Ttesyāmpa

hōikko-vezet lòhhaumkuive.
I can only give a snowstorm.

A Ttesyāmpa saying meaning ‘you want proof, but I can only
give you evidence’. Comes from the poem ‘Winter‘.

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• Oldtale (rōamtsèti)
• Phonetics
• The World Divided
• Overview
• Some Lovely Charts
• Writing System
• Vocabulary
• Winter (kāx)

Ttesyāmpa is my third conlang. The seed idea was just to design a writing system that was loosely similar in format to Chinese characters, but more regular and more straightforwardly interpretable. And I did design a writing system I’m happy with, in the end! But in the process I had to decide things about the language these characters were representing, and of course I had to know what the logographs meant… and an analytic language like Mandarin kind of seemed like not enough of a stretch, so I made some affixes… and so on….

Before too long, I had divided the world into 78 categories, and the language had expanded along with the writing system as I went. The bare bones of an imaginary culture also sprang up, directly driven by the development of the language. (This culture is probably but not definitely composed of humans; for now, the species that speaks Ttesyāmpa is referred to below as ‘selfspecies’.) The writing system is vaguely inspired by Mayan and Chinese; beyond that, Ttesyāmpa isn’t based on anything in particular.

As a language, Ttesyāmpa is concerned with:
animacy and politeness;
evidentiality, possibility/potential, uncertainty, and questions;
direction/location, motion, movement in time, and change;
effect/result; patterns and habits.

Ttesyāmpa is relatively unconcerned with:
number; sex-related gender; the past;
desires/goals, intention, method, or degree of ease;
cause, completion, permanence, duration, or definiteness.

Oldtale

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rōamtsèti
tsòtotak yāuli kkàme lātsek rèitsalau – pìa – tūn.
hōifu āulyaswstu lātsekki vàkteive – tāu – chẁlauma vàkte rèi. ùteio hūqa kkàmpei.
ùteiwt lèlo āulyaswstu lèuhio òutum lātsek, ttòe vāu àrvesasw rèikoi tsōlltak.
rèikoi xōinitaiaye lātsek.

rōa-m-tsèti
tale-heard.reported-be.old

tsòtotak yāuli kkàme lātsek rèitsalau – pìa – tūn.
past-in be.far run-3P.M.M crocodile every-place-LOC, mountain, tree.

hōifu āulyaswstu lātsekki vàkteive – tāu – chẁlauma vàkte rèi.
gift-(3P.S.S) god-PL crocodile-DAT tooth-INST, but, cost-ful.S-(3P.S.S) tooth all.

ùteio hūqa kkàmpei.
not-3P.M.I continue run-act.

ùteiwt lèlo āulyaswstu lèuhio òutum lātsek,
not-3P.S.I know god-PL be.lazy-3P.M.S such-extent crocodile,

ttòe vāu àrvesasw rèikoi tsōlltak.
anyway-3P.M.M want attach-here-3P.M.S.FUT all-time river-in.

rèikoi xōinitaiaye lātsek.
all-time trick-ful-3P.M.M crocodile.

Oldtale
Long ago, crocodile ran everyplace. Mountains, trees.
Gods gifted crocodile teeth, but each tooth cost. No more running.
Gods didn’t know crocodile so lazy, wanted stay in river forever anyway.
Crocodile always tricksy.

Phonetics

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Phonemes

/p, pʰ/; /t, tʰ/; /k, kʰ/; /q/; /s, f, z/; /m/; /n, ŋ, ɲ/; /ʋ/; /ts, ʃ, tʃ/; /h, ʁɦ, x/; /l, ʟ, ʎ/; /j/

/a, aɪ, au/; /e, eɪ, iu/; /ɔ, ɔɪ, ɔu/; /i/; /u/; /ɤ/

* The IPA notation may possibly not be quite exactly right for all of these. In particular, that last vowel seems like a straightforward sort of vowel to me, but I found it confusing to try to place it; /ɤ/ is my best guess, probably closer than /ɵ/ or /ə/.

