History: Lojban literary forms

So far Lojbanic literary efforts have been limited to a handful of users, & most of the texts produced have been translated from English & other languages.
An early proposal to write Lojban in Old Norse verse forms did not bear much fruit, though the idea itself remains fascinating (& perhaps stands for a ne plus ultra of Lojbanic competance?).

Several people have written sonnets in iambic pentameter, as well as rhyming songs.

• Jorge Llambias: Poems listed under xorxes
• Arnt Richard Johansen: bradi je bandu

There are also others prefering jbopemci without endrhymes, e.g.:

• la xorxes.: Haikus (also Hiragana)
• la .aulun.:] Haikus (also Hiragana)
• la xorxes.: xirli'u selsanga
• la xorxes./la .aulun.: xirli'u selsanga (Tengwar)
• la .aulun.: selmo'i etc. (also Tengwar, plus originals)
• la .aulun.: loi xelfanvycau pemci
• la .aulun.: nicte selsa'a be le dzuli'u (Sorry, this one having endrhymes)
• la .aulun.: klama le dibzda
• la .aulun.: doi ralju do'u mi pleji
• la maikl.: le puzi cerni (haiku}; la mipri cezo'e
• la kreig.daniyl. never writes rhyming poetry in any language.

The Lojban limerick at one time had a vogue. See doi dirba, nu porpi lo ckana.

An abbreviated "novel" (cfika dekpu 'fiction gallon') by Michael Helsem exists, lapoi pelxu ku'o trajynobli; & within its labyrinthine coils are a couple of kakpa draci ('digger drama') or "Mole Plays".

An all-vowel poemform (rolkemvaxysna pemci) by kreig.daniyl. may be seen under LojbanPoem. As even that example illustrates, it's not actually all vowels; just all attitudinals. The idea is to precisely define an emotion with a few lines of attitudinal indicators. Also, I frankly don't think rolkemvaxysna pemci sounds very good (plus I consider tanru more lobykai) and would prefer selcinmo pemci instead. - la kreig.daniyl.

• .i rolkemkalrysna ja rolkemnalzunsna doi myxyl. .i vaxysna fa ji'a lo sancrfrikativo. .i ko catlu la'ezoigy. Phonetics gy.
  • *vaxysna is a morphological error. You mean vaxsna.
• .i mi tugni tu'a la kreig. gi'e ku'i stidi tu'a "lu cmavo be zo .ui pemci li'u" .i ku'i ba'a le go'i na tugni mu'i leka nalmelbi — mi'e nitcion
  • If I were going to refer to it by selma'o names - and if you want to go right ahead - might I suggest cmavo be zo .ui je zo cai je zo nai pemci instead? - mi'e. kreig.daniyl.
    • (a) nit to be picked (possibly an opening for discussion): What word is there that is in the same selma'o as ui AND cai AND nai? Lojban's logic rears its head again: wouldn't it have to be cmavo be zo .ui .a zo cai .a zo nai pemci? (b) it's a tanru, and tanru need not be perfectly precise. A little metonymy is not unreasonable, and mentioning only UI will probably be understood. --mi'e mark

The "spicy tanru" seltsapytau (see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lojban/message/1789) has been proposed: throwing together gismu into arbitrary combinations & then trying to understand the results. (Doubtless this influenced the phrase xazdo stagi in la luryri'e.)

Riddles, te smadi ('thing-guessed about'), have also been written. (See:
"Three riddles": http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lojban/message/1231 & ff)

Palindromes have also been written.

Creating lujvo according to special patterns, is also a minor artform.

• vlivla, or "Echo-Words".
• lujyjvo, or "Stuttering Words".

Don't those really mean powerful words and complicated lujvo? (Yes, but the names needed to be paradigmatic...)

To forestall any potential confusion; Lojban does not have contrastive vowel length, so it does not, and shall not, have quantitative metre.

• Knowing how this Wiki works, some damnfool is going to go out and attempt it anyway now. — nitcion
  • Damnfool here. Try counting dipthongs as long and monopthongs as short.

• A new verse style: The "watching tanru", ctatanru

• jugytai jbopemci

Insofar as having a meaning for every sumti position of a gismu is considered essential to its integrity as a semantic unit, it has been pointed out that until a Lojban poem lojbo pemci actually has a poetry-audience ve pemci, it might better be referred to as a valsi morna 'word-arrangement'. Carrying this distinction further, some poets call themselves pemcypra 'poem-producer', rather than te pemci. 'Despite the fact that we don't produce pemci until there is a ve pemci?'

• .i banzu fa lenu su'o pa da ve pemci .i mi ba'o pinka le bangu .e ji'a ba'e le kamlarcu be la ziryroi .e la bradi je bandu .i seni'ibo mi pu ca'a ve pemci loi lojbo .i seni'ibo le finti be la ziryroi kufa'u la bradi je bandu ca'a pemci fo da — mi'e nitcion (And even this hardliner is astonished at this extent of hardlinerism!)
  • stidi lu .i mi ba'o 'te' pinka le bangu li'u mu'i lenu mi djica co sruma ledu'u do nalpapri gi'a na'e lerpoi zo'o
• This is an instance of the Bloated Gismu Syndrome
• You create a ve pemci by posting your poem.
• noda is a valid value for a sumti. leza'i noda ve pemci cu na nibli leza'i na pemci -mi'e .djorden.
  • le za'i noda ve pemci cu ja'a nibli le za'i na pemci i le za'i noda ve pemci cu du le za'i naku da ve pemci kei gi'e du le za'i na ve pemci kei gi'e du le za'i na pemci
    • .i ju'oru'e lu naku da ve pemci li'u na du lu na ve pemci li'u goi ko'a .i lu naku da ve pemci li'u du lu da na ve pemci li'u .i ri na du ko'a ni'i leza'i zo zo'e na du zo da .i xu do krici je'i djuno be fo ma
      • i'a i zo zo'e na ka'e basti lu noda li'u i ku'i ja'a ka'e basti lu lo'e prenu li'u mu'a i le nu pemci fo lo'e prenu cu na nibli le nu da zo'u pemci fo da--xorxes

pemci pem poem x1 is a poem/verse about plot/theme/subject/pattern x2 by author x3 for intended audience x4

Don't think there is any need for a {ca'a ve pemci} to be a {te pemci}, since x4 is just an *intended* audience (most poets write for an intended audience - at least for themselves).

• According to that definition, a ca'a ve pemci is an actually intended audience, not an actual audience. You could not specify an actual audience with that place structure. A ka'e ve pemci would be a potentially intended audience, not necessarily actually intended. --xorxes

"How to write Lojban Poetry" has some good ideas: http://people.fix.no/arj/lojban/poetry.html

See also "Issues of Lojbanic Scansion" here.