Hmmm... hlin varr... the hl and double-r look a bit like Old Norse, maybe Albanian. But neither language has the qu combination in quinba. Mo rog, glonog sounds like nothing but aliens' threats to Spaceman Spiff: probably the answer.
I am hurt--deeply hurt--that you should imagine me capable of such deception as to create a poem of whole cloth in a purportedly foreign tongue and then "translate" it.
The above is of course from the Lilliputian. I have taken some liberties with it. Glonog corresponds roughly with our "Please"; Quinba is "miss", or "woman", or "girl" (it is the feminine of Quinbus, as in Quinbus Flestrin--Gulliver's sobriquet. Hlin varr is "I like [your] nose", possession being indicated by the context.
My hasty translation is not of the best, but I think it conveys a little of the original's piquant charm.
Hmmm... hlin varr... the hl and double-r look a bit like Old Norse, maybe Albanian. But neither language has the qu combination in quinba. Mo rog, glonog sounds like nothing but aliens' threats to Spaceman Spiff: probably the answer.
ReplyDeleteI am hurt--deeply hurt--that you should imagine me capable of such deception as to create a poem of whole cloth in a purportedly foreign tongue and then "translate" it.
ReplyDeleteThe above is of course from the Lilliputian. I have taken some liberties with it. Glonog corresponds roughly with our "Please"; Quinba is "miss", or "woman", or "girl" (it is the feminine of Quinbus, as in Quinbus Flestrin--Gulliver's sobriquet. Hlin varr is "I like [your] nose", possession being indicated by the context.
My hasty translation is not of the best, but I think it conveys a little of the original's piquant charm.