Tone

I’m just dipping my toes into using tones, here. There are two tones, high and low, not counting a neutral mid; generally one tone per word, usually on the first syllable; the syllable with tone is stressed, so that tone can be thought of as two different classes of stress/accent. The rest of the word adapts to this tonal stress (with some variation by dialect).

Other

Syllables are pretty straightforwardly (C)V(C), with most C clusters uncommon. Base words are rarely more than two syllables. Ttesyāmpa is more or less syllable-timed. It is not usually spoken especially quickly.

Transliteration

The romanization oddities are that ⟨pp, tt, kk⟩ show aspiration; ⟨hh⟩ represents /x/; ⟨ll⟩ represents /ʟ/ or /ɫ/; ⟨v⟩ represents /ʋ/; ⟨x⟩ represents /ʃ/; ⟨eu⟩ represents /iu/; ⟨w⟩ represents /ɤ/. Conveniently, when digraphs happen to be formed by the consonants that end and begin two consecutive syllables, they’re pronounced as that digraph. (This is only distinguishable with suffixes and compounds, neither of which change to reflect this in Ttesyāmpa’s writing system.) Although tone/stress is not directly represented in Ttesyāmpa’s writing system, diacritics are used in transliteration: hīgh tōne and lòw tòne accents, or, sometimes, overlines and underlines.

The World Divided

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Ttesyāmpa is written using 72 basic symbols, each with up to three readings depending on placement: as a determinative (semantic (meaning)), as a syllable (phonetic), or as a suffix (morphemic). Here is a chart of the determinatives, which are the semantic categories that form the base of the writing system. Exactly one category applies to every word. They are not directly pronounced.

Six (and only six!) of the determinatives can be flipped (more details in the writing system section), which in this context more-or-less adds a diminutive to the original concept. This makes six additional valid semantic categories:

Concept	Additional Associated Meanings	Animacy	Word
beetle (flipped anthill)	little buggish animals, germs, small	mobile	fēi
adult person (flipped king)	selfspecies, personal	mobile	kkòme
sprout/sapling (flipped grass)	life/ born/ start/ new/ spring, new, resilient/ wet	stately	qw̄tsou
fire (flipped sun)	moving unalive things (not water)	mobile	sāhux
river (flipped wind)	moving unalive things (water), recklessness and caution	mobile	tsōll
bark (flipped wood)	skin/ outerlayer, brittle/ breakable/ dry/ fragile, fake/ false	inert	ùnto

Overview

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Or, if it should be of interest, a more detailed overview.

Parts of Speech

Divides pretty neatly into verbs (v), nouns (n), determiners (d) (not to be confused with determinatives), and adverbs (a). Interjections can fill any of the four slots.

Word Order

A bit flexible, but most commonly VSO. Word order can indicate ~importance, with important coming first; often this takes the form of mobile jumping ahead of inert.

Animacy

Animacy is important in Ttesyāmpa! There are three classes of animacy, essentially based on motion either physically or in the brain: mobile, stately, inert. Stately includes not only gradual motion over time, but also potential. Verbs and nouns both have animacy, and reflect this partially and imprecisely in their phonetics. When written, a word’s determinative tends to match its animacy, but that’s not at all required.

Nouns and verbs generally follow these patterns:
Mobile: starts with any C except k, t, or p; or ā (including āu and āi).
Stately: starts with any C except kk, tt, or pp; or any V other than ù or ā.
Inert: starts with any C except kk, tt, or pp; or ù or ò (including òu and òi).

Inert verbs, in particular (as a base form), only start with ù.

Verb Animacy

As well as nouns, verbs are also classed in a way that’s conceptualized as animacy, although it plays out a bit differently. Most verbs have only a single version with a fixed animacy, and any noun can use it when called for. Some verbs have fixed ‘versions’, and a noun subject must use the verb version that agrees with its animacy (barring wordplay, metaphor, etc.). The versions are split either M/S (with I nouns also using the S version) or M/S/I. The M/S distinction need not be distinguishable; that is, M and S can share the same base and only differ in which odd-case conjugation they take. Determinatives may or may not differ between versions.

