The Throne Verse

2:255 Allah! There is no God save Him, the Alive, the Eternal. Neither slumber nor sleep overtaketh Him. Unto Him belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is inn the earth. Who is he that intercedeth with Him save by His leave? He knoweth that which is in front of them and that which is behind them, while they encompass nothing of this knowledge save what He will. His throne includes the heavens and the earth, and He is never weary of preserving them. He is the Sublime, the Tremendous.

2.256 Allah! Ne ekzistas alia Dio ol Li, la Vivanta, la Sendependa kaj Cxiosubtenanta; nek dormobezono nek dormo venkas Lin. Kio estas en la cxielo kaj sur la tero, cxio apartenas al Li. Kiu povas propeti cxe Li sen Lia permeso? Li scias, kio estas antaw kaj malantaw la homoj, kaj ili nenion komprenas el Lia scio ol tion, kion Li volas. Lia regno enhavas la cxielojn kaj la teron kaj la regardo de ambaw ne lacigas Lin. Li estas la Eminenta, la Grandega.

REKI'O REMUMU TU'E
.IA CEVNI JO MUSYCEI .I JMIVE JE CIMNI .I NAKU SIPNO JE TOLMORJI .I TERDI JE TSANI PONSE .I LO REMNA KO'AGOI LE MUSYCEI .IO KA'E TAVLA .IJO RI CURMI LENU LA'EDI'U .I CRANE JE TRIXE DJUNO .I GU'O REMNA JIMPE GI MUSYCEI JDICE .I LE TERDI .E LE TSANI CU SABJI LE STIZU KO'A .I RI NA TATPI LEZU'O KURJI .I BANCU RODA .I BARDA TRAJI TU'U

2 from Japanese Death Poems

    "Frost on a summer day:
all I leave behind is water
    that has washed my brush."

--Shutei

       two versions:

CISYDEI BISLI
.I DA'AMEI STALI FA
LEMI BRULUMJAU

(DA'AMEI for 'only' is somewhat idiosyncratic; more regularly--)

CISYDEI BISLI
STALI FA PADA NO'U
LEMI BRULUMJAU

"Life is an ever-rolling wheel
And every day is the right one.
He who recites poems at his death
Adds frost to snow."

--Mumon Gensen

LE XRUTI BA'O
CIMNI .I MOKCA PRANE
.I FANMO PEMCI
SE BACRU DA POI DUNDA
LE BISLI LE DUJYJAU

Literally: 'The returner has been infinite. Moment-perfect! End-poem-uttered-by one who gives ice to frozen water.'

a bogus candor

"Whenever I hear of culture, I reach for the safety catch of my Browning." (Not Goebbels--LA GRBLZ.--, after all, but what else might he have said worth trying to Lojbanize?)

--This because of an Okrand podcast-interview in which the possibility of translating G. (or Shelley) into Lojban, is mooted.

'hear' TIRNA and perhaps 'word' VALSI, but not 'culture' KULNU, rather something more like 'art' LARCU plus 'tradition' SE CILRE
then MI JGARI LEMI XARCI which can be simplified to XARCI JGARI...
...LARCU SE CILRE VALSI KE XARCI BO JGARI CFAGAU...

better,
DA POI NU TAVLA FI LE LARCU SE CILRE SETI'U CE'U ZO'U DA RINKA LENU MI XARCI JGARI

or, more LOBYKAI,
LARCU SE CILRE TE TAVLA KE MIBYPRE XARCYJGARI RINKA

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"If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" (Shelley, LA CELIS.)

LE DUNRA CABNA CU PURCI LE VENSA

but i think a better way is:
GE'I (forethought connector-question) DUNRA FANMO GI VENSA CFARI

--& the rhythm of this sounds best:
DUNRA BO FANMO JE'IKE VENSA CFARI

Palindrome

A palindrome (FATMI'U LERPOI) in the Quran: "They all float, each in an orbit" (Yasin 36.40). Pickthall: It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor doth the night outstrip the day. They float each in an orbit.

