translation: may all beings in all the worlds be happy

[Resonant Tree]

Heya,

I was trying to translate that Sanskrit chant:  Lokah Samastha Sukino Bhavantu.  In English that means:  May all beings in all the worlds be happy. 

SO

A Na'vi attempt is  (sorry I can't get accents/umlauts/etc on this laptop

Swira          niwotx    mi kifkey niwotx lrr lu               
creatures     all         in  world  all      happy   be

am i missing a plural?  is the mi correct?  what can you make of this gibberish?    Irayo!

[Payä Tìrol]

Maybe:
Fra-swirä      mì fra-kifkey  nitram l<iv><ei>u!
every-creature in every-world happy be<subj><laud>
May every creature on every world be happy!

-nìwotx means more like "completely", as in "I agree completely"
-nitram is happiness, when referring to people. Otherwise use lefpom.
-<iv> is used here to express a desire for the verb "lu" to happen.
-<ei> is a general laudative/positive "emotion" marker.

[Kì'eyawn]

Since it seems like the Na'vi use the pronoun po to refer to non-people, i think it's safe to use frapo for "beings."  Also, i'd personally tag mì- at the end of the word—but that's only because i like how it sounds here.  So,

Frapo frakifkeymì nitram liveiu.

In any case, i'm happy to see someone translating this kind of thing.  Oel ngati kameie.

[Muzer]

Adpositions in Na'vi can only attach to the main sentence ratner than a specific noun - so the examples so far would translate roughly as "may all beings be happy in all worlds", which doesn't quite mean what you want. I seem to remember that you can make it "all beings in all worlds" like this: "frapo a mì frakifkey", but I might be wrong about that.

[MIPP]

I would say...

Fra-swirä mì hifkey le-fpom l<iv>u
Every-creatures in world happy be<subj>

As mì causes lenition, kifkey must be written as hifkey.

So, it would be:

Fraswirä mì hifkey lefpom livu.

[Kì'eyawn]

Adpositions in Na'vi can only attach to the main sentence ratner than a specific noun - so the examples so far would translate roughly as "may all beings be happy in all worlds", which doesn't quite mean what you want. I seem to remember that you can make it "all beings in all worlds" like this: "frapo a mì frakifkey", but I might be wrong about that.

Ma Muzer, you're absolutely right.  Great catch!

[Resonant Tree]

Oh Rad!  You guys rocked that out!  Txan Irayo!

Whew... adpositions huh?  I'm not sure I'll ever catch on to grammar...

May all beings be happy in all worlds sort of means the same thing.  I kind of like the sound of it and it matches syllables almost with the original.  Thanks Tigermind!

And paya tirol thanks for all those explanations that helps a lot.

So Muzer I think I got it... "frapo a mi frakifkey" ... does that not need the liveiu?  Sorry I got so lost in the grammar ...

It's frapo a mi frakifkey liveiu?      IS THIS IT?  lol or is it frapo a mi hifkey liveiu?

and as for frapo vs fra-swira...    so long as frapo could include non-na'vi and non-human creatures like animals, plants, (other aliens)  etc. then it's the right word..    but I guess none of us have been Na'vi quite long enough to know how they classify those things in grammar...

MIPP I liked your addition although this statement/prayer is specifically for all the beings in ALL the worlds to be happy, not just one world.  I can't imagine that simple difference would be simple in Na'vi

Thanks so much everyone!  You wouldn't happen to be able to pronounce that too would you??? 

Eywa Ngahu

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

Adpositions in Na'vi can only attach to the main sentence ratner than a specific noun - so the examples so far would translate roughly as "may all beings be happy in all worlds", which doesn't quite mean what you want. I seem to remember that you can make it "all beings in all worlds" like this: "frapo a mì frakifkey", but I might be wrong about that.

I don't want to hijack this thread Muzer, but could you point out a couple more examples of what this means in practice? It seems even in your sentence that mi is only acting on frakifkey, and not the whole sentence. And in this case, are mi frakifkey and frakifkeymi not interchangeable?

[Muzer]

Adpositions in Na'vi can only attach to the main sentence ratner than a specific noun - so the examples so far would translate roughly as "may all beings be happy in all worlds", which doesn't quite mean what you want. I seem to remember that you can make it "all beings in all worlds" like this: "frapo a mì frakifkey", but I might be wrong about that.

I don't want to hijack this thread Muzer, but could you point out a couple more examples of what this means in practice? It seems even in your sentence that mi is only acting on frakifkey, and not the whole sentence. And in this case, are mi frakifkey and frakifkeymi not interchangeable?

In English, prepositions can modify the verb (I play in the garden), or the noun (I like the man in the moon), and the syntax is the same for both. However, this relies on word order much of the time, and can create ambiguity. In Na'vi, you must use the syntax I mentioned above for the latter sense (only). You can still attach the adposition to the end.

[Kì'eyawn]

Ma 'Eylan Ayfalulukanä, if i may add to what Muzer has said, i think of it this way:

Na'vi turns "I like the man [who is] in the moon" into "I like the in-the-moon man."  So, basically you're turning the whole prepositional phrase into a sort of adjectival phrase, which needs a.

Hope i didn't completely confuse the heck out of anybody...