“Changing what an octospider has said into our language, however, is a much more complex process. The dictionary for the translation is straightforward enough. Each word and the appropriate clarifiers can be readily identified. But it’s damn near impossible to make the next step, into sentences, without some human intervention.”
“That’s because the octospider language is fundamentally different from ours,” Ellie commented. “Everything is specified and quantified, to minimize the possibility of misunderstanding. There is no subtlety or nuance. Look how they use the pronouns ‘we,’ ‘they,’ and ‘you.’ The pronouns are always marked with numerical clarifiers, including ranges when there are uncertainties. An octospider never says ‘a few wodens’ or ‘several nillets’—always a number, or a numerical range, is used to specify the length of time more precisely.”
“From our point of view,” Hercules said in color, “there are two aspects to human language that are extremely difficult. One is the lack of precise specification, which leads to a massive vocabulary. The other is your use of indirectness to communicate. I still have trouble understanding Max because often what he says is not literally what he means.”
“1 don’t know how to do this in your computer,” Nicole now said to Richard, “but somehow all the quantitative information contained in each octospider statement must be reflected by the translation. Almost every verb or adjective they use has a connected numerical clarifier. How, for example, did Ellie just translate “extremely difficult and ‘massive vocabulary’? What Hercules said, in octospider,
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was ‘difficult,’ with the number five used to clarify it, and ‘big vocabulary,’ with the number six as a clarifier for ‘big.’ All comparative clarifiers address the question of the strength of the adjective. Since their base number system is octal, the range for the comparatives is between one and seven. If Hercules had used a seven to clarify the word ‘difficult,’ Ellie would have translated the phrase as ‘impossibly difficult.’ If he had used a two as a clarifier in the same phrase, she might have said ‘slightly difficult.'”
“Mistakes in the strengths of the adjectives, although important,” Richard said as he fiddled absentmindedly with a small processor, “almost never lead to misunderstandings. Failure to interpret properly the verb clarifiers, however, is another issue altogether … as I have learned recently from my preliminary tests. Take the simple octospider verb ‘to go,’ which means, as you know, to move unaided, without a transport. The maroon-purple-lemon yellow strip, each color the same width, covers several dozen words in English, everything from ‘walk’ to ‘stroll,’ ‘saunter,’ ‘run,’ and even ‘sprint.'”
“That’s the same point I was just making,” Ellie said. “There is no translation without full interpretation of the clarifiers. For that particular verb, the octos use a double clarifier to address the issue of ‘how fast.’ In a sense, there are sixty-three different speeds at which they ‘go.’ To make matters even more complex, they may use a range clarifier as well, so their statement ‘Let’s go’ is subject to many, many possible translations.”
Richard grimaced and shook his head.
“What’s the matter, Father?” Ellie asked.
“I’m just disappointed,” he answered. “I had hoped to have a simplified version of the translator completed by now. But I made the assumption that the gist of what was being said could be determined without tracking all the clarifiers. To include all those short color strips will both increase the storage required and significantly slow down the translation. I may have trouble ever designing a translator that works in real time.”
“So what?” Hercules asked. “Why are you so concerned
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about this translator? Ellie and Nicole already understand our language very well.”
“Not really,” Nicole said. “Ellie is the only one of us who is truly fluent with your colors. I am still learning daily.”
“Although I originally began this project both as a challenge and as a means to force myself to become familiar with your language,” Richard replied to Hercules, “Nicole and I were talking last week about how important the translator has become. She says, and I agree with her, that our human clan here in the Emerald City is dividing into two groups. Ellie, Nicole, and I have made our life more interesting because of our increasing interactions with your species. The rest of die humans, including the children, remain essentially isolated. Eventually, if the others don’t have some way of communicating with you, they will become dissatisfied and/or unhappy. A good automatic translator is the key that will open up their lives here.”