Eight particular verbs are distinguished in animacy by having multiple different forms – these are still considered versions of the ‘same’ verb, which means that subject-verb animacies must agree. These verbs are: have, stop, go, come, continue, say, need, help.

Conjugation

Conjugation is a bit complicated in that it depends not only on the subject, but also on the animacy of the verb itself; ‘I run’ (mobile verb) takes a different ending than ‘I float’ (stately verb), and categories combine in various tenses and aspects (conjugation chart below). But hey, at least conjugation isn’t affected by the object of the verb, and the total number of standard verb endings is only 48! It could be a lot worse.

The floating tones of verb endings affect the final syllable of the base word; if it was a one-syllable word that already carried that tone, it reduplicates the initial (C)V of that word so that, for example, qōu (swim) would become qoqōu (as in the phrase ‘if the moon is swimming’). Pluralizing a verb means it’s done more than once (in quick succession or at the same time); when there’s an implied object, it generally means the object is plural.

Stately and inert verbs can be conjugated as though they were mobile, to denote particular respect and honor for a mobile or stately subject.

Suffixes

Ttesyāmpa has 96 ‘official’ suffixes. (This is somewhat arbitrary: there are ~words that can essentially affix to other words, but are written as compounds.) An epenthetic y, v, or a is added (in pronunciation (and romanization), not in the writing system) when needed to differentiate syllables, but when suffixes start with i or u, they diphthong with the base word when possible. Some vowel-starting suffixes drop their initial vowel when it simplifies pronunciation; some only add it for that same purpose.

Compounding

Simple smushing of base words, no internal conjugation. The part of speech most commonly matches the first component; exception in that determiner-noun results in an adverb. Tone likely only stays on the first word, but can do other things. Well-established compounds are usually (but not always) written as a single character. Quite a few verbs can follow a main verb by compounding to it, modifying the main verb: for example, ‘tōno’ (repeat) can be added to ‘kkūzya’ (you build) to make ‘kkūz-tonoya’ (you rebuild).

Evidentials

There are four evidential markers: one for direct perception, one for deduced/inferred from evidence, one for reported/secondhand/thirdhand, and one for assumed as prior/given; all these meanings are used somewhat fluidly. The evidential markers most commonly suffix to verbs; for past and present, ‘perceived directly’ is assumed when unmarked. They’re mostly unused in the future tense, except by oracles.

Copula

For 1-to-1 identity, the relevant things use the equals (or not-equals) verb. For descriptive or existence, verbify an adjective or noun by conjugating it; for example, ‘there exists a dog’ is simply ‘dog-3P.M.S’ (hàko).

Pronouns

Pronouns have optional number marking, with plural form regular; exceptions for both for 1P, and 3P-inert can’t take a plural. 2P is used only for informal/familiar. Polite speech circumlocutes – uses respectful title/descriptor, combines with vocative, uses 3P conjugations. Pronouns can be dropped when the verb conjugation or context makes the meaning clear, but they might still be used for emphasis, brief answers to questions, etc. The basic 3P pronouns are acceptably polite/respectful in almost all circumstances, unless referring to, say, royals; the ‘royal’ 3P compound can also be used on an individual and variable basis as a status-raiser, conveying admiration, respect, appreciation of effectiveness/ competence/ power.

Demonstratives

Demonstratives have optional number marking, plural form regular (with mobile and stately). Plural is marked (if at all) on the demonstrative, not the noun. 3-way proximity distinction. Used as 3P inert pronouns and also sometimes a definite article, essentially (there’s no indefinite article). When used with/as pronouns, they signify proximate/obviate/far rather than near/medial/distal – a bit more metaphorical.

