Sample texts

01 Dialogues

Morning greeting

A: kona ni moli. kia. wa thia towe nai.
   VOC HON.INTIM moli. hello. Q 2SG well be.
   (Dear moli. Hello. Are you well?)

B: mia towe nai. nemo. wa thia towe nai.
   1SG well be. grateful. Q 2SG well be.
   (I am well. Grateful. Are you well?)

A: mia towe nai. su thia philo welao nai.
   1SG well be. OPT 2SG day good be.
   (I am well. May your day be good.)

Notice: the honorific ni marks an established intimate bond; nemo stands alone as a one-word answer of gratitude; the possessor-first thia philo makes "your day."

Asking for help

A: pi wa thia mia po naphe.
   POL Q 2SG 1SG POT help.
   (Could you help me?)

B: mia so naphe. weno.
   1SG FUT help. when.
   (I will help. When?)

A: nosa sola howai.
   now DISJ evening.
   (Now or this evening.)

B: howai welao nai. mia kau thia so shua.
   evening good be. 1SG ALL 2SG FUT come.
   (Evening is good. I will come to you.)

Notice: context licenses the one-word question weno; sola builds the either/or; potential po makes the opening a request about ability rather than an assumption.

Consolation

A: kona melu. mia nuhe phaelo. mia phao to lumeo.
   VOC friend. 1SG sadness feel. 1SG parent PST die.
   (Friend — I feel sadness. My parent died.)

B: mia wei thia phamo. mia ha nai.
   1SG DAT 2SG console. 1SG PROX be.
   (I console you. I am here.)

A: nemo. thia shewo melu nai.
   grateful. 2SG true friend be.
   (Thank you. You are a true friend.)

B: su shea wei thia shua.
   OPT peace DAT 2SG come.
   (May peace come to you.)

Notice: lumeo (die) is named plainly and nuhe is spoken without euphemism. The optative voices a wish for peace without promising an outcome.

02 A philosophical passage

Bashō's frog haiku has direct Phi words for its pond, frog, jump, and sound:

03 The texts shelf

Translations on the shelf preserve the claims that fit Phi least comfortably as well as those the language meets easily. Their source lines stay beside the Phi, and each page records where the two languages do not quite meet.

Gibran's four teachings are complete translations. His bow, yoke, sword, and hard claims about work remain inside them, with the limits of Phi's descriptions recorded at the end of each page.

The five Tao chapters bring a wheel, an empty vessel, barely seen authority, small beginnings, and a tree cutter into Phi. Legge's claims remain in place even where the language must describe a part or relation instead of naming it.

A translation keeps the source's claims and distinctions, along with its images and force, while letting Phi grammar do its own work. An original takes Phi as its source; the English is a close reading rather than a prior text waiting to be rendered. A refusal answers a source without claiming to translate it. All three may use composition or coinage, but each owes the reader a different kind of fidelity.

The complete texts live on the Phi text shelf. Each short work has one file; a longer book has its own directory, where the chapters and their shared source stay together. Translations place source wording beneath their Phi, glosses, and back-translations where publication permits it. Original work uses three-line blocks because Phi is the source, then records its propositions and lexical pressure separately. A refusal keeps the source outside its answer. The works below are the manual's touchstones.

lothea thole (The Practice of Love) is a translation of the Karaniya Metta Sutta: ten verses of loving-kindness carried almost entirely by the optative su. Its refrain is the language in one line:

sileta kenua wireo moenu lo sherewa (Claims of a Solar-Energy Future Culture) translates A Solarpunk Manifesto across all five opening paragraphs, 22 propositions, and both nested lists. Political labels such as post-capitalism and decolonialism, identity categories, and named aesthetic references stay exact in the licensed English source; the Phi lines state the relations the current lexicon can defend. The long analytic phrases show both reach and strain in a text written squarely for solarpunk readers.

theama weno kawhera kelu (When Care Becomes Coercion) is the shelf's first original Phi work. Two friends sit with a hot room, a refusal to leave, and a danger neither can dismiss. Their dialogue separates evidence from entailment, persuasion from coercion, and care from authority. Conditional consent settles what the friends may do this afternoon; the harder case, when no prior answer can speak, still waits.

nitho howeli nela sileta (The North Wind and the Sun) is a translation of Aesop's familiar linguistic benchmark. Past-tense scene chains carry the quarrel, wager, weather, and flight into shade. Base sharemi (persuade) lets the disputed moral stay whole, while the final limits table distinguishes what Phi says from stronger verbs in Aesop's line.

mophira nela lo kalora (The Sheep and the Horses) begins from a controlled English translation of Schleicher's 1868 German. It preserves the constricted heart, the horses' knowledge, the master claim, and Schleicher's three descriptions of one flight. tupeka (burden) and phesari (flee) belong to base vocabulary; Commons phenori (ownership) states the relation behind the source title without turning that title into a Phi role.

theula miona (All People) is a translation of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It uses sherelo for a normative right that remains sayable under denial, remori for reason as a faculty, and sharino for conscience as moral self-appraisal. Passive endowment and sibling spirit remain. naseru names the obligation, and a framed clause states what it requires without turning the source's "should" into an unqualified must.

ta haluma (One Language) is a translation of Genesis 11:1-9. It leaves LORD in the source line and describes a nonhuman story creature through karami, authority. Work-module torali gives the tower a shape of its own. The loss of reciprocal understanding and the worldwide punitive dispersal remain where the King James account puts them.

nulo sano korua (The Heart of Wisdom) is a translation of Müller's smaller Heart Sutra. It counts five gatherings, preserves the source's four knowledge and ignorance terms, and gives the mantra one addressed traveler who has reached another kerime, shore. Tradition-specific names remain in the source lines rather than receiving improvised adaptations.

keiro (The Way) contains complete translations of five chapters from Legge's Tao Te Ching. Chapter 11's wheel turns around an open centre and support rod. Chapter 17 describes people who hold authority without adding a ruler class. In chapter 76, reliance on force fails and a tree cutter chooses the broad trunk. Phi has no axle or generic easy adjective, so material descriptions and source citations keep those distances visible.

phewo phelui (The Sage's Words) contains complete Phi translations of Gibran's teachings on love, children, giving, and work. Together they begin a translation of the whole of The Prophet. Love keeps its sword, cross, and grain-floor. Children lets Gibran draw his bow and send the arrow. Giving follows the prudent dog past the full well and orchard, while work carries the farmer to the temple gate. Each page leaves Gibran's exact wording beside the Phi and ends by naming the limits of the translation.

thiku miona lue silero (from The Little Prince) translates three Katherine Woods passages. A sheep must be drawn; the heart sees what the eye cannot; taming leaves an obligation behind. Existing woenu, tame, keeps the animal's change explicit. Module naseru, obligation, lets the final passage state the relation without adding willing acceptance.

wuloe wetha tupiwa (The Velveteen Rabbit) translates Williams's complete nursery story across eighteen scenes. The rabbit's material wear and the child's fever lead to the bonfire; love and magic carry him home. Household and Medical vocabulary enter the nursery and sickroom, while Commons and Work terms handle governance and craft. Williams's lines retain soldiers, Government, brigands, and exact clock or calendar terms beside Phi descriptions.

The rest of the shelf: