---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:33:11 -0500
From: "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE" <a...@fyi.net>
To: idioi...@verizon.net
Subject: Ou, a language game
Ou, English, a language game invented by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
(the 142nd so-so deservedly obscure OuLiPoian writer - who's,
nonetheless, been writing this way since 1968 or 1969) on Friday,
December 11, 2009EV, in wch 3 words' having many meanings in many
different languages is exploited in order to construct texts using ONLY
these 3 words - the meaning being derived by then translating those
words' multiple meanings.
In the case of Ou, the only 3 words to be used are Ou, Li & Po. There
are various ways of playing this game: As a writer, one can rewrite, in
part or in whole, an OuLiPo (Ouvroir de litt?rature potentielle -
Workshop of Potential Literature) work not only using the restriction
of just the 3 words but also using the restriction of the original
work. EG:
Po-po-po ou, Po' Ou po po po-li-li-po. Po ou PO li po po po po. Po po
Ou po po po ou-po po ou po, po po po po-po, po po ou ou-po-po-li? ou po
po Li Po po ou LI; po, OU li PO ou li ou li, li ou po-po ou LI-ou
po-li, po li li po po.
Translation:
Antipodal-of-aid moonstruck, Poor Girl as fluid pouring out from a
spout antipodal-to-you-that-sundown. According to your Working
Program it as at a temporality night. Along a small thing Girl bottom
over, hand cloud-skin at girl tail, to flap rind down from chaw-skin,
jump on the bottom girl whom-during-location-it? and to drift all along
Li Po pot or 51; butt, compulsory valuing it Working Program crazy to
you in girl what, it ovum antipodal-a-small-thing moonstruck 51-ovum
antipodal-smallpox, to gush it yon in against.
po = "opposite" in Earth Minimal - using the synonym "antipodal" here
po = "of" in Croatian
po = "cure" in Kimbu - using the synonym "aid" here
ou = "moonstruck" in Gilbertese (Gilbert Adair Tease?)
po' = "poor" in African-American abbreviation
ou = "girl" in Kwanyama
po = "as water poured from a spout" in Chewa - using "fluid" as a
synonym for "water" here
po = "on" in Czech, Danish (Transliterated), Kwanyama, Lithuanian,
Polish, Serbian (Latin Script), Slovenian, & Ukranian (Latin Script)
po = "opposite" in Earth Minimal - using the synonym "antipodal" here
li = "to you" in Catalan
li = "that" in Haitian Creole
po = "sunset" in Marquesan - using the synonym "sundown" here
po = "according to" in Serbian
ou = "your" in Creole & Haitian Creole
PO = "Operational Program" in Portuguese & Spanish - using "working" as
a synonym for "operational" here
li = "it" in Haitian Creole
po = "as" in Catalan, Faroese, Icelandic, Malay, Papiamentu, & Tagalong
po = "at a time" in Slovio - using "temporality" as a synonym for
"time" here
po = "of" in Croatian
po = "night" in Samoan
po = "along" in Czech
po = "a small thing" in Ainu
ou = "girl" in Kwanyama
po = "botty" in German & "bottom" in Limburgian
po = "over" in Czech, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovak, Slovak old,
& Ukranian (Latin Script)
po = "hand" in Guarani
ou = "cloud" in Fijian
po = "skin" in Creole & Haitian Creole
po = "at" in Esperanto, Lithuanian, & Polish
ou = "girl" in Kwanyama
po = "backside" in Limburgian - using "tail" as a synonym
po = "to flutter" in Denya - using "flap" as a synonym
po = "rind" in Creole & Haitian Creole
po = "beneath" in Lithuanian - using "down from" as a synonym
po = "chew" in Taiwanese (Transliterated) - using "chaw" as a synonym
po = "skin" in Creole & Haitian Creole
po = "jump" in Guarani (Transliterated)
po = "under" in Lithuanian - using "on the bottom" as a synonym
ou = "girl" in Kwanyama
ou = "whom" in Chiga
po = "when" in Swahili - using "during" as a synonym
po = "where" In Swahili - using "location" as a synonym
li = "it' In Haitian Creole
ou = "and" in Danish (Transliterated)
po = "to flutter" in Denya - using "drift" as a synonym
po = "all along" in Czech
Li Po = a particular Chinese poet
po = "pot" in Creole, Dutch, Haitian Creole, & Netherlands
ou = "or" in Brazilian Portuguese, Creole, French, French Canadian,
Galician,
& Portuguese
LI = "51" in Roman Numerals
po = "botty", "arse" in German - written here as "butt" as a pun on
"but"
OU = "expenditure necessarily resulting from the treaty or from acts
adopted in accordance therewith" or "compulsory expenditure"in Danish
- using "compulsory valuing" as a synonym
li = "it" in Haitian Creole