Quantification

Optional number marking; plural (for mobile or stately) or numbers or other quantifiers to specify. Plural is never used when a number is given. Count/noncount noun distinction is unmarked – all nouns are treated as noncount as much as possible. Numbers are base 12 and classified under drum, with a few specific exceptions. Long numbers are written as compound words.

Negation

There are a few negative verbs, which conjugate as other verbs do; any other verb follows them in the infinitive. Double negation with indefinite pronouns like ‘nothing’ or ‘none’ or ‘nobody’.

Questions

There’s a polar ‘yes/no?’ that conjugates as other verbs do. ‘What’ attaches to certain words (irregularly) to form who, where, etc. Any form of question tends to be bumped up in word order. Intonation alone is not enough to form a question.

Imperative

The use of èl as an imperative is limited; it wouldn’t even be used from a boss to an employee. Some of its uses are: from parents/adults to (usually their own) kids, if they’re impatient or being stern (highly variable); between friends – the effect in this case is to (often in a teasing/joking manner) express a great desire for them to do the thing; to someone who you feel has wronged you / done you a dishonor and now must act to ameliorate that; when complaining at a malfunctioning computer; as commands to a trained animal; to command slaves; when yelling at someone to stop so they don’t fall off a cliff; for emphasis in a royal decree, as a supplement to the future indicative. Future indicative can be used generally when compliance is expected, as in parent-child or boss-employee, but future possible (plus, sometimes, context and circumlocution) is the politest form.

Transitivity

The transitive is rarer than in English, and no verbs are obligatorily transitive. Transitivity plays out differently depending on animacy. Stately verbs are always considered to be intransitive, which pretty much just means that when they directly affect an object it takes the dative; inert verbs are intransitive and cannot directly affect an object. With mobile verbs, use of the accusative or dative depends on relative animacies of the subject and object.

Passive

‘Verb-act-have’ serves as a (rare) passive. Instead of ‘I was bitten (by the dog)’: ‘bite-act-had I (dog-via)’. Instead of ‘the door is pounded (by me)’: ‘pound-act-has door (I-via)’. Generic statements are often used instead of the passive.

Adjectives (the absence of)

There are no adjectives as base words, if not counting determiners. Adjectives are formed by stative verbs, like a very simple relative clause: basically, if a verb follows a noun, it functions as an adjective. ‘House (that) is-being-red’ means ‘red house’. Verbs in this role conjugate in the simple present.

Adverbs

There are a few adverbs as base words, and more formed from compounds or suffixes. The function of other adverbs can be served by stand-alone or leading verbs, or postverb compounds, or verbs plus the conjunction ‘while’ (yāits). Adverb-equivalents are generally not as common as in English.

Charts

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A few additional charts.

Pronouns

1P singular, I	nū
1P plural, we (inclusive and excl.)	yēn
2P, you (familiar)	ttà (ttàttu)
3P M-proximate, they	kkē (kkētu)
3P M-obviate, they	xūn (xūntu)
3P M-far, they	ppài (ppàitu)
3P M high-status, they	kkē-ttez(tu); xūn-ttez(tu); ppài-ttez(tu)
3P S, it/they: prox, obv, far	lò, lòza, lòpu (lòtu, lòzatu, lòputu)
3P I, it/they: prox, obv, far	tō, zā, pù

Demonstratives

this, these (m)	ttēz (ttēztu)
this, these (s/i)	tō (tōtu)
that, those (medial)	zā (zātu)
that, those (distal)	pù (pùtu)
what/which	ēx (ēxtu)
none	yèf
all/every	rèi
some (unspecified)	sīu (sīutu)
other/else	pēt (pēttu)

Numbers

zero	yèf	jar
one	kkà	pangolin
two	sài	hand
three	nō	rake
four	kùm	drum
five	xē	drum
six	pòi	drum
seven	zw̄ll	drum
eight	làu	octopus
nine	tsī	drum
ten	mēit	drum
eleven	hū	drum
twelve	àpa	drum
thirteen	apa-kkà	drum-pangolin
twenty-seven	saipa-nō	drum-rake
forty-eight	kùmpa	drum
eighty-four	zw̄llpa	drum
one hundred twenty-four	meipa-kùm	drum-drum
one hundred forty-four	āngka	drum
one hundred forty-five	āngka-kkà	drum-pangolin
one hundred eighty-six	āngka-nopa-pòi	drum-drum-drum
five hundred seventy-seven	kùngka-kkà	drum-pangolin
one thousand and eight	zw̄ngka	drum

Conjugation

Here are conjugation charts! They apply to almost all verbs. They can seem either pointlessly overcomplicated or kind of minimal depending on how I frame it, but I think they’re pretty!

