ᴱQ. karnevaite úri kilde hísen níe nienaite “amid the red skies the Sun with wet eyes dropped tears of mist”

⚠️ᴱQ. carnevaite úri cilde hísen níe nienaitë “amid the red skies the Sun with wet eyes dropped tears of mist”

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The eighteenth phrase (the second part of line 20 and lines 21-22) of the first version of the Oilima Markirya poem (MC/221). Its English translation is quite liberal. The first Qenya word is a compound of karne “red” and an adjectival form vaite (“skied”) of vaiya¹ “sky”, as indicated by the Glossary Commentary accompanying the sixth draft (PE16/75).

The subject úri is a variant form of Ûr “Sun” followed by the verb kilde, the aorist 3rd-singular feminine form of kili- “to see”. As indicated by the Glossary Commentary accompanying the sixth draft (PE16/75), the combination kili- nie (nienaite) is idiomatic Qenya meaning “have tears in the eyes”, more literally “see a dropping [(lit.) tearful] tear” (PE16/75).

In the middle of this phrase is the word hísen “of mist”, which superficially resembles a nominative but seems to function as a genitive, something supported by its translation in the Glossary Commentary as “misty”, it is possible, though that it is a distinct adjective.

Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:

karne-vaite úri kil-de híse-n níe nienaite = “*red-skied Sun see-she mist-of tear tearful”

Conceptual Development: This phrase appeared in the fourth draft of this poem, where after experimenting with and rejecting some alternate wording, Tolkien settled on a phrase quite close to its final form, with the addition of the preposition ter “through” before nie “tear” (OM1d: PE16/62). This preposition was removed in the sixth draft (OM1f: PE16/74).

References ✧ MC/221; PE16/62, 72, 74

Glosses

Variations

Elements

karne “red” ✧ MC/221; PE16/62; PE16/72; PE16/74
vaite “skied” ✧ MC/221; PE16/62; PE16/72; PE16/74
Ûr “Sun, (lit.) Fire” ✧ MC/221 (úri); PE16/62 (úri); PE16/72 (uuri); PE16/74 (úri)
kili- “to see, heed” aorist 3rd-sg-fem ✧ MC/221 (kilde); PE16/62 (kilde); PE16/72 (kilde); PE16/74 (kilde)
híse “dusk, mist, haze; bleared” genitive ✧ MC/221 (hísen); PE16/62 (hīsen); PE16/72 (hiisen); PE16/74 (hísen)
nie “tear” ✧ MC/221 (níe); PE16/62; PE16/72; PE16/74
nienaite “tearful” ✧ MC/221; PE16/62; PE16/72; PE16/74
ter “through” ✧ PE16/62; PE16/72

Element In