tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 23 12:35:51 1998
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Re: Nature phenomenon
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: Nature phenomenon
- Date: Fri, 23 Jan 98 15:05:40 EST
ja' peHruS:
>Francesco Felici, in HovmeymajDaq maHegh, wrote the line
>SIStaH yuQmey SuD.
>I cannot ken this line has no error, even though it be poetry.
>Green planets continue raining.
>Does he intend yuQmey SuDDaq SIStaH?
>I'm not sure.
Again, it's a matter of what the subject of {SIS} is. Francesco
apparently wrote the line considering that the thing which falls
(from the sky) is what rains. I understand this without either
condemning or commending the usage.
"Debris rained down from the top of the building after the explosion."
"Ice rained on us all morning."
"Gruelow [*] planets are raining."
Some people prefer to think of the source of the rain as the agent.
Again, I understand what is meant without having to strain.
"The building rained debris after the bomb went off."
"The dark, roiling clouds rained ice on us until lunchtime."
"The cosmos is raining gruelow [*] planets."
You apparently like to talk about it as if there were no subject at all:
"It rained from what was left of the roof once the bomb was
detonated, and the sidewalk was covered with debris."
"Before noon, it rained icily."
"It is raining on the gruelow [*] planets."
While I can understand the justification for an elided {muD} or even
{'oH} here, it still sounds to me like {-lu'} would make at least as
much sense. And it doesn't easily permit the image that I got from
reading Francesco's poem, of planets themselves falling like rain.
-- ghunchu'wI'
[*] The term "grue" is a standard color name which includes the idea
of green and blue. I've coined "gruelow" which also adds in "yellow"
in order to avoid unduly interpreting Francesco's use of {SuD}.