Find

Row 6: The Margins

Row 6 · 3

The dream mood

How far have you read?

Choose chapter

You are following the Slow Read, which begins with the Prologue on Saturday 10 October and reads a chapter a week. Read ahead? Choose the last chapter you have finished. The site hides anything from a chapter you have not reached; this is proof of reading, never of buying, and a library copy counts.

In Somka the word for if is the word for dream. A condition is something dreamt.

A clause that begins with som is a condition or a wish. Because the whole dream clause stands in first place, the main clause puts its verb straight after it.

Som tu ki ne, ka ne

if you see me, stand I

If you can see me, I’m still standing.

In formal writing, if is the loop laid on its side: the sleeping form. Any sign turned a quarter anticlockwise marks a word in the dream mood.

Try it

  1. Read the walker’s vow.
  2. At the start of a clause, what does som mean?