A short Lojban text with English translations

[John Cowan <cbmvax!uunet!marob.masa.com!cowan>]

The original English text is the 1984 winner of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction
Contest, an international bad-writing contest where the contestants submitted
the opening paragraph from "the worst of all possible novels".  I found it
in a book called >It Was A Dark And Stormy Night<, a collection of entries.

	ni'oni'o le melbi nimcitno goi ko'a po'u la ka,as.
bai jorne le kusri sramudri po le dabli'e goi ko'e po'u la danlu ku
secau le kecti
	.i le'i saptutklu prenu po ko'e ca zbasu lo derxi
be loi mudri bei le ko'a cisyselpli jamfu
	.i le cladu je klina voksa po'e la nebnauzag. noi te pemci je
tajnau ku'o cu fegcru lu ganai le do fagryrinka cu rinka lei fagri
ja'e le nimcitno se jukpa gi do lifri lenu mi setca le xarci le do romoi
se citka li'u

Pidgin version:

	Totally new subject.  The beautiful woman-youth known-as she1
who-is-identically the-one-called Kaa forcedly is-joined-to the
cruel upright-wood specific-to the fight-leader known-as he2
who-is-identically the-one-called Animal without the mercy.
	The-set-of simple-tool-culture people specific-to
him2 simultaneously make a heap-of some wood at her1 sexually-used feet.
	The loud and clear voice inalienably-possessed-by
the-one-called Beautiful-male-buttocks who-incidentally
is-a-poem-maker and is-a-superlative-man angrily-utters, "If your
fire-causer causes some fire with-result the woman-youth is-something-cooked,
then you experience that I insert the weapon into your last something-eaten".

English original:

	The lovely woman-child Kaa was mercilessly chained to the cruel
post of the warrior-chief Beast, with his barbarian tribe now stacking
wood at her nubile feet, when the strong clear voice of the poetic and
heroic Handsomas roared, "Flick your Bic, crisp that chick, and you'll
feel my steel through your last meal."

Notes on the translation:

There doesn't seem to be any way to say "mercy" in Lojban.  I substituted
"pity", which is adequate in the negative, because "pitiless" = "merciless",
but pity and mercy are quite distinct in the positive.

I'm rather proud of "la nebnauzag." = "Handsomas".

The clumsiness of "fagryrinka rinka lei fagri" is a deliberate attempt
to translate "Flick your Bic" into something that sounds equally idiotic.
Unfortunately Handsomas loses his terseness (strong, silent male type) in
Lojban, at least in my Lojban.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!  Please send me any corrections/
improvements, with explanations.  Thanks in advance.

--
cowan@marob.masa.com			(aka ...!hombre!marob!cowan)
			e'osai ko sarji la lojban