Direct Translation (Word by Word): child two old man an to. old man, we all-to ear two each and eye two each have but mouth one only why have? quotation asked to. old man that. I-by point of view we-to ear two each have so people other advice more listen to say and. eye two each have so respectable conduct to more observe to say is. Having said that mouth one only as for meaningless talk less to tell to say-by meaning seems is. quotation said did.

Full Translation: Two children asked an old man. "Old man, we all have two ears and two eyes, but how come we only have one mouth?" The old man answered, "my point of view is that we have two ears so we can better listen to other people's advices, and we have two eyes so we can better observe other people's respectable conduct. Having said that, it seems to me that we have only one mouth so we have less means of engaging in meaningless talk".

Grammar Analysis:

 

The title of the story shows how there is often no need to separate words with comma like in English. The word for mouth"- and the word for eye 1m#- are not separated. Although the word +$- can be used for same purpose as comma is in English, it is not required here.

 

The first two words in the story are Js-]o-#(m=-í and the meaning is "child two". The word "child" is not written "children" because it is followed by the number "two", which acts as a plural marker. This is very common in Tibetan, e.g. "child many", rather than "children many". The particle <m- is the genitive case particle. (}-0}- literary means "paternal grandfather", but is used as a polite way of addressing any old man. For further politeness Tibetans attach ;#=- to the name, or to the word used to address another person. <m#- is the indefinite article "an". In Tibetan the indefinite article is written in three ways, depending on the last letter in the word it follows. The other two are %m#- and 6m#- In this case the last letter is the secondary suffix =- which requires <m#- to be used. This is then followed by the word ; which in this case means "to", and implies that the children asked "to" the old man. Note that the verb "to ask" does not come until much later. First the question posed by the children is given, and then finally comes the verb "to ask".

 

What comes now is the children's question. It starts by simply addressing the old man which then is followed by k. In this case the k is like a comma in English, rather than full stop. What then follows is the actual question. The question starts with the personal pronoun $- "I", which by adding the plural marker 3~- to it, means "we". The word 3$-1- (all) has a :- attached to it which is the locative case ("all-to"). When there is no suffix this case particle is attached to the last letter in the last syllable of the word it follows. M-%}#- is an alternating spelling of M-U}#- which means "ear". When numbers qualify nouns, such as "two ears", it will be placed after the noun. The number #(m=- (two) comes next, hence "ear two" The word :{- means "each", but when combined with the word "two", it could be translated as "pair" ("pair of ears"). Then comes the connector +$- (and), and the word 1m#- (eye), followed by "two each" or "pair" again. 9}+- is the verb to have, the sentence up to now is therefore "we all-to ear two each and eye two each have". <$- is one of two connectors which can be translated as "but, yet, although" etc, the other two are 9$- and 8$-. Again it is the last letter of the previous word which determine which of those is used. "- means here mouth and it is followed by the numerical #%m#- (one), which then is followed by the word ;=-1{+-.-í (only). #$- means here "why" or in a more flavored translation, "how come". The question then wraps up with the verb 9m,- (is) and the connector ,1-, which is one of eleven connectors in literary Tibetan, which serve as the question mark does in English. ,1- is only used after words ending with ,-. Then comes the connector 6{=-í which serves the same purpose as quotation mark does in English. In Tibetan the quotation mark is put after the quote, which can make it hard to find where the quotation started. This is especially true when the quotation consists of many phrases, rather than just one sentence as in this text. Then, finally comes the verb "to ask" in the past tense, with the case particle :- attached to it. í

 

Next sentence goes "Old man that". It simply indicates that what follows is the reply from the previously referred old man. Again the verb "said" or "answered" is placed after the actual reply. The reply starts with $=-A=-,- which literary means "I by do if", it can be translated "according to me" or "my point of view". $-3~:- is "I" with the plural marker, making it "we", and the case particle :- attached to it, making it "we-to". M-%}#-#(m=-:{-9}+-.-í is repeating the children's question. The phrase connector ,m- can have two meanings. It can act as a separator, in which case it would not be directly translated, or it is used to emphasize something. In this case it's used to emphasize the reason for us having two ears and two eyes. In translation here it simply renders "so", but could also have been translated "as for" (as for having two ears...). Then comes the old man's opinion on why we have two ears. It starts with the word 1m- (people), followed by the word #6,- (other) and the genitive case particle >m-. It's direct meaning is therefore "people other's", but in English the words are swapped and the translation becomes "other people's". 0=1-8&:- means advice, it's made up of the the word 0=1-.- (to mind or to think), and 8&:-0- (to rise or to emerge). 1$- is from the word 1$-.}- (many), and together with the particle 21- means "a little bit more", but here it is translated "better". (},- is the imperative form of the verb "to listen". What follows is then another verb, 7{:-0- (to say). This verb is not the final verb meaning "the old man said", that will come much later. Rather, it means that if you were to say the old man's opinion, you would say what came previously in the sentence. Thus, "If you were to say my opinion, it would be we have two ears so we can... etc". This kind of construction is quite common in Tibetan, in translation it kind of just drops out, because it does not add anything to the meaning and the translation would look strange. í

 

After the connector "and", comes the old mans view on why we have two eyes. This phrase follows exactly the same structure as the phrase about the ears. The word 9-:0=- means "good behavior" or to spice it a bit, "respectable conduct", and W- is the verb "to watch" or "observe". Otherwise this sentence has the same words as the previous sentence, except the final verb 9m,- which is the first person for "to be" or in this case "is" (My point of view is...).

 

Next sentence starts with the word 8},-<$-í. This word can be translated in various ways, such as "Nevertheless..." and "Yet...", here it is translated as "Having said that...". "-#%m#-;=-1{+-.- (mouth one only) has been explained, and so has ,m-. Then comes a new word, &}-1{+-.- (meaningless) with the genitive particle 8m- attached to it, which indicates that what follows is modified by the word "meaningless". That which follows is then the word !+-&- (talk), ^p$-21- (less) and <}+- (to tell about), hence "meaningless talk less to talk about", or "less means to engage in meaningless talk". Again comes the word 7{:-0-, the meaning and reason for this word here is the same as in previous sentences. +},- means "meaning", in this case it is: "the meaning of why we have only one mouth is...". This word is not included in the final translation, as that does not add anything to the sentences. Possible it could have been translated using the word "reason", the sentence would then have been: "Having said that, it seems to me that the reason we have only one mouth..." 9m,-.-8H-í is the word "seems" or "appears" and here it conveys the meaning that the old man is not sure if his view is correct or not. The old man's reply then ends with the final verb 8`o#- , "to be" or "is". After the vertical strokes comes then the equivalent of quotation mark %{=-. We saw earlier the connector 6{=- used for this same purpose. %{=- is used after words ending with #- , +- and 0-. Then finally comes the word #=v$=-.- (past tense of the verb to say), and the text ends with the final verb :{+-. This last part is then what is placed before the old man's reply in the translation, "The old man answered".