Monday, September 17, 2012

Kleider machen Leute: VIIb

Back from the break, and back to the seventh sentence (the first in the third paragraph):
Er konnte deshalb nur in größeren Städten arbeiten, wo solches nicht zu sehr auffiel; wenn er wanderte und keine Ersparnisse mitführte, geriet er in die größte Not.
The first half was translated in the last post. So now for the bit after the semi-colon which translates into English roughly as 'if he roamed and took no savings with him, he got into great difficulty'.

So I need an if-then type hypothetical construction.

He roamed without money:
i āmio ia, kāore he moni
He got into great difficulty:
i raruraru rawa ia
So:
mehemea ia i āmio, kāore he moni, i raruraru rawa ia.
The complete sentence is thus:
No reira e taea ana e ia te mahi i ngā taone nui ake anake i te mea he onge te aro o taua āhua i reira; mehemea ia i āmio, kāore he moni, i raruraru rawa ia.
Any thoughts?

2 comments:

  1. Since when did you speak Maori?

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  2. I don't! It's an experiment in how much I can learn from a grammar, dictionary and practicing translation. As to how good the translation is, I need to find someone fluent to check it ;-)

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