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Q&A Need a bit of verse in my prose

Since you are writing in the fantasy genre, is there any reason that the poetry needs to be in a human readable tongue? I can imagine that humans, living among other older species, might know j...

posted 6y ago by Henry Taylor‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:54:46Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36386
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Henry Taylor‭ · 2019-12-08T08:54:46Z (almost 5 years ago)
Since you are writing in the fantasy genre, is there any reason that the poetry needs to be in a human readable tongue?

I can imagine that humans, living among other older species, might know just enough elvish or dragon-tongue to properly pronounce a few lines of ancient verse; with no real understanding of that languages' subtleties such as meter or rhythm.

The more learned among your human characters might even be able to translate the ancient verses into human words, such that the meaning and beauty of the previously presented nonsense words can be offered to the reader, without any poetic artistry being required of the translation.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-05-24T01:01:52Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 3