The letters in parentheses refer to the animacy of the verb. The ^ and _ indicate a high or low tone that affects the previous syllable. Italicized endings combine two symbols rather than having their own unique one.

Vocabulary

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Dictionary

Writing System

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(There’s also a dubiously-accurate in-world evolution of Ttesyāmpa’s writing system.)

Ttesyāmpa is written with a logosyllabary consisting of 72 basic symbols (the chēk), each written with a single stroke, which evolved along with the language (as opposed to being adapted from a different language). Ttesyāmpa has only the one writing system, and has been minimally influenced by other languages; because there’s nothing salient to contrast it to, the script itself has no name other than ‘tīhom’ (writing), much as ‘Ttesyāmpa’ simply means ‘language’. It’s written top to bottom, left to right, with words most often consisting of rows of two symbols. When a symbol is unpaired in its row, it takes a flattened form; this has no effect on the meaning or pronunciation, and can be thought of similarly to capital letters or initial/final forms.

Flipping

For most symbols, flipping means mirroring them upside down; for those that are symmetrical such that this would produce no difference, they mirror right-left instead. A few flipped symbols are unused. There’s a special case in ‘vw’, which (simply being a circle) looks the same no matter how it’s mirrored; instead, since its corresponding S is vẁyuk, meaning shield, it flips ‘over’ so that the straps on the back of the ‘shield’ are visible.

The glyph-set (chēkw):

Parsing a character

A character (chēkkit; glyph-cluster) is a block of symbols containing one determinative (including a handful of specialized ligatures); this correlates pretty closely to a word. Each symbol is read as a phonetic guideline, as a determinative, or as a particular suffix.

Top row: phonetic

The top row of a block conveys phonetic information, not fully specified: consonants are grouped so that, for example, (se) could refer to se, fe, or ze (vowel-starting syllables are grouped with ‘y’, so that, for example, ‘u’ may also signify ‘yu’). The ‘e’ of (se) could also be a diphthong (so the CV could be sei, seu, fei, feu, zei, or zeu); there may or may not be a consonant coda after the vowel. Tone is unmarked.

A typical consonant-vowel symbol, when flipped, goes from CV to VC; av/ev/ov instead become au/eu/ou, and iv/uv/wv aren’t used phonetically. For single flipped vowels, a/e/o become ai/ei/oi; a flipped i or u indicates a new syllable (rather than a diphthong, as indicated by the unflipped symbol). Flipped w is unused.

First symbol

The first (leftmost) symbol conveys the first syllable as fully as possible. If the base word is a simple syllable that can be fully conveyed with a single phonetic symbol – leaving no unspecified dipthongs or codas, but allowing consonant-group ambiguity – the top row contains only one symbol, which is written with its flat version (flipped or not). For example, ‘kkà’ is written as ‘ka’; ‘yèz’ is written as ‘es’; ‘yēi’ is written as ‘ei’.

Second symbol

If the (base) word has a single complex syllable, the second (rightmost) symbol represents the end of the syllable, and is likely to flip. If a VC syllable repeats the previous V, the V is read as being redundant. When applicable, iC or uC always form a diphthong, as do unflipped i and u. The first symbol specifies as much as possible even if it’s redundant. For example, ‘kkòis’ is written as ‘ko-is’; ‘tāu’ is written as ‘ta-u’; ‘tàhh’ is written as ‘ta-ahh’; ‘yāits’ is written as ‘ai-its’.

