26ka
Making it happen
The last chapter took the doer out. ka puts a second one in. It stands in the verb cluster beside se, and it says that somebody made the doing happen: the maker takes the subject's place, and whoever actually does the thing steps back one position. The sun starts it:
SceneI
sileta phialu sulae ka kelu.thero sulopa sukaro ka kelu.howeli ponu ka phae.pheralu ruela ka hiso.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| sukaro | su · ka · ro | hot |
The sun makes the water warm. The fire makes the soup hot. The wind makes the door open, and the rain makes the path clean, which is the rain's one household chore.
SceneII
lopia nulae.phao lopia ka nulae.lohau wepu.lopia lohau ka wepu.
Read them in pairs. The child sleeps; the parent makes the child sleep. The dog goes; the child makes the dog go. The sleeper and the goer are still the sleeper and the goer, and each sentence has simply grown a person at the front who is responsible for it.
SceneIII
wheo lo mia to ka hola.nophi lo mia to ka remo.melu mia to ka siora.
The elder made us laugh. The story made us think. The friend made me glad. The maker need not be a person doing something on purpose; a story can do it, and so can weather.
SceneIV
misheko mia to ka rihe.mia misheko ka ma nulae.
The cat made me get up. I do not make the cat sleep. Anyone who has lived with a cat will recognize both the arrangement and its direction.