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25th translation contest: "Alien first impressions" » English to Swahili » Entry by Nuhu Bakari


Source text in English

Translation by Nuhu Bakari (#31364) — Winner

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.
Hebu fikiria kwamba unakula chakula katika jiji mojawapo la Bara Ulaya, huku huijui kabisa lugha ya wenyeji wa eneo hilo. Mwandazi anaongea kiingereza kiduchu tu, lakini kwa bidii na jitihada zako zote ukafanikiwa kuagiza chakula kwenye menyu, chakula ambacho ulielekea kukitambua, kuweza kula na hata kukilipia.Sasa badala yake, hebu ipige darubini hii kwamba baada ya matanuzi yaliyotibuka, inatokea kwamba una njaa ya ajabu tena kwenye kijiji cha wenyeji wa Amazon. Wenyeji wa eneo hilo hawajui watakachokuandalia. Unaiga na kutoa sauti kama ya mtu anayetafuna kitu, kisha wanaghafilika na kudhania kwamba ni matamshi ya kishamba tu ya ulimi wako. Unapoinyanyua mikono yako juu ili kuonyesha ishara ya kujisalimisha, wanafikiria unataka kuanza kuandaa shambulizi.

Ni vigumu sana kuwasiliana bila ya kuwa na muktadha unaolandana. Kwa mfano, maeneo yaliyo na minunurisho yanapaswa kuwachwa yalivyo kwa maelfu ya miaka; huku, ukizingatia kwamba Kiingereza kimekuwepo tu kwa miaka 1,000 iliyopita lakini sasa ndiyo lugha maarufu zaidi kwa wazungumzaji wake wa kisasa, mashirika yamejitahidi kuandaa tahadhari na kuziambatanisha na mabaki ya kinyuklia. Kamati zinazowajibikia suala hilo zimeunda vitu vingi kuanzia kwa zege ndefu zilizochongoka, hadi kwa “The Scream” ya Edvard Munch, hadi kwa mimea iliyonasibishwa ili kubadilika kuwa bluu iliyokolea. Hakuna hali yoyote iliyo na hakikisho la kuwa ithibati ya siku za usoni.

Baadhi ya watu hao hao walioandaa jumbe za maeneo ya mabaki pia wamekuwa sehemu ya changamoto kubwa: kuwasiliana kwenye maisha ya kidhahania ya angani. Hii ndio mada ya “Lugha za Kidhahania”, kitabu kipya kilichoandikwa na Daniel Oberhaus, mwanahabari wa Wired.

Hakuna kitu kinachofahamika jinsi dhahania ya angani inavyoweza kuchukua habari. Jozi la mabango ya kumbukumbu yaliyotumwa miaka ya awali ya 1970 ya Pioneer 10 na 11, ndege mbili za angani, zilionyesha wanadamu wawili wakiwa uchi pamoja na ramani mavangamavanga ya kuitafuta Dunia – mambo ya kimsingi, lakini hata hiyo inadhania kwamba viumbe hao wa masafa ya kidhahania wanaweza kuona. Kwa kuwa sanaa hiyo ina nafasi finyu sana ya kupatikana kwa, matangazo ya redio kutoka Duniani, ikisafiri kwa kasi ya mwangaza, inaweza kukutana kwa urahisi zaidi. Lakini kama ilivyo tu redio ya mawimbi inavyoweza kuwashwa kwa kutafuta masafa yaliyo sawa ya redio, kwa hivyo ni lazima iwe kama ile aina ya interstellar. Je, ni jinsi gani ajinabi hawa watakavyokumbana na yule aliye asilia? Bango la Kumbukumbu la Pioneer linatoa kidokezo cha umbo la mchoro wa atomu ya haigrojeni, mvuto wa sumaku unaopinduka kwa zamu, kwenye masafa ya 1,420MHz. Kwa kuwa haidrojeni ndiyo elementi inayopatikana kwa wingi zaidi ulimwenguni, kuna matumaini kwamba mchoro huu unaweza kuwa kama aina fulani ya nambari ya simu.


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