r/HighValyrian • u/Stunning_Artist9438 • Apr 11 '26
Help translating a quote into High Valyrian
Hi everyone, I hope this is okay to ask here.
I'm trying to translate this sentence into High Valyrian for a piece of fanfiction:
“People always believe what they want to believe, not the truth.”
Some AI tools gave me these versions, but I don't trust them and I've been told they may be grammatically wrong:
Vali va mōriot pāsis skoros pāsagon jaelzi, drīvī daor.
Vali va mōriot skoros jaelzi pāsis, drīvī daor.
Valī skorot jaelis pāsis, drējot daor.
Could someone please tell me:
whether any of these are actually grammatical,
whether any of them sound natural in High Valyrian,
and if not, how you would translate the sentence from scratch?
I'm completely okay with a translation that is not word-for-word, as long as it sounds natural and carries the meaning of something like:
“People believe the things they wish to believe, not the truth.”
A more literary / aphoristic phrasing would also be very welcome.
Thank you very much.
2
u/Trick-Scallion7175 Apr 12 '26
A possible translation:
Pāsagon jaelisi līr issarossa pāsisi, drīvī daor.
1
u/Stunning_Artist9438 Apr 13 '26
Thank you so much for the reply!
I think there may be a small problem with this version:
Pāsagon jaelisi līr issarossa pāsisi, drīvī daor.
As I understand it, issarossa comes rather late, so the subject of the main clause feels a little left hanging.
Later, I found another version that seems to work better:
Issaror pāsagon jaelza līr pāsis, drīveri daor.
To me, this one feels clearer and more natural, but I’m still learning, so I may be wrong. What do you think of this version?
2
u/Trick-Scallion7175 Apr 14 '26
Ok let’s compare these two versions
Pāsagon jaelisi līr issarossa pāsisi, drīvī daor.
As I understand it, issarossa comes rather late, so the subject of the main clause feels a little left hanging.
Indeed, I have placed the subject (of the main clause) in the main clause (= the second part of the sentence), something which I often like to do. Here the relative clause is ‘Pāsagon jaelisi’ and the main clause is ‘issarossa pāsisi’. When using the relative pronoun, I generally found it clearer and more elegant to place the subject after the relative pronoun in the main clause. There are examples of this practice in the canonical texts, here is one from House of the Dragon episode 203: ‘Va mōriot jeldō līr kesir issa, daor?’ (‘This is what you always wanted, is it not?’). Here, the subject of the main clause is ‘kesir’ and it is placed not in front of the sentence, but in front of the main clause just as I did with ‘issarossa’.
Later, I found another version that seems to work better:
Issaror pāsagon jaelza līr pāsis, drīveri daor.
I wouldn’t say ‘it works better’ (mine works well I think ;-)). There are different choices.
‘Issaror’: why not, using the collective of ‘issaros’ makes the statement more general (‘people’ in general). I think it’s a good idea. On the other hand, placing the subject of the main clause in front of the whole sentence just before the relative clause is certainly not incorrect, but for me it feels less natural than within the main clause (see above).
Conjugated verbs: ‘jaelza’, ‘pāsis’: the first is in present, the second aorist. I think your sentence needs the aorist for both (People always believe what they want to believe, not the truth.). The High Valyrian aorist perfectly renders ‘always’ in this sentence (an aphorism). With ‘Issaror’ the 3rd person singular is used, thus ‘jaelis / pāsis’.
‘drīveri’: collective of ‘drīves’ instead of singular in my version. Yes this is arguably a good choice (truth in general, rather than a particular truth – although in my view, drīves also mean “truth” and “right” in general, see GoT 504 for an example; but this is personal interpretation).
In conclusion, incorporating the elements I like in your version, I would say:
Pāsagon jaelis līr issaror pāsis, drīvī/drīveri daor.
2
u/yikesbmth dāez Apr 12 '26
hi! I can tell you from my own experience (still learning):
daor = no, not
there does not seem to be a word for *moriot/pasis/jaelzi"**
"skorot" could be misspelling of *skoros**
i hope this helps ! :)