le vofli tapla

[Chris Bogart <cbogart@QUETZAL.COM>]

coi rodo

This is translated from a letter I wrote to the
newspaper last spring after a series of pointless
finals-week riots in Boulder Colorado, where I was
living.  I thought it would be easier for translation
because it was very concrete -- still, I found lots
of things that were hard to translate.  I translated
"rental property" as "zdani" because it seemed
not worth the effort :-).  A few things
were easier to say clearly in lojban -- the x3 of
volylitru in the 3rd paragraph fell beautifully into
place, although it was awkward in English.

One thing that really troubles me is that I find myself
using gi'e a lot, but I can't use it within an abstraction,
because, IIRC, it returns you to the outermost bridi.
I find myself having to start a new sentence or another
{mu'i le nu} or something, in order to get on with the
thought.  Is there a better way around this?  Or is it
just that Lojban, like Klingon, lends itself structurally
to shorter sentences than English?

NB I am circumstepping the whole metaphor
debate by starting with the magic words:

---------------------

ni'ope'a

le pa vofli ke terzba tapla cu se zbasu vi la tcidrseintluis
ca la 1995nan .i ty joi papaki'o drata tapla cu puza trene se benji
fi la kolorados .i ty joi so'u lei papaki'omei cu terzba loi te jmina
be pa zdani vi la cmana

.i ku'i le di'u tapla pu dukse .i cmima lei nunzba festi seldre poi lei
zbasu cu tolmorji vi le cmaklaji

.i leka na se pilno cu nalcinri le tapla .i lei zgiku joi
fagri joi pulji selsiclu cu fenki ty. .isemu'ibo plipe
fi le derxi gi'e volylitru lei klaji le kandi xunre
tolselmuvdu kamfengu .i tilju sutra pa'omo'i lei prenu
zo'amo'i so'a stedu fi'o minra pa nurmapku .i gau ty.
leka sligu joi kubli tarmi cu se ckaji lo'e
xance .i gau ty. ka tsali joi fengu joi se livla .i ty.
se frili lonu pa'omo'i le blaci bracanko

.ibabo le tapla cu surla co jbini lei blaci selpo'i
ca'o le jdika savru .imu'obo no drata be lei pulji cradi
savru ku joi lei xunre jonai blanu pulji tergusni be'o
cu raktu le nenri be le zarci poi se zvati le tapla

.i ku'i le tapla cu cinmo co se raktu la'edi'e .i
le blaci se porpi sruri no'u le ba'o canko poi ty. jai
daspo cu canre le mintu .uadai be ty. .i klaku lei
purmo xunre gi'e cirko so'a cmaspisu ca'o lenu
denpa lei zenba cerni .i pensi lei banli poi lei tapla
joi lei blaci cu puze'u gunma te zbasu zi'e poi se
cmima le selxrani dinju poi jai ne'i vreta

.i ri'a lenu cinmo se daspo le zungi keiku le tapla vo'a
na mipra ca le cerni va'o lenu lei prenu cu
de'a zvati mu'i lenu gasnu co jinsa ty. joi ro lei drata
nalselpi'o festi


co'o mi'e kris