Copyright © 2005 Larry Sulky
Version 037A
Note: In the quasi-literal translation, every word is translated in place, using hyphenation where necessary to ensure a one-to-one match. Some words are translated differently in different contexts. Italic is used for "best fit" words that don't really have an English counterpart. Words that just don't have a "best fit" are translated in italic and square brackets.
Konya |
Quasi-literal translation |
Modern English | |
| kisi Bebalya | story Babel | The Story of Babel | |
| 1. | posen-wi xoxe yo, telaxi tote tenu sile tokun-moti mune. | past much [comma], world entire have merely language one. | Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. |
| 2. | lawa, suki xoxe xon-ken-yu faisi ye tufu xon-xemapi lun-yo Xinarya ye kepu son-wi. | next, person many travel east and find plain at Shinar and inhabit it. | As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. |
| 3. | lawa, kusi toku tun-yo failen-sefi kayu "min-min-wi tepu fetu ketaten-peti ye sexen-kusu fine xon-wi" wo. lawa, kusi lilu lone ketaten-peti lono peti ye tauli lono petin-tauli. | next, they say to each-other [begin:quote] "we all ought make brick and bake completely them" [end]. next, they use only brick rather-than stone and tar rather-than mortar. | They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. |
| 4. | lawa, kusi toku kayu "min-min-wi tepu fetu xiti wa ten-yo kaipasi, yo lelen-toxu saili wo, leso min-min-wi tepu lan-kenu suki tote ye tepu lan-pefu nin-ye tun-yo telaxi tote" wo. | next, they say [begin:quote] "we all ought make city with tower, [begin:which] reach sky [end], so-that we all ought be-known-by person all and ought be-scattered-by not to world entire" [end]. | Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." |
| 5. | naye, Sailin-punin-ya xain-yu saili leso sinu xiti ye kaipasa, yo suki fetu son-wi. | but, God come-from sky in-order-to see city and tower, [begin:which] person make. | But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. |
| 6. | lawa, Sailin-punin-ya toku kayu "suki tote wa sukin-seti, yo toku lilo tokun-moti mune wo, taye kusi kaimu fuxu fetun-wi tise, ye taye fetun-wi tole, yo kusi sepu wo, pan-male wa nolo kusi" wo. | next, God say [begin:quote] "person all be people, [begin:which] speak using language one [end], therefore they begin do action this, and therefore thing zero, [begin:which] they intend [end], be impossible with-respect-to them [end]. | The Lord said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them." |
| 7. | kayu min-wi sepu ken-yu telaxi ye pan-fun-pimen-yu tokun-moti yu kusi leso kusi pimen-lolu nin-ye failen-sefi wo. | [begin:quote] I intend go-to world and confuse language of them so-that they understand not each-other [end]. | Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." |
| 8. | taye Sailin-punin-ya pefu kusi xain-yo lun-tisen-wi tun-yo tote yu telaxi ye kusi kailu fetu xiti. | therefore God scatter them from there to all of world and they stop make city. | So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. |
| 9. | taye noli nemu xiti tuso Bebalya xemo Sailin-punin-ya pan-fun-pimen-yu lun-yo lun-tisen-wi tokun-moti yu telaxi tote. lawa, Sailin-punin-ya pefu kusi xain-yo lun-tisen-wi tun-yo telaxi tote. | therefore one call city as Babel because God confuse at there language of world all. next, God scatter them from there to world all. | That is why it was called Babel — because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. |