Issue 21, Page 4
Transcript
1: Tahan enters the interrogation room, nudging the door with his hip as he carries a tray of coffee.
2: The detective places the coffee down on the table. The fox’s ears perk.
Tahan: Mr. Maroun, I’m Detective Tahan. Sorry to drag you all the way down here on a holiday.
Maroun: Did I do something wrong, sir?
3: Tahan sits and slaps the portfolio down on the table.
Tahan: Do you remember why you were in the hospital?
Maroun: They said I had a seizure, but I don’t really remember it.
4: In a flashback, Sami writhes on the tiled ground of a convenience store, back arched, eyes shut as he sputters and babbles.
Tahan (caption): You were writhing on the floor speaking in tongues, Mr. Maroun.
Maroun: Šū, šū iqarrub! Pirik šuāti! Wabrum, w… wabrum, šū iḫruṭ! Šū iqarrub! Berûtu!
Special thanks to koekoek for translation help!
It that a conlang or an actual language?
I don’t know.
one site I found, said that, “pirik”, is Malaysian for- to crush, to squeeze. to grind.
Google Translate detected it as Maori, but the only part of that phrase that translated was “Berûtu!” which translated to “That’s right!”
I looked at this again. I used Google Translate [tm] on his “speaking in tongues” words. I used the official language of Ethiopia, Amharic. [I used Amharic because it seems like an old language].
When using GT, to translate the words, from Amharic to English, GT partially translated them as:
Ū, šū iqarrub! Mostly! Warum, w … warum, you are afraid! Q iqarrub! Be sure!
It looks like Akkadian.
Here’s an attempt at a translation (probably full of mistakes):
Šū, šū iqarrub!
he[3SG.M.NOM] he[3SG.M.NOM] approach[3SG]
“He, he approaches!”
Pirik šuāti!
land/district? him/his[3SG.M.OBL]
“His land”?
(can’t seem to find “pirik” in a dictionary, only phrases that use it)
Wabrum, w… wabrum, šū iḫruṭ!
stranger[SG.M.NOM] stranger[SG.M.NOM] he[3SG.M.NOM] feed.on[PRET.3SG]
“He, a stranger, a s… stranger, fed on!”?
(iḫruṭ = haratum)
Šū iqarrub!
he[3SG.M.NOM] approach[3SG]
“He approaches!”
Berûtu!
hunger[PL.M.NOM]
“Hungers!” (as in the noun: could also be a name?)
It could be Oromo, but GT are dicks and don’t have that one.
Oh, “pirik” could be the imperative of parakum, which would make the second sentence “Oppose him!”
You don’t really remember seizures. You might remember it coming on, but maybe not.
and some times you have no Idea that it ever happened… I never remembered what happend during my GMS almost died twice…
Let me see: A cool, + very handsome looking guy, who has one…lighter looking eye…he’s Atomic Man from GI Joe!
Hee, hee, hee! 😀
It’s just my way of seeing fiction, but- Unless this [cop?] has a swat team hidden under the desk, it’s likely a bad idea to take weapons into an interrogation room.
Different timeline/culture/universe, different interrogation/interview methods. They are also a good few decades more advanced than us. For all we know, that gun will only fire if it detects a registered fingerprint against the trigger, making it completely useless of stole.
That’s a good point. 😀
Another thing that I consider is- unless this pistol is as soft as a beach ball- if the suspect/prisoner steals that pistol, and starts to beat the cop with it, that would be a very bad day for the cop.
Ugh. It kind of bugs me, when I think up these nightmare-ish, possible-stories, for fictional police.
That’s what I get for reading so much Military History, and Police History. 😀
I [really] like the transcriptions of the pages, under each page, Rebecca! 😀
They really help me see new things in the story.
To Ubu-
Thanks for the translation! 😀
I hadn’t heard of the language, named Akkadian, before.
I’ll have to look it up. 😀
That’s not a seizure, that’s being posessed! Subtle difference