A Language of Dragons

by S.F. Williamson

“People shouldn’t fear their prime ministers, Vivien,” he says. “Prime ministers should fear their people.”

Atlas, languages are like that. You can say the same thing a hundred different ways, and occasionally one of those ways is so unique to the translator that it is impossible to reproduce. No other translator will use the same words, the same rhythm, the same turn of phrase ever again. Translating is creating, too.

“I’m saying,” Atlas says pointedly, “that when you oppress a community for centuries you can’t exactly be surprised when it rises up against you.”

“To control languages, to control words, is to control what people know.”

“Remissio dolor redemptus est,” Chumana says. “Forgiveness is suffering redeemed.”