PO = "Operational Program" in Portuguese & Spanish - using "working" as
a synonym for "operational" here
ou = "insane" in Gilbertese - using "crazy" as a synonym
li = "to you" in Catalan
po = "in" in Croatian, French, Lituanian, & Serbian (Latin Script)
ou = "girl" in Kwanyama
li = "what" in Wolof
li = "it" in Haitian Creole
ou = "egg" in Catalan, Polish, Romanian, Romanian (Latin Script),
Romanian (Transliterated), Sardinian, Sardinian (Campidanese),
& Valencian - using "ovum" as a synonym
po = "opposite" in Earth Minimal - using "antipodal" as a synonym
po = "a small thing" in Ainu
ou = "moonstruck" in Gilbertese
LI = "51" in Roman Numerals
ou = "egg" in Catalan, Polish, Romanian, Romanian (Latin Script),
Romanian (Transliterated), Sardinian, Sardinian (Campidanese),
& Valencian - using "ovum" as a synonym
po = "for" in Czech, Ido & Sardinian (Campidanese)
po = "opposite" in Earth Minimal - using "antipodal" as a synonym
li = "smallpox" in Albanian
po = "to gush" in Chewa
li = "it" in Haitian Creole
li = "yon" in Italian
po = "in" in Croatian, French, Lituanian, & Serbian (Latin Script)
po = "against" in Czech
This text is a rewrite of the 1st paragraph of the Gilbert Adair
translation, A Void, of Georges Perec's La Disparition:
"Incurably insomniac, Anton Vowl turns on a light. According to his
watch it's only 12.20. With a loud and languorous sigh Vowl sits up,
stuffs a pillow at his back, draws his quilt up around his chin, picks
up his whodunit and idly scans a paragraph or two; but, judging its
plot impossibly difficult to follow in his condition, its vocabulary
too whimsically multisyllabic for comfort, throws it away in disgust."
Note that it contains a mystery regarding the semi-hidden nature of
some of its formal properties & that it also doesn't contain the letter
"e" - either in the use of Ou, Li & Po as its sole vocabulary OR in the
words in its translation. As such, it uses the restriction of the
original Perec work.
2ndly, a writer can rewrite any work only using these 3 words but w/o
adhering to any other restriction. 3rdly, a writer can write a new
work using only those 3 words. Following are 2 texts & their 1st
generation translations. See the description of a possible reader role
following them.
OU
Po PO, OU po li li po li li po po, ou ou po Ou/ou PO po, po ou ou po po
ou po-po ou/ou li po po ou (Li Po po OU "OU" po Li Po po "po-po-po"),
ou li po po ou ou li-po li (po po: po OU po ou-ou li ou po OU po po po
li li).
Translation:
Organizational Unit
In Operational Program, Operational Unit to gush to you what of what it
in where whom in I/you Operational Program indicator of respect, the
whole he comes either according to whether or opposite-yes either/or it
by close whom (Li Po in Operational Unit in-exhange-for-"expenditure
necessarily resulting from the treaty or from acts adopted in
accordance therewith, compulsory expenditure" against Li Po in
Operational Unit "in-exchange-for-according-to-at-the-rate-of"), or to
you an indicator of respect to gush egg and whether-whether it (for in
exchange for: to gush compulsory expenditure for girl-egg to you whom
in exchange for compulsory expenditure according to all along to gush
from a spout them at that place).
Ou Ou
Ou li li li, li li, po po. PO po po ou ou ou ou po li po ou po! Po
ou, Ou Ou, ou, po ou, ou!
Translation:
Rotten Egg
He comes to you at that place over there, that hillside, after sunset.
Jump over pole and cloud or at the price of pox on your arse! For he
comes, Rotten Egg, and, after he comes, WO!
The reader can also play this game by trying to figure out wch of the
specific formal possibilities has determined the result. EG: in the 2
examples above: Is either derived from a pre-existing text? Is either
a 'new' work? The reader can become the writer by creating a rationale
for their interpretation - such as the one presented after the example
derived from Perec above. This can then be known as "Cure for Po, Li,
Ou" or "Po Po Po, Li, Ou". Any readers making analytical guesses about
the origins/translations of the above are welcome to submit them to
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE @: a...@fyi.net in probable exchange for
solutions &/or further problems as well as possible publication.
Variations on the game are Po, &Li - wch are explained elsewhere.
MANY THANKS TO THE
Webster's Online Dictionary with Multilingual Thesaurus Translation_______________________________________________
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