Very interesting.  I especiall find interesting the fact that you have an
Angosey word in the text the meaning of which YOU don't know!

Adam

On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 11:40 PM, Daniel Bowman <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Greetings all,
>
> Over the last few weeks I've been writing a short story in Angosey, in
> snippets
> in my journal.  It is a story about the creation of the world.  It's by far
> the
> longest original text I've written solely in Angosey, and I think it may be
> the
> longest *ever* (including English to Angosey translations).
>
> Notes on the translation:  The main character is rendered in English using
> the
> feminine 3rd person pronoun.  However, the actual Angosian word means
> "gender-different" (see my post from a few months ago).  Therefore, all a
> reader can know *for sure* is that the protagonist has a different gender
> from
> the author.  If you assume the author is male (which you may, since I wrote
> it), then the protagonist is "she."  If you assume the author is female,
> then the
> protagonist is translated "he."  The reverse is true for the character at
> the
> end.
>
> Ultimately, this division could even mean a different ethnic group, race or
> even
> species.  All it says is "this character is fundamentally different than
> the
> author."
>
> Here's the text in smooth English.  I've tried to render some of the
> Angosey
> forms without making the English sound too weird.
>
> Danny
>
> The Story of the Beginning
> Translated from Angosey by Daniel Bowman
> Original Author Unknown
>
> In the beginning of all things, the world was a desert.  There was no
> water, no
> raindrops fell; truly there was nothing save sand dunes and rocks in that
> place.
> The sun shone all the time, and it was never dark.  Nothing could survive.
> The sky did not release its water; the rain was prevented from falling.
>  But
> then a cloud appeared before the sun.  And out of this shadow came the
> first
> human.  She cried out to the cloud and said:
> “Oh!  I am so thirsty!  Give me that which will satisfy me.”
> The cloud heard her cry, and the first rain fell.
>  The human looked out over the rocks and sand dunes.  And she said:
> “I cannot eat sand!  Oh, Earth, give me food, for my body is faint.”
> As she wandered she saw a cactus with berries.  She ate; she was satisfied.
> And she slept in the shadow of the cactus.
> She slept, but as the sun made circles in the sky, the shadow of the cactus
> also moved.  The sun kept burning her skin, and so she woke up over and
> over.
> She called out again and again:
> “Oh!  If only the sun would set!  Then I could get some sleep.”
> Soon the sun began to drift down, the light was quieted, and she could
> sleep.
> But the wind became cold, and she awakened under the darkness.  She opened
> her eyes but saw nothing at all. She said:
> “If only there were little lights in the sky, then I could sleep but also
> see!”
> And so the dome of the sky brought forth stars.  She saw the stars that
> were
> shining in the sky, and felt peaceful; she fell asleep again.  But the cold
> wind
> blew again, she woke up again, and she could not go back to sleep.  At that
> moment she said:
> “Oh!  I want the sun, for it brings the warmth, but I am cold and I cannot
> sleep, I cannot rest.”
> Then she saw light on the horizon, and dawn came.  So joyfully she danced
> in
> the new light.
> The sun climbed higher.  She felt the sunlight [meaning of Angosey
> uncertain].
> The day passed, the evening began, but she rested, she did not move.  She
> was tired for a while because she was warm; she rested in the shade of the
> cactus.
> She said to no one in particular:
> “The silence!  I can hear nothing but the wind, the sand sighing; I want to
> hear
> something, but I couldn’t say what it is!”
> And so down from the sky came a bird.  It alighted on the cactus, and began
> to sing.  She said:
> “Truly, what is that wonderful sound I hear?  My heart is lifting-the song
> of the
> desert has been scattered!”
> “But the brilliant sunlight wounds my eyes.  The reflected light burns from
> among the dunes, my eyes have no rest!  I don’t want to keep them closed
> all
> the time.   Come back to me, O clouds, come down again, O rain!”
> “For I came from a shadow, and rain can bring forth life.”
> Again clouds covered the sun, the raindrops fell on the earth, and the sand
> became wet.
> The rain passed, the clouds departed, the sun shone again.  The first blade
> of
> grass grew, and soon the dunes became green.  She danced on her feet, she
> spun around and around.  While the sun descended towards the horizon, she
> sat happily upon the grass.  She slept well that night.
> As she lay herself down, she felt something strange and new.  She whispered
> to her heart:
> “Oh!  I am alone!  I cry out to the sky, I cry out to the desert, I eat, I
> sleep
> outside and live well.  But when I call out, nothing answers me.  When I
> sing, I
> only hear the wind.  Truly I want to speak with someone else, truly I want
> to
> dance with another, truly I desire what I do not yet know.  Oh!  I feel
> something, I feel loneliness!”
> She cried out across the desert, but nothing answered but the wind.  She
> lay
> her head on her arms, she wept, and then she fell asleep.
> The dawn came again, she woke up.  She saw a new desert, for now the
> ground was green.  And she walked, she wandered under the sun.  After a
> time, she discovered a pool of briny water between two sand dunes.  As she
> walked along the shore, her feet made impressions in the mud.  She looked
> behind her, there were her footprints.  She saw that as her feet could make
> footprints, she also could make anything out of the mud.  She began to make
> a
> body from the mud and the salt.  But the clay did not live.  She sat down,
> feeling sad, her tears flowed again, the day passed.  Finally she fell
> asleep on a
> sand dune near the pool.
> She dreamed under the darkness.  She dreamed that the wind blew gently
> across the body she had made.  She dreamed that a little breath of wind
> came
> into the body, and its chest rose and fell.  She was really amazed!
> And as she watched, it got to its feet and walked away; the night covered
> it.
> She woke up that morning, and she went down to the shore to look at the
> body she had made.  But it was gone!
> She stared in disbelief; she spun around, it was not there.  She looked
> hard at
> the ground, and saw footprints.
> The footprints made a path for her, and it guided her up over sand dunes
> and
> down through valleys.
> At last she saw the body that she had made.  It was silhouetted against the
> sky.
> She ran quickly towards it, and it ran towards her.  When she had reached
> it,
> she said:
> “Truly you are something different!”
> And it said:
> “Truly you are something different!”
> She spoke again:
> “I am the one who created you!”
> He took her two hands, and kissed them.  He said:
> “Oh creator, listen!  I name you Algayaltha, truly you are beautiful!  And
> so you
> will no longer feel lonely, because I am with you.”
> Then she said:
> “As for me I name you Kayeqata, which is ‘stone soul’, for I created you
> from
> clay.  Before, you were mud and salt, now you are the stone that lives.”
> And this is how the world of people began.
>



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