- There's this interesting thing about toki pona where certain concepts that are really easily expressed in English require getting more creative. Like, "honey can last for thousands of years without spoiling": this is difficult because toki pona has no obvious way to express "thousands" or "years". It's focused on the natural world and tangible things, and 1,000 is an intangible concept and years are natural enough but very intangible and largely convention. Sure, "tenpo mute" (lit. "much time") would get the job done here but if you really want to express just how much time it is...1
o pilin e tenpo ni. sewi la mun mute li kama tawa ante. tenpo pi jan wan li lili a tawa tenpo pi toki ni. tenpo la kulupu jan mute a li kama li weka li pali e tomo mute lon ma wan li pakala e tomo ni ale li ante mute e toki ona. taso moku ni li awen, li kama ala jaki li awen pona moku.
my own (not great) attempt at a mostly literal translation
feel this time. in the sky, many moons change. the lifetime of one person is very small compared to the time we're speaking of. in this time, many civilisations come, go, build many houses in one place, destroy these houses, and evolve their language. but this food stays, it does not spoil and it remains good to eat.
I love this writing; it feels poetic and it's truly a good way to get across how long honey lasts for. In English, writing like this would be a bit of a weird diversion, but in toki pona it fits right in.
- wait holy shit that's how Alan Turing died how did I not already know this??
1: moku pi tenpo pini tan jan Ke Tami, insa lipu tenpo nanpa mama, lon lipu 9