The language of prophecy, part 1
A beginner's guide to fixed-point translations
In The First Question, we introduced the topic of prophecy. Here, we attempt to begin to describe the myriad obstacles in translating prophecies into human tongues such as English.
It is surprisingly difficult to find a good example of a prophecy to analyze. We take one from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter. The author’s comment on the topic is merely that the prophecy was worded “extremely carefully”.
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches.
Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.
And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not.
And either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives.
Our first note is the rhythm. It will be more obvious in a different register. We translate into an ideographical language here. It’s not Chinese, but it may make more sense if you know Chinese. It’s also not Emoji, but it may make more sense if you imagine each word is an emoji.
HERO1 GREAT ABILITY COMES | DEFEAT2 VOLE DUH MORTE3
CHILD_OF DEFY THREE TIMES | BORN_ON SEVENTH MONTH LASTDAY
REF2 MARK RIVAL5 REF16 | REF1 UNUSUAL ABILITY SECRET7
REQUIRE EITHER KILL OTHER | FORBID LIBERTY OTHER IS_ALIVE
There are several things to note about the translation:
All the words are written in capital letters.
Instead of pronouns, there are explicit references. REF1 is the “protagonist”.
There is no tense for verbs or pronouns. There are occasional time references (“comes”), but no gender references.
The Dark Lord’s name is expressed as a rebus.
“Attribute calls” (such as is_alive and child_of) are single “words”.
While it is not apparent here, translating date-and-time terms is always difficult or impossible.
Some of the difficult words, such as mark him as his equal, are translated in a way that makes no attempt to clarify them. On the other hand, neither can live is interpreted.
To demonstrate what a “fixed-point translation” means, we translate back into English.
A person of great ability approaches
/ a person who will vanquish the Dark Lord
A child of those who are three-time defiers8
/ a child born on the dying of the seventh month
The Dark Lord shall mark the child as rival
/ and the hero shall have an unknown power
And either will die at the hands of the other
/ for neither can be free while the other is alive.
There have been some minor changes in the translation process. To minimize scrolling, we repeat the original prophecy:
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches.
Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.
And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not.
And either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives.
There is some ambiguity regarding when the hero is considered a “child”. Also, we have lost the gender-detail of the child; it is expressed through “him” in the original but is not recorded in the reference-based pronoun system.
There are further details to explore and discuss. Why does it matter when the prophecy could apply to Harry or Neville? Is the “power to vanquish the Dark Lord” the same as the “power the Dark Lord knows not”? Why is “thrice” a word anyway?
Stay tuned.
Any child who defeats a Dark Lord is certainly a “hero”.
“Vanquish” is rhetorical embellishment of “defeat”.
We name He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named here.
Referring to the antagonist/deuteragonist of the quatrain, here the Dark Lord.
We originally considered “EQUAL” here. “EQUAL” should not be taken to mean that two things are considered numerically equal. More important is the distinction that “EQUAL” should not be taken to mean marked with an equals sign =. Harry was marked with a lightning bolt ⚡. If you squint, they do look a bit similar.
Referring to the protagonist of the quatrain, the child soon born.
This should remind you of an access-control list.
If you have never heard of the gostak distimming the doshes, it may appear like we have some idea what “defied” means here.