The map was wrinkled and torn in a few places. Patrick helped Nai unroll it slowly and tack it to the wall of her dining room, which doubled as the schoolroom for the children.
“Nikki, do you remember what this is?” Nai asked.
“Of course, Mrs. Watanabe,” the little girl replied. “It’s our map of the Earth.”
“Benjy, can you show us where your parents and grandparents were born?”
“Not again,” Galileo muttered audibly to Kepler. “He’ll never get it right. He’s too dumb.”
“Galileo Watanabe.” The response was swift. “Go to your room and sit on your bed for fifteen minutes.”
“That’s all right, Nai,” Benjy said as he walked up to the map. “I’m used to it by now.”
Galileo, almost seven years old by human accounting, stopped at the door to see if his sentence would be reprieved. “What are you waiting for?” his mother scolded. “I said for you to go to your room.”
Benjy stood quietly in front of the map for about twenty
seconds. “My mother,” he said at length, “was born here in France.” He backed away from the map briefly and located the United States on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean.
* “My father,” Benjy said, “was born here in Boston, in America.”
Benjy started to sit down. “What about your grandparents?” Nai prompted. “Where were they born?”
“My mother’s morner, my grandmother,” Benjy said I slowly, “was bom in Africa.” He stared at the map for several seconds. “But I do not remember where that is.”
“I know, Mrs. Watanabe,” said little Nikki immediately. “May I show Benjy?”
Benjy turned and looked at the pretty girl with the jet-black hair. He smiled. “You can tell me, Nikki.”
The girl rose from her chair and crossed the room. She placed her finger on the western section of Africa. “Nonni’s mother was born here,” she said proudly, “in this green country. It’s called the Ivory Coast.” : “That’s very good, Nikki,” Nai said.
“I’m sorry, Nai,” Benjy now said. “I’ve been working so
hard on fractions I haven’t had any time for geography.” His
eyes followed his three-year-old niece back to her seat.
When he turned to face Nai again, Benjy’s cheeks were
, wet with tears. “Nai,” he said, “I don’t feel like school
; today. … I think I’ll go back to my own house.”
“Okay, Benjy,” Nai said softly. Benjy moved toward the door. Patrick started to come over to his brother, but Nai waved him away.
• The schoolroom was uncomfortably quiet for almost a minute. “Is it my turn now?” Kepler finally asked.
Nai nodded and the boy walked up to the map. “My mother was born here, in Thailand, in the town of Lamphun. That’s where her father was also born. My grandmother on
t ‘ my mother’s side was also born in Thailand, but in another
– city called Chiang Saen. Here it is, next to the Chinese , . border.” i Kepler took one step to the east and pointed at Japan.
J. “My father, Kenji Watanabe, and both his parents were born 1 m’~ in the Japanese city of Kyoto.”
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ARTHUR C. CLARKE AND GENTRY LEE
The boy backed away from the map. He seemed to be struggling to say something. “What is it, Kepler?” Nai ‘asked.
“Mother,” the small boy said after an agonizing silence, “was Daddy a bad man?”
“Whaat?” said Nai, completely stunned. She bent down to her son’s level and looked him straight in the eyes. “Your father was a wonderful human being. He was intelligent, sensitive, loving, humorous—an absolute prince of a person. He . . .”
Nai had to stop herself. She could feel her own emotions ready to erupt. She stood up, gazed at the ceiling for a brief moment, and regained her composure. “Kepler,” she then said, “why are you asking such a question? You adored your father. How could you have possibly—”
“Uncle Max told us that Mr. Nakamura came from Japan. We know that he is a bad man. Galileo says that since Daddy came from the same place—”
“Galileo,” Nai’s voice thundered, scaring all the children. “Come here immediately.”
The boy scampered into the room and gave his mother a puzzled look.
“What have you been saying to your brother about your father?”
“What do you mean?” Galileo said, trying to look innocent.
“You told me that Daddy may have been a bad man, since he came from Japan like Mr. Nakamura.”