If the (base) word has more than one syllable, the second symbol represents the second syllable, and any additional syllables are left out entirely. The second symbol flips, in this case, only to fully convey the second syllable. Consonants fall at the beginning of syllables whenever possible, but a ‘y’ (not following an ‘l’ or ‘n’) starts a new syllable. If a VC would appear to have a redundant vowel, the C is left off when necessary. For example, ‘kkòislwng’ is written as ‘ko-lw’; ‘ttāiai’ is written as ‘ta-ai’; ‘àttal’ is written as ‘a-ta’; ‘ẁmya’ is written as ‘wm-a’; ‘tēsyum’ is written as ‘te-uyu’; ‘zōiem’ would be written as ‘so-em’; ‘zōiom’ would be written as ‘so-o’; ‘zōiumlamittokavwchei’ would be written as ‘so-uyu’.

Second row (and further):

Determinative

The first symbol of the second row is the determinative. This disambiguates which word is meant, which then clarifies the pronunciation. Determinatives themselves are not pronounced. Exactly one determinative is considered correct for each character. If a word has no suffixes, the determinative will use its flat version, filling its row, and the character is complete.

Suffixes

96 suffixes are represented with specific symbols (flipped or not), with pronunciations vaguely close to their phonetic or determinative readings, but irregular. As suffixes, the symbols are morphemic, and don’t change to reflect an epenthetic vowel or anything. The first suffix fills the fourth (second row, rightmost) symbol spot, and if there’s only one suffix, that’s the complete character; if there are additional suffixes, they simply add on below in additional rows, left-right-left-right, flattening if there’s an odd number. There may be no way to distinguish these from compounds except context.

Special cases

There are some symbols that fill a whole row without flattening; these are either the determinatives-as-words, or conjunction ligatures. For the determinatives: the word ‘cave’ isn’t spelled out o-tu-(cave), it just uses the full-width cave determinative. (Not all these terms are still in mainstream use, but most are.)

For the ~conjunctions: there are only eight of these. The ligatures are used in circumstances I don’t fully grok, sort of whenever they link small… phrases… instead of longer ones; it’s still legit to spell them out fully, but the ligatures are more common.

Punctuation in Ttesyāmpa’s orthography is fairly minimal, more-or-less just a comma and a period. Spaces are used between words; compounds are written with no space between.

Spelling

A word can be spelled out loud by simply pronouncing the symbols as their corresponding phonetic syllables, left-right top-down, including a null if the second phonetic symbol is absent. A flipped V is pronounced Vyu or, optionally for a/e/o, Vi; a flipped vV is pronounced Vvu or, optionally for a/e/o, Vu. The two extra Ss are referred to by their meaning, ōcha or yòukka. Full-width determinatives can be said as syllable-wide. Conjunctions are spelled out, ignoring ligatures.

As an example, here’s the spelled-out version of Oldtale:

ho-a-tsw-am-tse-ti-mw
tso-to-me-ha avu-li-e ka-am-ha-e la-muppa he-tsa-pi-avu – pi-muppa – tu-muppa.
ho-su-pw avu-la-le-tu la-muppa-ki va-te-nw-ivu – ta-u-va – tsw-la-i-um va-te-nw he-i-hi. u-te-kw-o hu-qua-tsu ka-am-ha-pe.
u-te-kw-wt le-lo-su avu-la-le-tu le-hi-mw-o ovu-tu-mi la-muppa, to-zun-lu-e va-u-si ahh-ve-tsu-sw he-ko-me tso-muppa-ha.
he-ko-me tso-ni-ivu-ta-e la-muppa.

And its direct transliteration again, for comparison:

rōamtsèti
tsòtotak yāuli kkàme lātsek rèitsalau – pìa – tūn.
hōifu āulyaswstu lātsekki vàkteive – tāu – chẁlauma vàkte rèi. ùteio hūqa kkàmpei.
ùteiwt lèlo āulyaswstu lèuhio òutum lātsek, ttòe vāu àrvesasw rèikoi tsōlltak.
rèikoi xōinitaiaye lātsek.

