23lu
Weather plans
If. lu opens a live condition. Because that condition modifies the consequence, it comes first as its own sentence: lu [condition]. [consequence]. When a condition is already known not to hold or lies beyond possibility, lu takes he, the particle of the unreal. Planning around weather, which is what village planning is:
SceneI
lu pheralu lepa. lo mia mua womu therilu.lu sileta keru loa. lo mia kau luphore wepu.lu howeli shua. lo mia mua womu nuora pharelo.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| lu | lu | (at the front: if) |
If rain, we rest indoors; if sun, the river; if wind, we cook. Three plans for three skies, each condition announced before its consequence. You could not put the if second in Phi if you tried, and after eighteen chapters of announce-then-deliver, why would you try?
SceneII
lopialu pheralu ma lepa. wa lo mia kau luphore wepu.phaolia. lu pheralu ma lepa. lo mia wepu.kelua shua. pheralu ma lepa.lo mia kau luphore wepu.
If it does not rain, may we go? If it does not rain, we go. Morning comes; it does not rain; they go. A conditional is a door held open, and sometimes the weather simply walks through it.
SceneIII
lopia mua luphore wile. lohau wishe.lopialu he mia pelori nai. mia wapi.lopialu he mia shalu nai. mia mua phialu nulae.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| he | he | (after lu: if, but unreal) |
Riverbank daydreams: lu he marks conditions treated as counterfactual or impossible. If I were a bird, I would fly; if I were a fish, I would sleep in the water. One added syllable keeps imagination distinct from a claim about the present.
SceneIV
lopialu he thia pelori nai. wa thia wapi.phaolia. mia wapi. mia kau sileta wapi.lohau lue phialu shua.
If you were a bird, would you fly? To the sun itself, says the parent, who has been saving that answer for years. And the dog exits the river and shakes, in the universal language (the only weather anyone did not plan for).