i le nanmu cu batcatke

batcatke. batcatke? Surely the original is a tad less ambiguous than this
(ie thrust out must have had some well defined intransitive meaning).

>Gewat tha ofer waeg-holm        winde gefysed
>Departed then over wave-sea     [by] wind urged
>.i ca cliva re'o le bonxamsi    bai le brife

Split it as {.i ca cliv re'o    le bonxamsi bai le brife}

>le fulta fomcnebo               poi simsa be lo cipni be'o traji

Ugh. That {poi} clause is *ugly*. {poi smirai lo cipni}.
(Justification: da traji leka da simsa de di kei daxivo daximu .i da smirai
de di daxivo daximu)

>long sea-capes.                 then it-was for-sea-voyager [=boat]
>.i clani cfine                  .icabo le xasklama

don't you mean xasxelklama? OK, so I am being pedantic. Sue me :)

>le la .uederas. prenu           le pitytu'a badydzu

Mean you {cu badydzu}? Btw, that {fi'o sutra ku}: hm. I haven't taken to it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Nick Nicholas, Melbourne Uni, Australia.  nsn@{munagin.ee|mundil.cs}.mu.oz.au
"Despite millions of dollars of research, death continues to be this nation's
number one killer"      - Henry Gibson, Kentucky Fried Movie
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