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"The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended. Here on the Equator, in the continent which would one day be known as Africa, the battle for existence had reached a new climax of ferocity, and the victor was not yet in sight. In this barren and desiccated land, only the small or the swift or the fierce could flourish, or even hope to survive."
"2001: A Space Odissey", ch. 1, "The Road To Extinction", by Arthur C. Clarke
This text comprises the first paragraphs of the first chapter of the first part of the "Odissey" saga (not the first words in the book, since there's a prologue before). The British-born, now Sri Lanka resident Arthur C. Clarke (1917-) wrote four books on this series (with stories set in 2001, 2010, 2061 and 3001 respectively). In my not-so-humble opinion, "2001" is the best, with "2061" coming second at a respectable distance, "2010" close after it, and "3001" basically optative (read it or not, it won't change your life -- it's boooring). Arthur C. Clarke has also written a lot of other hard sci-fi books, and he claims to have invented the concept of the communications satellite (which is true) in one of his early stories.
"2001", the movie, doesn't really do justice to the book, but Stanley Kubrick did a terrific job back in the 1960s, and the movie is a work of art in its own right, not better or worse but just different than the book. A lot of people have not watched "2001" yet, which is a sin in this day and age, unless you're the kind that prefers Spiderman or Bond movies.
The main topic of the book and the movie is the impact of our encounter with an alien intelligence that is also much more powerful (god-like powerful and incomprehensible) than ourselves. Interwoven with that are the issues of artificial intelligence (embodied in Hal -- HAL/9000, the master on-board computer) and the old topic of the machine-that-turns-against-his-creator.
Mizalloki sosu mitunmo uvav kruy wesewul, mime tantanar yichesif furkogawi gorui drusa virisisu. Vewo mOpakoinech, umwut o rikikhu biriame lel Teliw, tayeo gun nokhi sosu koldamo yisaokoy ibi udelzakat, liriev fonfon alfiltade. Miw wo aziken saloria, ta uzi kepi jheri zeketi came sotous, ideo braime gofanaukhara.
1. Mizalloki sosu mitunmo uvav kruy wesewul,
mizallok-i so -s -u mitun =mo u- vav kruy wesewul
drought -DEF come-PRF-PST lasting=INC ESS-year 216000 48
2. mime tantanar yichesif furkogawi
mime tantan-ar yi- chesif furkogaw-i
now reign -ABS GEN-lizard terrible-DEF
3. gorui drusa virisisu.
gorui drus-a viris -is -u
time_ago long-NDF finish-PRF-PST
4. Vewo mOpakoinech, umwut o
vewo m- opakoine-ch um- wut o
here ESS-equator -DEF ESS-continent which
5. rikikhu biriame lel Teliw,
rikikhu bir -ia =me l- el Teliw
some_day know-PAP=COP+HYP COM-name Africa
6. tayeo gun nokhi sosu koldamo
tayeo gun nokh-i so -s -u kold -a =mo
battle for life-DEF come-PRF-PST reaching-NDF=INC
7. yisaokoy ibi udelzakat,
yi- saokoy ibi u- delzakat
GEN-highest new ESS-ferocity
8. liriev fonfon alfiltade.
liriev fonfon al- filt -a =de
victor so_far NEG-showing-NDF=COP
9. Miw wo aziken saloria,
m- iw wo aziken salor -ia
ESS-place this barren desiccate-PAP
10. ta uzi kepi jheri zeketi
ta uzi kep -i jher-i zeket -i
one_among only small-DEF fast-DEF fierce-DEF
11. came sotous,
ca =me s- oto -u =s
possible=COP+HYP PST-thrive-PST=CNJ
12. ideo braime gofanaukhara.
ideo b- rai =me go- fanaukh-ar -a
hardly ESS-hope=COP+HYP ALL-survive-ABS-NDF
1. mizallok 'drought' from midi 'time', sal 'dry', and the augmentative -yok; the underlying form is *midsalyok.
2a. The Bokuchi use a base-60 (sexagesimal) number system, not a decimal (base-10) one like us. Kruy, which equals 216000, is the third power of 60 (they'd write it as "1000", thus a round number), and wesewul has wese 'eight' and the six-multiplier -(w)ul (two-figure numbers are handled in base 6), therefore 6*8 = 48. The result is 10368000 (a bit more than the original's ten millions).
2b. For the seemingly strange construction sosu mitunmo 'had lasted' (lit. 'had-come become-lasting'), see examples in other texts. Since conjugating the copulas is a neologism and not very educated, this is how good Yivokuchi handles past perfect in these cases.
2c. tantan- 'rule, reign' is a reduplicated form. The original root tan- never appears alone in this form; there's a noun derivative, teon 'power, dominion' (from ancient /ta:n?/).
3. In case you were wondering, virisisu is a much-altered form of the root bris- 'finish, end'. Yivokuchi doesn't allow /vr/ clusters, so it uses an echo vowel for epenthesis.
4. opakoinech 'the Equator' transparently reads opak oinech 'waist-of the-earth'.
5. Teliw is the name of Africa; its etymology is lost in the ancient times.
8. liriev 'victor' from li 'person' and riev 'winning', from rev- 'win' (formerly /rIsb/ ~ /rI:sb/).
9. aziken 'barren' has the negative prefix az- on iken 'fruit-giving' (ik- is the verb root used for ecological services in general).
10. ta is sometimes used as the conjunction 'or', but most often it goes at the beginning of a list of alternatives and shows choice of one and only one of them.
11. See examples of this construction in other texts.
12. brai (underlyingly *m-lai 'in hope') functions more as a pure adjective here; with a complement X in the allative case it translates as 'hopeful of X'.