Thursday, 10 May 2007

A Poem in Inform 7

I recently finished reading Le Ton beau de Marot, an excellent book about translation by Douglas Hofstadter, whom you might know as the author of Gödel, Escher, Bach. The book includes dozens of translations of "A une Damoyselle malade," a short poem written by Clément Marot in 1537 as a sort of get-well card to the daughter of Marguerite de Navarre. The translations vary from literal glosses to very loose and playful ones that might better be called adaptations. It looked like fun, so I thought I'd try doing an adaptation to Inform 7. Here it is:

"Renee Faye" by Brian Slesinsky
 
Section 1 - Definitions
 
A Faye is a kind of player-character.
A person can be thin.
Understand "marmalade" as jam.
Understand "urn" as jam.
Understand "maid" as Renee.
The jam is edible.
 
Section 2 - Rules
 
When play begins:
  Remove yourself from play;
  Change the player to Renee;
 
Instead of going when Renee is thin:
  say "You feel too sick to go anywhere."
 
After eating the Jam:
   say "Very good!  You feel much better.";
   Now Renee is not thin.
 
After going somewhere:
  end the game in victory.
 
Section 3 - Poem
 
Sweet Renee
is a Faye.
She is thin.
She is in
Prison Cell.
East from Cell
is Outdoors.
"Though it bores,
have no fear!"
Jam is here.
"Marmalade
for sweet maid
in an urn."
Every turn
when Renee
is thin: say
 "'Out of ham,
have some jam.
Have a feast.
Exit: east.
Quickly though!'
said Marot."
When play ends,
say "Your friends
welcome you.
Done with flu!
Now let's play,
Sweet Renee!"

Here's a transcript of the simple game this compiles to:

Renee Faye
An Interactive Fiction by Brian Slesinsky
Release 1 / Serial number 070510 / Inform 7 build 4U65 (I6/v6.31 lib 6/11N) SD
 
Prison Cell
Though it bores, have no fear!
 
Marmalade for sweet maid in an urn.
 
>examine marmalade
You see nothing special about the jam.
 
"Out of ham, have some jam. Have a feast. Exit: east. Quickly though!" said Marot.
 
>eat jam
(first taking the jam)
Very good!  You feel much better.
 
>go east
Your friends welcome you. Done with flu! Now let's play, Sweet Renee!
 
 
    *** You have won ***
 
 
In that game you scored 0 out of a possible 0, in 3 turns.
 
Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game or QUIT?
>

Here are some other translations I liked:

• To An Ailing Maiden by David Short
• Chickadee by Carol Hofstadter
• To an Unborn Mole by Mark L. Irons
• 0nl1n3 Fr13nd by P. Asiv. Yes, it's in leetspeak. (See the bottom of the page.) The same page also has My Sweet Dear by Douglas Hofstadter.
• Thy Spear Shake Off - A Message To My Sweet by Ronald Kymse and Melanie Mitchell. A poem with another poem embedded in it. (See the bottom of the page.)

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