RE: easy texts ....

[Logical Language Group <cbmvax!uunet!GREBYN.COM!lojbab>]

For an absolute beginner, and not even a native English speaker trying to
understand our occasionally arcane writings, you did outstandingly well.

Nora checked your effort and found only four, relatively minor, comments.

1. Your problem with pamoi is expected - the translation left a lot out.
But then so did the English original, which was "It is the first book."
It is not knowable which it is the first of - your guess, that it is HER
first book, is plausible, and might be correct.  My oown guess is that, since
this sample is taken from the first of a several volume set of children's
readers, that the book in question is the reader volume that the text
itself, is found in.  But this is well beyond what one would put into a
translation.  A better translation of the Lojban is "It is the first one."

2. The sentence you thought was toughest "cumki fa lenu ..." you got
almost perfect.  You missed one word "ni", which is an amount-abstractor
for the bridi that occupies the rest of the sentence.  Thus you wanted:

"Maybe he discovers >the amount of< he being quick of learning"
"Maybe he will discover how fast that he can learn."

3. kelci ke simxu zdile is
   play type-of mutually-amuse

The literal English is "The kids play with the dog."
We could not use kelci alone (x1 plays with x2) because the x2 in that
simpler word is an object, a play thing.  If John plays with Mary, we wouldn't
want to say that Mary is a plaything of John's - there is a mutual
relationship.  But it also is not tru that both are playthings of the other.
We bring in zdile for this other sense of play "amusement".

4. ri bajra sekai lek traji ni ri sutra   (you wrote for this:)
   They run with      a lotof their quickness.

You again were almost right, and in this case interpreted the "ni"
correctly.  The error was traji, which is superlative (-est), not merely
'a lot'.  In your phrasing, you wanted:
"They run with         the superlative of their quickness
They run their quickest.

The Lojban word "mutce" gives the sense "a lot" or "very" that you assumed for
"traji".

All of the other sentences seem excellently translated.  Nora's compliments -
and mine.

lojbab