Lament for the Third Sack
From Reboil
Lyrics to a fictional song in a constructed language called Orth from the Neal Stephenson novel Anathem (2020).
Stats
- Author: Jeremy Bornstein
- Source: monastic.org (archive)
Lyrics
| en | meta | orth |
|---|---|---|
| Gold was the light that shone in the towers of Ethras, | gold-effective light-effective towers-genitive Ethras-genitive | konoda bruemoda akhalskon Ethrasong. |
| Green was the mountain where Protas stood, alone with his thoughts, | Green-effective mountain-effective standing-genitive Protas-genitive-anchor:effective, [Protas-effective-1-omitted] alone-effective-1 his-instrumental-1 thoughts-instrumental-1. | Puoloda branto naktokong Protasongge, vadokhek uve bymaxepomez. |
| White were the clouds that cast shade on the nourishing plain. | White-effective clouds-effective shade-genitive-anchor:effective, plain-effective-1 nourishing-effective-1 | unokkan buvo levanongge, yorkokhek dokhek. |
| Black is the sky this day. | Black-effective sky-effective today-genitive | Xankan brelankan naponskon |
| The plain flashes red. | Plain-accusative red-effective flash-effective. | Yorkib tinoda tike. |
| Red sparks as numerous as stars | red-effective sparks-effective-ANCHOR numberequivalent-effective-1 stars-accusative-1 | tinoda toturodage kendusokhek b'paib. |
| honed edges gleaming | edge-accusative-anchor sharp-effective gleaming-effective-1 | lexibge litaxkan bitbruempamoda. |
| The color of hills that are clothed in murmuring flame, | color-effective-1 hills-accusative-anchor clothed-effective murmuring-flame-instrumental | atokhek antibge ore zhrowo urox. |
| The color of blood washing the threshold of the library. | blood-genitive color-agentive library-genitive threshold-accusative clean-effective. | tinskon atak luxhskon metonib leba. |
| Say the ravagers: this is the wrath of the over-God Of whom we are the instrument in this world of things. | ravage-agent speech-effective / over-God-genitive-ANCHOR(genitive1)-> wrath-effective1-ANCHOR(effective)<- / third-person-singular-genitive2 instrument-effective2 world-genitive2 things-instrumental2 | menaose ja / venorelskonchamcham tayutokhekge / ivo rexpekhak btarbrzhong bukhiwo |
| Things that we are. Things that you are. | thing-effective 1st-person-plural-effective. thing-effective 2nd-person-plural-effective. | bukan eva. bukan osho. |
| Things that you have made with the work of clever hands | things-effective you-agentive clever-genitive hands-instrumental. | bukan osh velraskon kenokh. |
| Things that by right share a common doom. | Things-effective-required shared-accusative(instrumental) doom-accusative(instrumental) | bukanrara dilokh kenakhorokh |
| No Mynster, no crypt, no labyrinth can shelter us this day, but only the wastes that stretch beyond the ken of even the most abject slines. | mynster-agentive, crypt-agentive, labyrinth-agentive, first-person-pluralaccusative today-instrumental shelter-effective-impossible. wastes-agentive-ANCHOR(agentive) shelter-effective / most+abject-genitive1 slines-genitive1 beyond+reach-effective1 | Meatep, nurapaket, turapaket, sima naponox liotavena. eature liota litovevleon shanleon nokhikenokhek |
History
See also
External links
References
- ↑ Jeremy Bornstein. (c. 2008). “Notes on Orth, Lament for the Third Sack”. monastic.org. Accessed 2026-09-23. Archived from the original on 2008-10-03.
Footnotes
Comments
