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Translation competitions

door sudanglo, 14 januari 2011

Berichten: 187

Taal: English

T0dd (Profiel tonen) 7 maart 2011 11:31:35

Here's a quick one, a title of a well-known philosophical essay by Thomas Nagel.

"What is it like to be a bat?"

Miland (Profiel tonen) 7 maart 2011 11:35:18

I suggested a couple here, but they seem to have been mistaken for ordinary threads at the time. If they sound too boring, I can think of a hotter one that I've been saving for a suitable occasion.

horsto (Profiel tonen) 7 maart 2011 13:22:30

T0dd:
"What is it like to be a bat?"
In a poem you could perhaps write:

Kiel estus vesperti? okulumo.gif

sudanglo (Profiel tonen) 7 maart 2011 15:32:14

Kiel vesperto spertas la mondon.

Kiel spertiĝus la mondo, se vi estus vesperto.

T0dd (Profiel tonen) 7 maart 2011 16:00:19

sudanglo:Kiel vesperto spertas la mondon.

Kiel spertiĝus la mondo, se vi estus vesperto.
Interesting. I hadn't thought of it in terms of the bat's experience of the world, but why not?

Another possibility...

KIA ESTAS SPERTI KVAZAŬ VERSPERTO?

Is that comprehensible?

darkweasel (Profiel tonen) 7 maart 2011 16:17:57

T0dd:
KIA ESTAS SPERTI KVAZAŬ VERSPERTO?

Is that comprehensible?
No ... :/

Somewhat ugly, but literal and comprehensible is: kiel estas esti vesperto?

sudanglo (Profiel tonen) 7 maart 2011 16:21:28

Isn't that what the essay is about Todd? A thought experiment of what the world must seem like to a bat.

For me, 'Kia' must go with nouns. Not too sure about the kvazaŭ here either

sudanglo (Profiel tonen) 7 maart 2011 16:28:16

Let's have your 'hot' passage, Miland.

Miland (Profiel tonen) 7 maart 2011 17:06:27

Here are my notes on the passage, assuming there are not likely to be any more attempts:

The word "Now" in my view is one of the hardest to translate. It draws attention, but not explicitly. Another hard question is whether to render "should" as something to be desired (and hence with an imperative), or as something likely (effectively, "would"). For now I have used the imperative where "should" is used, and I would follow the general preference of Esperanto for simpler tenses. Here's my suggestion for a translation:

Pripensu; ĉu vi vere dezirus ke tiuj kompatinduloj pekadu ĝis ili falis en inferon? Mi estas certa ke ne. Sed kiel alie eblis ke ili ekpreniĝu el la flamoj?

If "would" is preferred to "should" in terms of the meaning, we would have pekadus and ekpreniĝus respectively.

I've used flamoj because there are types of "fire" in the modern world used for heating which do not burn coal or wood, and "flames" might better convey to our minds that which "fire" would have to the 18th century author (he was John Wesley, by the way).

It is important to bear in mind that there is no unique best solution for problems like this. So to anyone who thinks "But I would done this or that better" - you may well be right!

NothingHere (Profiel tonen) 7 maart 2011 17:45:30

Nu, ĉu vi vere dezirus por tiuj ĉi geaĉuloj peki ĝis ili falus en Inferon? Vi ne dezirus, ja. Sed kiamaniere ili alie eskapus la fajron?

I honestly have no idea if this is even intelligible(I'm still something of a beginner), let alone correct, but this is what I got out of it. I think I might have over used the conditional tense, but I'm not sure how I could have done it.

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