The Relay Museum

"Arnye mura cos erdi melonsurtoy is-inirsura"

Ce brufa, cwur lhos torvaye halantsara, Iva lovet ura;
Ce imis, cwur sacar torvaye forucisa, Iva lovet ura;
Do-pe-trisuy' urfasurkaw cof hartha Iva lovetwa;
Yafgaw ant anel incwaro ya, arnye mura torvawa lovet anta.

Ce althan, cwal cos varad umusa, Iva celtis ala;
Ce cesper, cwalaaw nuvsa cos sopot lhenggasara, Iva celtis lawa;
Ce alepenye cwaylasuye vertsu, Iva celtis suma;
Yacsaw ant anel incwaro ya, arnye mura torvawa celtis anta.

 The Great Mother created this poem about stories.

The wind which causes good health, She listens to it.
The water which produces good food, She listens to it.
Because of the unwanted distance, listening She is made unhappy.
Then let us declare that the Great Mother listens to us well.

The tree that strengthens the home, She sees it.
The child, which darkness covers with fear, She sees it.
The end of the love of couples, She sees it.
So let us declare that the Great Mother sees us well.

Notice that by the time it reached me the interlinear had acquired a smooth English
translation of each line, which I think may have biased me. I didn't know if this was
the right thing to do but in the end I did the same.

[Editor's note: no, it wasn't. To provide a smooth English translation of each
line rather defeats the purpose of the Relay Game, doesn't it? The point is for the
next in line to work out the previous language, and to let the poem evolve in its
transmission that way. This rule should be established in the next Relay Translation Game
if it ever happens. One of the blessings and challenges of the Relay Game is that it
forces each contestant to deal with another Conlanger's language.]

Arnye     mura cos erdi melonsurtoy is-inirsura
be.great-ATR         mother    cause    exist       story-about-ATR         
the-poem-ACC
'The great mother created this poem about stories.'

This is the title of the poem.
melon 'tell'; melonsu 'story'; -irto 'be about' inir 'make
poetry'; inirsur 'poem' cos erdi: 'cause to exist' = create

1. Ce brufa, cwur lhos torvaye halantsara, Iva lovet ura
      as.for    wind           REL-it       cause      be.good-ATR      health-ACC        
     She       listen.to     it-ACC
'The wind which causes good health, She listens to it'

Ce: see notes. cwur: a relative made from ur, a short noun for things in general. halant:
'be healthy'; halantsa: 'health' - usually you don't need
'good' with that, but I've left it in for emphasis. Iva: see notes

2. Ce imis, cwur sacar torvaye forucisa, Iva lovet ura
       as.for water,       REL-it       produce     be.good-ATR     food-ACC           
She        listen.to     it-ACC
'The water which produces good food, She listens to it'

3. Do-pe-trisuy' urfasurkaw     cof hartha Iva lovetwa
      not-PASS-want-ATR       distance-because-ADV         be.made unhappy        She     
listen-ADV
'Because of the unwanted distance, listening She is made unhappy'

trisu: 'want'; do-pe-trisuye: 'unwanted': pe is a passive indicator. The
final e is elided before the following vowel urfa: 'be far'; urfasu
'distance'; arka 'be because of' urfasurkaw: 'because of the
distance' lovet: 'listen'; lovetwa: 'when listening, in the
listening'

4. Yafgaw     ant anel incwaro ya,    arnye     mura
EMB-after-ADV               we        IMP         declare           EMB-ACC       
be.great-ATR         mother
torvawa lovet anta
   good-ADV     listen.to      we-ACC
'Then let us declare that the great mother listens to us well.'

yafgaw: 'after that'; often used similarly to English 'then' IMP:
imperative marker ya: makes the next clause the object of the verb incwaro

5. Ce   althan, cwal  cos varad   umusa,   Iva celtis ala
    as.for           tree                REL-tree      cause     be.strong         
home-ACC         She         see           tree-ACC
'The tree that strengthens the home, She sees it'

althan: the short noun to use with trees is al, hence... cwal: relative for trees varad:
'be strong'; cos varad 'strengthen' ala: it (object) (for trees)

6. Ce cesper, cwalaaw   nuvsa cos sopot lhenggasara,
     as.for     child            REL-child+DEF       darkness     cause     cover        
fear-ACC
  Iva celtis lawa
       She        see                 child-ACC
'The child, which darkness covers with fear, She sees it'

cesper: 'child'; the short noun to use with children is law; cwalaw: relative for
children; sopot: 'to cover'; cos sopot 'make to cover'. Instead of
'cover X with Y', Elet Anta says 'make Y cover X'. As usual with cos, the
Y has an ACC ending, and the X is in another form, the definitive. That's why it's
cwalaaw, not cwalaw. The literal translation is "The child, which darkness makes fear
to cover..." lhengga: 'to fear'; lhenggasa 'fear' lawa: he/she
(object) (for children)

7. Ce  alepenye cwaylasuye vertsu, Iva celtis suma
      as.for     couple-ATR          love-ATR                      end,              She  
    see                it-ACC
'The end of the love of couples, She sees it'

alepen: means 'a couple of lovers' (ie, sexual lovers). cwayla: 'be in love
(sexually)'; cwaylasu: a state of being in passionate love. vert: 'come to an
end'; vertsu 'end'. suma: su is the short noun for vertsu; here with ACC
suffix.

8.    Yacsaw   ant anel incwaro ya,   arnye   mura torvawa
    EMB-because-ADV        we        IMP         declare         EMB-ACC     be.great-ATR 
   mother     good-ADV
celtis anta
     see           we-ACC
'So let us declare that the great mother sees us well'

yacsaw: 'because of this, therefore' 

The poem as Adam sent it to me was quite Anta-ish in its way of looking at
things, so it wasn't too hard. The only bit that presented a difficulty was

    tali kes enyr ar matos lun sao tata erin
    tali kes enyr ar matos lun sao tata erin
    child      that      darkness    with      fear      cover      RES-N  
3ps-3ps      see
    'The child that covers the darkness with fear, she sees him/her' 

I couldn't really tell what was doing the covering and what was covered. However
it seemed more likely that the the child was covered with fear by the darkness,
and that's what I translated.