ProZ.com translation contests »
25th translation contest: "Alien first impressions" » English to Somali » Entry by Abubakar Aden Hassan


Source text in English

Translation by Abubakar Aden Hassan (#31043)

Imagine dining in a European capital where you do not know the local language. The waiter speaks little English, but by hook or by crook you manage to order something on the menu that you recognise, eat and pay for. Now picture instead that, after a hike goes wrong, you emerge, starving, in an Amazonian village. The people there have no idea what to make of you. You mime chewing sounds, which they mistake for your primitive tongue. When you raise your hands to signify surrender, they think you are launching an attack.

Communicating without a shared context is hard. For example, radioactive sites must be left undisturbed for tens of thousands of years; yet, given that the English of just 1,000 years ago is now unintelligible to most of its modern speakers, agencies have struggled to create warnings to accompany nuclear waste. Committees responsible for doing so have come up with everything from towering concrete spikes, to Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”, to plants genetically modified to turn an alarming blue. None is guaranteed to be future-proof.

Some of the same people who worked on these waste-site messages have also been part of an even bigger challenge: communicating with extraterrestrial life. This is the subject of “Extraterrestrial Languages”, a new book by Daniel Oberhaus, a journalist at Wired.

Nothing is known about how extraterrestrials might take in information. A pair of plaques sent in the early 1970s with Pioneer 10 and 11, two spacecraft, show nude human beings and a rough map to find Earth—rudimentary stuff, but even that assumes aliens can see. Since such craft have no more than an infinitesimal chance of being found, radio broadcasts from Earth, travelling at the speed of light, are more likely to make contact. But just as a terrestrial radio must be tuned to the right frequency, so must the interstellar kind. How would aliens happen upon the correct one? The Pioneer plaque gives a hint in the form of a basic diagram of a hydrogen atom, the magnetic polarity of which flips at regular intervals, with a frequency of 1,420MHz. Since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, the hope is that this sketch might act as a sort of telephone number.
Qiyaas ka cunteynta caasimada Yurub oo aadan aqoon luqadda maxalliga ah. Kabalyeeruhu wuxuu ku hadlaa Ingiriisiga yar, laakiin jillaab ama qalooca waxaad maamuli kartaa inaad wax ka dalbato menu-ka aad aqoonsatay, cunayso oo aad bixinayso. Hadda sawir halkii taas, ka dib markii socodku khaldamo, waxaad u soo baxday, gaajo, tuulo reer Amazoniya ah. Dadka halkaas jooga wax fikrad ah kama hayaan waxa lagaa sameeyo. Waxaad malaayiin ku calaacashaa dhawaaqyada, taas oo ay ku qaldaan carrabkaagii hore. Markii aad gacmaha kor u taagto si aad u muujiso is dhiibitaan, waxay u maleynayaan inaad weerar qaadaysid.

Wadahadalka oo aan laqeexin macnaha guud waa mid adag. Tusaale ahaan, baraha shucaaca waa in loo daayo iyadoo aan qasnayn tobanaan kun oo sano; weli, iyadoo la ogyahay in Ingiriisiga oo kaliya 1000 sano ka hor uusan hadda fahmi karin inta badan kuwa ku hadla casriga, wakaaladuhu waxay ku dhibtoodeen inay abuuraan digniino la socda qashinka nukliyeerka. Guddiyada ka masuulka ah inay sidaa yeelaan waxay la yimaadeen wax kasta oo ka imanaya cirbado dhaadheer oo la taaban karo, ilaa Edvard Munch "Qaylada", ilaa dhirta hidde ahaan wax laga beddelay si ay u noqoto ug cabsi leh Midkoodna looma dammaanad qaadi karo inuu mustaqbalka caddeyn u yahay.

Qaar ka mid ah isla dadka ka shaqeeyey fariimahan goobta-qashinka ah ayaa sidoo kale qayb ka ahaa caqabad xitaa ka weyn: la xiriirka nolosha ka baxsan dunida. Tani waa mowduuca "Luqadaha Extraterrestrial", waa buug cusub oo uu qoray Daniel Oberhaus, weriye ka tirsan Wired.

Waxba lagama oga waxa ku saabsan sida extraterrestrials u qaadan karto macluumaadka. Labo waab oo la soo diray horraantii 1970-yadii oo ay la socdaan Pioneer 10 iyo 11, laba dayax gacmeedyo, ayaa muujinaya bini-aadam qaawan iyo khariidad qallafsan oo lagu raadinayo waxyaabaha Dunida u gaarka ah, laakiin xitaa taasi waxay u malaynaysaa inay shisheeyaha arki karaan. Maaddaama farsamadan oo kale aysan ka badnayn fursadda ugu yar ee lagu heli karo, idaacadaha laga sii daayo dhulka, kuna socdaalayo xawaaraha iftiinka, waxay u badan tahay inay xiriir la sameeyaan. Laakiin sida ay tahay in raadiyaha dhulka loo waafajiyo saxda saxda ah, sidaas oo kale waa inuu noqdaa nooca interstellar. Sidee shisheeyaha ugu dhici karaa midka saxda ah? Xusuusta Pioneer waxay ku siineysaa tilmaan qaab jaantus aasaasi ah oo atom hydrogen ah, kala-goynta magnetic-ka oo ku soo boodaysa xilliyada caadiga ah, iyadoo lagu celcelinayo 1,420MHz Maaddaama hydrogen uu yahay cunsurka ugu badan adduunka, rajadu waxay tahay in sawirkan laga yaabo inuu u dhaqmo sidii nooc taleefan lambar ah.


Discuss this entry