Date: Wed, 03 Dec 1997
From: Don C.
Subject: Re: Aqdas 3: verse 1, part 2
Jonah Winters wrote:Many years ago I had the opportunity to spend some time with one of the leaders of the Tama Iowa Mesquakie, discussing religious ideas and the symbolism of various natural objects and phenomenon. He mentioned a similar idea in connection with the horizon. The horizon is as far as one can see, therefore it represents to limits of human experience. At the same time, you can never reach the horizon, no matter how long you walk the horizon is ahead of you. Therefore it symbolizes an unattainable goal.
This is an interesting term: besides "horizon," its connotations are of distant lands, far reaches.
Don C
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 1997
From: Jonah Winters
Subject: Aqdas 3: verse 1, part 2
Dear Friends,
...There is one thing I need to emphasize: while, as I said yesterday, it is fairly easy to provide a literal translation of the Aqdas, transliteration is another, and notoriously difficult, issue. Sometimes only a native speaker will recognize whether a verb is an active or a passive participle, or active or passive in the past tense. So my transliterations are not guaranteed accurate (though major goofs should be few). The only options for a non-native or non-specialist Arabist are either to risk errors or not to attempt transliteration at all. I prefer the former. As well, I should point out that I am providing a grammatical transliteration, not an oral one. The latter would differ in that many sounds would be elided. For an exercise such as this, however, only the former is useful, because the latter often disguises case endings and/or initial vowels.
-J