In Esperanto: Ne konvenas al la suno atingi la lunon, nek al nokto antawri al la tago. Cxiu el ili ambaw sxvebas en sia orbito.

In Lojban: (CIXAKI'OVONOMO'O) KA'ENAI KAVBU FA LE SOLRI LE LUNRA
      .IJE LE NICTE LE DONRI KA'ENAI LIDNE
      .I LE RE FULTA CU MUVDU CO DJINYTARMI

mercy

Translating. Looking at: "In the name of Allah, the Beneficient, the Merciful." Obviously starts with CAHI 'by the authority of'; & XAMGAU matches 'Beneficient'. (Question: should i append the honorific?) But there is no word in Lojban for 'Mercy'. I thought of & rejected something like 'law-beyond'... The best i can do is 'opposite-of-revenging' TOLVENFYKAI or TOLVEFKAI, with VENFU.

On second thought, this is exactly what i need.

on not knowing Arabic

(via tripadvisor dot com)

It is sometimes asserted that the Quran should be read only in the original Arabic (RABYBAU); this is an accomplishment i do not aspire to. On the one hand, i can understand how in order to truly grasp a poem, in whole or in part, some degree of familiarity with the linguistic material itself is necessary, including grammar, rhythm, genre, and even (while translators know this, most readers of translations remain oblivious) the semantic matrix in which one word was chosen in preference to another--the same, but not the same. Yes, the Quran is among other things a collection of poetry. It is thus like a famous building one must make a pilgrimage to experience, one that no amount of photography can do justice to.

On the other hand, the earth is crowded with architecture; with languages, even. Saying one spot on the globe is the only possible place does a disservice both to the spiritual value of travelling (on foot, as Werner Herzog specifies), and to the necessary illumination of sounding the depths of that unique natal region chance has (to no discernible end) assigned. ...[CX]ar Ni estas pli proksima al li ol lia gorgxvejno (50:16). You cannot privilege a language any more than a nation, a race, a gender, or any other arbitrary human variable; at most you can commit to a single narrative and a single purpose, for the duration of that purpose.

No one yet has been raised with Lojban as a first language. The number of even native Esperantists is minuscule. Thus the Quran in one of these languages, represents an equidistant alienation. It is the black stone none of us saw come down. I have a nice copy of Chiussi's translation, and though i find myself first searching out passages in my old Pickthall in English, it is the Esperanto text i return to. These are the words that hold me.

A joker might say, "You are not a real Muslim, and it is entirely fitting that you want a Quran that is not in a real language." Be that as it may, meaning lives behind the veil of language, and if there is any sense in the attitudes and practices of a religion, it will involve penetrating that veil. Which must first be acknowledged. [O]ndo kovras gxin, super gxi estas ondo, super tiu estas nubo... (24:41). Not to be content with a postcard of the place; or somebody else's definition of "Allah". And in the very effort to reconstitute a sought-out meaning, into a rotavator language without traditions or cliches, there will be built a new Enclosure.

Hoc opus, hic labor est.

a non-Quranic aside

In Lojban a gismu can have one, two, three, four, or five sumti, or arguments; like the variables of a mathematical function. I have long thought to separate out "conjugations" or 'the five classifying colors' LE MU TE KLESI SKARI as follows: 1 sumti = NARJU XARJU (Orange Pig); 2 sumti = GRUSI GUNSE (Gray Goose); 3 sumti = CRINO CINFO (Green Lion); 4 sumti = BLABI SMANI (White Monkey); and 5 sumti = NUKNI JUKNI (Magenta Spider).

Gismu for each of these could be printed in the appropriate color. (I would do my Quran translation that way--perhaps on buff paper.) --As an additional flourish, i can imagine poets working to organize their colors in patterns, somewhat in the manner of Chinese versification...