Ai! Lá polin saca i quettar!
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nai (1) imperative verb "be it that", used with a verb (usually in the future tense) to express a wish. The translation "maybe" in Tolkien's rendering of Namárië is somewhat misleading; he used "be it that" in the interlinear translation in RGEO:67. Apparently this is na as the imperative "be!" with a suffix -i "that", cf. i #3. It can be used with the future tense as an "expression of wish" (VT49:39). Nai hiruvalyë Valimar! Nai elyë hiruva! "May thou find Valimar. May even thou find it!" (Nam, VT49:39). Nai tiruvantes "be it that they will guard it" > "may they guard it" (CO). Nai elen siluva parma-restalyanna "may a star shine upon your book-fair" (VT49:38), nai elen siluva lyenna "may a star shine upon you" (VT49:40), nai elen atta siluvat aurenna veryanwesto "may two stars shine upon the day of your wedding" (VT49:42-45), nai laurë lantuva parmastanna lúmissen tengwiesto "may (a) golden light fall on your book at the times of your reading" (VT49:47). Nai may also be used with a present continuative verb if an ongoing situation is wished for: Nai Eru lye mánata "God bless you" (VT49:39) or literally "be it that God is (already) blessing you". The phrase nai amanyaonnalya "be it that your child [will be] blessed" omits any copula; Tolkien noted that "imper[ative] of wishes precedes adj." (VT49:41). VT49:28 has the form nái for "let it be that"; Patrick Wynne theorizes that nái is actually an etymological form underlying nai (VT49:36)