Latin of the New Sun

Lane Haygood · 21 Jul 2008, 20:38 · from 2008-July.txt.gz

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From: lhaygood at gmail.com (Lane Haygood)
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:38:03 -0500
Subject: (urth) Latin of the New Sun
In-Reply-To: <381eca020807211152y5b23bbd0nda72c1479711f0ca at mail.gmail.com>
References: <133476.14811.qm at web83711.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
	<381eca020807211152y5b23bbd0nda72c1479711f0ca at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <EE4566A9-FD8C-4F2E-B4BF-EDA8B4DD8323 at gmail.com>

Consider Typhon's translation that it means "this is the place of  
parting." I think that we're looking at is a bit of the indeterminacy  
of translation.  First, assuming these really are in Latin (and not,  
as GW seems to imply in the appendices, merely "a dead language" that  
he is rendering in to Latin so that it appears to be "a dead language"  
to us), I think that there are two nominal translations going on:  the  
in-story translation of Latin to Commonwealth, and the meta-fictional  
translation from Commonwealth to English.  As languages change,  
conceptual schema change as well.  One concept in a certain language  
does not necessarily connote the same in a different language, nor  
does it necessarily denote the same as well.  Our anglicization of  
"terminus est," for example, is to mean "this is the end."  But  
realize that if we were to travel back in time to speak with a Roman,  
conversing entirely in Latin, we would not be able to determine if  
"this is the end" and "terminus est" are really conceptually  
identical, because language is, to a certain degree, opaque, and our  
understanding of it entirely external and performative.

What we're likely dealing with here is the original language A which  
says, as we understand it, "terminus est."  But at two different times  
during the history of the world, as that was translated in to  
Typhonese (language B) and Commonwealth (language C) we find that  
concepts have mutated, and the concept of "end" (stop, finish point)  
has become "where things were parted" or "where things were divided"  
through translations from A to B and A to C (or even B to C!).

Now, is Wolfe savvy enough to represent the indeterminacy of  
translation while at the same time making little clues and jokes, such  
as the association of divinity with the new sun, or telling us to  
"look (them up) and see (what I'm trying to tell you)?"

Yes.

Best,
Lane

On Jul 21, 2008, at 1:52 PM, Martinus Scriblerus wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 5:25 PM, John Smith <jsmith2627 at att.net>  
> wrote:
>>
>> When Severian receives his sword, he says he had
>> learned enough of ancient languages to know that
>> "Terminus Est"  means "This is the Line of Division."
>> (Shadow, XIV)   A simpler translation would be "This
>> is the end."
>
> Well, there are (the) Doors.
>
> -- 
> Martinus Scriblerus scripsit ex 50? 21' N, 4?41' W
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