jasūpa

jasuupa

jasūpa

Line 3 of the Kēlen Jabberwocky:

sere jakewāla to macāppacāe sapīra jasūpa sakāca jaþāla nā;

(See Nov 7th’s post for an introduction.)

This is a real word, in the sense of being in the average Kēlen dictionary. All the previous words from this poem that I have blogged were made-up words. See Nov 7th’s post if that confuses you.

jasūpa is a bite. sapīra jasūpa are biting teeth. This phrase sapīra jasūpa sakāca jaþāla was the first thing I came up with when contemplating this translation. Everything else grew around it.

il ōrralon ñi jarewēλecāwāŋŋi ā jawēlrūlri rū jaxēwepōma āñ;
se jarāŋŋen mo jatēññāntetūrāŋŋeni; ñi japiēlkāhi tō jarōhāþi lā;

sere jakewāla to macāppacāe sapīra jasūpa sakāca jaþāla nā;

In the afternoon, the circular lizards did gyre and gimble around the shadow-stick.
The easily-annoyed thin-winged bird-spiders were annoyed.
     The lost chicken-pigs make cough-cries!

Beware macāppacāe, its biting teeth, …