Re: Something to talk about.

[Padraic Brown <pbrown@nova.umuc.edu>]

On Wed, 17 Jun 1998, Andrew Smith wrote:

> On Fri, 12 Jun 1998, Padraic Brown wrote:
> 
>  
> > I've gotten one Kernu story worked up good enough to the point that it may
> > be discussed without causing any embarassment to me; and it seems like a
> > good item for discussion.
> >
> I know I have enough lexicon to translate one of the encounters with the
> Fair Family as recorded in the Field Guide to the Little People by Nancy
> Arrowsmith.  I was just about to have a go at reconstructing it but it has
> occured to me that a fantasy short story that I wrote for a NZ NASFCon
> would translate very well into Comroig sentiment.  So maybe I'll start
> translating it and feed it to the assemble multitudes.

Please!!  The Multitude have voracious appetites!  (Well, one of us does
anyway!)  One thing that has irked me somewhat about B is the (seeming) 
lack of texts.  To my knowledge there are only _four_ things written in B,
and only one of them could be in any manner stretched to fit into the
"Comroig sentiment" (the Horse story).  The others are either Biblical
(the Babel Text and the Epistles) or Frankish (the Oaths) in nature and
are therefore purely translations.  Are there any other texts out there,
either written by Andrew or someone else?

If you can do this for us, it shall be a great boon; as it would shed some
light on the actual Kemrese pattern of story (and therefore culture).
Now, it shall fall to the dilligent Discoverers of Breathanach and
Brzhoneg to add their respective sticks to the Illuminating Fire.  [hint,
hint] ;-)

Translate!?  If your story be well suited to Comroig culture, you may want
to write the story anew in Br. rather than merely translate it from
English.  I find this a very difficult task, but is ultimately rewarding
in that you make the attempt at writing from the Inside rather than
translating from the Outside.  That is, pretend you're a Comro and write
the story.  It should be a wonderful exercise in comprehending the greater
whole of your creation (the story, the language and the culture) in a more
intimate fashion.  While translation of itself is good, I believe "full
immersion", as it were, to be best.

I try to do this with every language I study, either translate something
or write a story from scratch, and the latter seems to be more rewarding.
Even if the professor I show it to gets a bit of a chuckle from certain of
my solutions.  Ah well, it's by no means a perfect art.

>  
> Kemrese Althistorical Note: It has occured to me that with the creation of
> the Federated Kingdoms in 1805 and the death of King Henry of England and
> Scotland in 1807 that the current king of Cambria succeded the Stuart
> dynasty as the King of the Federated Kingdoms of England, Scotland and
> Cambria.  It was a rare occasion in British history as the Princess
> Charlotte technically became Queen of England and Scotland and sat beside
> her husband King Constantine of Cambria, the only period in Kemrese
> history when the court in Castreleon was presided over by a Queen Regnant!

Does that mean we run the whole show?  I thought we weren't allowed to
have proper Queens at all, though.  I thought there was some sort of rule
to prohibit that sort of thing.  Politics are too bloody confusing.

Padraic.

> 
> - andrew.
> 
> Andrew Smith                                  <hobbit@earthlight.co.nz>
> 
> MAN, despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many
> accomplishments; still owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil
> and the fact that it rains.
> 							   - Anonymous
>