(Now that literacy is ubiquitous among Ttesyāmpa speakers, there exists slang that pronounces some words as spelled (resulting in a reduced number of phonemes, slightly longer words on average, and a purely phonetic writing system). Who knows how this might develop in the future?)

Winter

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And lastly, a poem, translated. The original (in English) is below.

Kāx

Ùteiwt nyō-yei vōu.

Rw̄ntuveun hàts yēn sēizahux yāits xùme rèi,
āikaun ālyamive rwrw̄nsw sw̄let hēll àumiki,
tāu, nyō-neus lùkolur sāio, tw̄f, hōi tòsive,
hōi rèikoi tòsive.

Vāuame kkeulīse kīkati kkēzutu pìa,
pīlati yērse ātuasalyami vūluo hōilwsamē òxti àumive,
tāu, tāiko-neusin kkēpotu lìvapeiskiki zā,
tsòtoyax yāuli ùtoskio.

Ēxye āmpakaiē tō, āmpaye kkēzu,
ppāizute vāits èimouteku yāits nūkketein kkēpo,
āmpain, ēxye paiw̄t kōiski kùm ōll,
vōu, lyāstahell.

Zīkoskiatswt xēxu-yēi-vēz xūn, āmpaye kkēzu,
xēxalyalongu-yēi, ùteiyeu lèlo.
Òuzo hūqain fāulyu yāits kkènuo àum,
kkènuo, kkènuo.

Qòizune ppālau kkòmew yāppuo,
yẁllchue lèntwftak lī lènaumtak,
tōkoihel xāhel kkà ppūlma,
lyānyechuo nāng.

Sùxachuo hēll kōnyeo chùpu àum tsōllisiki,
ālyamun xēi yēn mètu nyō-yeiatswt vōu,
tāu, tōkoi kkēuliun kīkati pìa,
yw̄zollun kkē-ttezki,

ùteiet hākkoi yèf.

Winter

Doesn’t come-already spring.

Make-repeatedly burn we torches during night all,
request-we sing-via make-might.will melt sun snow,
but, comes-as dawn is.dim, is.grey, gives cold,
gives always cold.

Want-reported climb-might.will ascend-ward they.some mountain,
to kill-might-will worm-great-rumored ice-of exhale-rumored-might downward snow,
but, call they.others foolish-act-deduced that,
ago far is.dead-must.be.

How explain-might this, say they.some,
nod.at land is.bleak-plain.to.see while are.contemptuous they.others,
say, how pertains.to-might year four are.previous,
are.spring, are.sunshiney.

Maybe-deduced-was sleep-is.of-already-just-might it, say they.some,
sleep-great-like-is.of-already-might, don’t-you know.
Like.this continue-they argue while falls snow,
falls, falls.

Ends.up venture.out adult-group is.few,
vanish grey-in and white-in,
when-after day-after one fret.wait-ful,
clear-become sky.

Causing-becomes sun honored transform snow river-small-to,
sing be.grateful we because.of come-already-did spring,
but, when climb-we ascend-ward mountain,
search.for them-honored,

don’t-we find nothing.

The original poem

Winter

Spring hasn’t come.

We burn torches all through the nights,
and sing for the sun to melt the snow,
but dawn comes dim and gray and cold,
always cold.

Some want to climb the mountain,
to kill the ice worm that breathes down snow,
but others call that folly –
it’s long since dead.

How do you explain this? some ask,
nodding at the bleak land while others scoff,
and what of the last four years?
spring and sunshine.

Could be it’s just been asleep, some say,
sort of hibernating, you don’t know –
and on they argue while the snow falls,
falls and falls.

In the end a small group goes out,
vanishing in the gray and the white,
and after one day of waiting,
the skies clear.

The sun starts turning snow to streams,
and we sing thanks that spring has come,
but when we climb the mountain,
searching for them,

we find nothing.