Tuesday, May 11, 2010

La Resol REsidosi

I feel a bit silly translating this text, but it exists in a multitude of other languages already and is a fairly straightforward translation, so here you have it folks, the Solresol version of the “Our Father/Le Notre Père”:

1. Resol REsidosi, mire faremi FA SIlalla*
2. Mire remi REsisolre faremi sisi dosolsi
3. Mire remi SIremila dosolfala
4. Mire remi FAsifa faremi sisi fasolla
5. Mimiresi la DOdore mimiremi FA SIlala*
6. Solsol remila fa dorre lare resol DOlafala doREmi
7. Solsol sollami fa dorre resol MIresiffa
8. Mimiremi dorre sollami midosolsol fa fammi mire dodo miresifa dorre
9. Re do solsol misimisol dorre fa la DOsolmimi
10. Mimidore solsol dolasolsol dorre lasi solmi

Notes. There are always notes :)

My biggest problem with this translation is the use of “fa” in lines 1 and 5, which mimics the French use of “à” in “au cieux/ciel” exactly. I take issue with prepositions in general in Solresol, because the mirrored usage of French’s prepositions makes Solresol seem like a cipher of French, rather than its own international language. Whether Sudre intended for Solresol-speakers to use French calques or not is unknown, as he did not provide a huge number of exemplary sentences to go on nor did he provide any alternatives to using French grammar.

In my opinion, auxiliary languages need to be more generalized in their prepositions in order to make bridges between different linguistic cultures, and “fa” could just as easily be “dosoldola” (in) or “mimiresi” (on) in this instance. Usually differences among languages only arise with regards to abstract concepts such as time (with “at 5 o’clock,” “on Monday,” and so on) and with idiomatic expressions (“laugh at somebody” vs. “reírse de alguien”/rire de quelqu’un”). Esperanto, another international auxiliary language, takes care of this lack of consistency across languages by having an all-purpose, default preposition “je.”

However, there can also be a debate in the physical realm, as some of us (depending on our language) see the possibility of being “on heaven” vs. “in heaven,” “on TV” vs. “in the TV,” “on the Internet” vs. “in the Internet” etc. I’m not proposing that Solresol become more Esperantic by any means. I am only proposing that Solresol develop more of its own identity, and hopefully the Solresol-speaking community (I know it’s coming :) any day now...) will address that.

Next, with regards to the translation, I generally based it on the modern French version of the Lord’s Prayer, as opposed to the older version. This leads to slight differences in lines 3 and 6 (Line 3 “que votre règne vienne” vs. “que ton règne arrive” and Line 6 “Donnez-nous aujourd'hui notre pain quotidien/pain de chaque jour.” vs. “Donne-nous aujourd'hui notre pain de ce jour”) among other things.

Also, see the previous blog entry about the use of the imperative “Solsol.”

I don’t expect this to be the final version of the prayer, but more like a working model for the time being :) And I thought people might be interested to see how another version of the “Our Father” in Solresol, done prior to the Sudre text being put online, turned out. View it here:

http://www.webring.com/hub?ring=constructedlangu