Schleicher's fable (the Sheep and the Horses) in English, Modern Indo-European, and Interlingua

Sunday, June 08, 2008



Since Interlingua often has two official or semi-official terms for one word (caballo and equo for horse for example) I thought it might be interesting to try to make a translation as close to Modern Indo-European as possible. That means writing agro instead of campo, specta instead of vide, and so on. There might be a way to get the translation even closer so let me know if I should make any changes.

The Sheep and the Horses

A sheep that had no wool saw horses, one pulling a heavy wagon, one carrying a big load, and one carrying a man quickly. The sheep said to the horses: “My heart pains me, seeing a man driving horses”. The horses said: “Listen, sheep, our hearts pain us when we see this: a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a warm garment for himself. And the sheep has no wool”. Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.

Ówis ékwōs-qe

Ówis, qésio wl̥̄nā ne est, ékwoms spekét, óinom (ghe) crum wóghom wéghontm, óinom-qe mégām bhórom, óinom-qe dhghmónm ṓku bhérontm. Ówis nu ékwobh(i)os wewqét: krd ághnutoi moí, ékwoms ágontm w.rom wídntei. Ékwōs tu wewqónt: Klúdhi, ówi! krd ághnutoi nsméi wídntbh(i)os: anér, pótis, ówjom-r wĺnām sébhi chermóm wéstrom qrnéuti. Ówjom-qe wl̥̄nā ne ésti. Tod kékluwos ówis ágrom bhugét.
Le oves e le equos

Un ove, a que non esseva lana, spectava equos, un que traheva un wagon pesante, e un que (trans)ferava un carga magne, e un que (trans)ferava un homine rapidemente. Le ove diceva al equos: "Mi corde me dole, vidente homine que coerce equos." Le equos diceva: Ascolta, ove! Nostre cordes nos dole quando nos lo vide: un viro, despota, face le lana del ove a un vestimento calide pro se ipse. E a le ove non es lana. Audiente isto, le ove fugiva al agro.

Note: Thanks to Steve Rice for a some corrections and advice. There's no 'ferar' in Interlingua but I put trans in brackets to make the connection more obvious.

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