Simon Davies | Re: LFN for literature

• Autor: Simon Davies (“simon.franova”)
• Tema: Re: LFN for literature
• Data: 2011-01-16 12:35
• Mesaje: 3234 (a supra, presedente, seguente)

Hi, Robert. I'm delighted you're giving an LFN another chance!

> Now that I have been studying Indonesian I think I am beginning
> to understand how it is possible to write unambiguously despite
> not having the complex grammar of most European languages;

Yes, LFN has remarkable expressive power.

There's a nice discussion of this (in the context of a different
auxlang) at http://mirrors.talideon.com/articles/kalabax.html -
"A person unacquainted with language forms might conclude that a
language with a simple structure would lead to a dreary style. This
is far from true. Every structure, in the hands of an artist, lends
itself to beautiful effects." I adore that last sentence.

> for example, instead of writing stories in the past tense simply
> write them in the present tense and then most of the difficulty
> which sometimes arises with handling tenses in creoles disappears
> without losing any of the essential meaning.

And indeed this is expressly permitted by the grammar: "Naras
descrive frecuente avenis en la pasada, un pasada imajinada, o un
tempo cual no importa a la lejor. En esta casos, on pote lasa 'ia'
cade." For example, I used the LFN present where English uses the
past in my recent translations of "A Christmas Carol" and "Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland":
- http://lfn.wikia.com/wiki/Un_canta_de_natal/0
- http://lfn.wikia.com/wiki/Alisia_en_la_pais_de_mervelias/0

In "The Charterhouse of Parma", it may be wiser to retain the past
tense, because it's strongly historical and - at least if the first
two paragraphs are anything to judge by - Stendhal uses complicated
tenses such as the pluperfect, imperfect and even the future of the
past (when he mentions Italy's awakening in the second sentence).
All of these can be expressed in LFN, just not as an integral part
of the verb. But if you alter the basic narrative tense, then the
process of translation becomes more complicated!

> Now I want to equal and surpass that feat in LFN, to prove that
> LFN can successfully be used for the most sophisticated
> literature, such as Stendhal's work; that is, to prove that a
> humble and bumbling writer such as myself can do so.

I'm fully convinced that LFN is capable of this. If it can cope
with Charles Dickens's excruciatingly verbose sentence structures,
it can surely cope with anything! Sometimes you have to work a bit
harder to find a solution, but that's the case in any language, and
(for me, at least) it's what makes translating so enjoyable.

> If you would prefer this project to move immediately to the LFN
> vici, let me know, but in that case I would want to be able to
> include the English-language glossary on the wiki, otherwise I
> think the project would be unworkable as, for example, it will no
> doubt require the addition of new words as time goes on, which
> need to be noted. Also, I wish it to be a valuable reference
> document for English-speaking writers who wish to learn how to
> write literature in LFN.

I apologize for my tardiness in replying to your original posting
two days ago. The reason was simply that traffic on this Yahoo
group is normally very low, so I hadn't checked it for a few days.

The LFN wiki might be a better place to develop your translation
project, and not just because that's the hub of other LFN activity.

Having the texts stored in PDFs or Google Docs adds an unnecessary
layer of complexity to the process of obtaining them and working
with them. The wiki offers version control via its history system,
which makes it easy to see what changes have been made. The wiki
has a discussion area for every page, and its support for rich
presentation and particularly hyperlinks may improve the chances
of people stumbling across it via a search engine in the future.

I wouldn't worry about polluting the wiki with English discussion
and vocabulary lists, provided these relate to LFN - which of
course they will do! New words are suggested all the time, so that
will fit in nicely.

I'm reviewing your LFN translation of the first two paragraphs of
"The Charterhouse of Parma" at the moment, and I'll post my
comments (and perhaps my own attempt at a translation) shortly.

Simon