The site continues to grow and now contains translated literature in Lingwa de Planeta, Sambahsa, Frenkisch, Interlingua, Occidental and Kotava. Apart from myself, the very kind contributors to the site include Dmitry Ivanov (Lingwa de Planeta), Dr Olivier Simon (Sambahsa), David Parke (Frenkisch) and Sabrina Benkelloun (Kotava).
The main focus of the site is currently the French novel by Stendhal, La Chartreuse de Parme, from which various chapters are being translated into various auxlangs. This serves as a comparative showcase of the literary capabilities of these auxlangs.
Today I have added a Kotava translation kindly supplied by Sabrina Benkelloun. Kotava is a mature a priori language in which a significant body of literature already exists, hosted at the Wikikrenteem site.
Personally, a priori languages are not currently my preferred cup of tea, since I prefer a posteriori languages partly for practical reasons and partly for their educational value. However, as Henry David Thoreau said, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...", so there is nothing to stop me from changing my mind in future and coming to like a priori languages. After all, an a priori language, suitably designed, does not so much favour one group of students (say, speakers of European languages) over another (say, speakers of Asian languages) but is approximately equally difficult for everyone, thus making it neutral. However, the trouble with Kotava is the English-language resources available for learning Kotava are rather limited; accordingly I've never been able to properly assess the language. Kotava would presumably become more popular if it were better documented in languages other than French; good French documentation exists.
I am of course unfortunately far too busy to learn any additional languages myself this year. I'm already fully committed to working on my LdP translation of the Stendhal novel, which is now 4200 words long.
Today I have also added the lengthy Occidental translation from the first and second chapters which I completed a year ago in January 2011; I had neglected to add it to the Joy of Literature site until now. It is my longest translation into any auxlang to date, 5787 words long. I no longer work in Occidental, having abandoned it in favour of LdP; therefore the LdP translation will undoubtedly soon become my longest.
Many thanks to everyone involved for your very kind contributions, advice and assistance. I hope the Joy of Literature continues to be useful for students interested in reading and writing literature in auxlangs.
P.S. By the way, I am aware that there are some other translations of the start of Chapter 1 in various auxlangs which are not yet available on the Joy of Literature site. They are however available in the form of earlier posts within this blog, the Joy of Languages. My apologies; I just haven't had time to transfer them yet due to being very busy with other things in life. I plan to do so when eventually I get around to translating the entirety of Chapter 1 into Lingwa de Planeta, so they will all be there for comparison.
Many thanks Robert for this publishing of the translation in Kotava of the fourth chapter of this well-known french novel.
ReplyDeleteWe can see, Kotava is often terser than English or French, especially owing to its verbal structures. That would still sharper for a narrative at the present tense and not at the past.
Va Robert gu sanegara va kalkotavaks va 4-eaf luz ke bat grupepen francaf berpot grewapá.
Rowit, Kotava fereon tir loliafa dam Englava ok Francava, lokon tuke grayaf dreeem. Batcoba co-tipir lodenafa icde nega ton tise sare volsu tiyise.