After some discussion and research, I've concluded #5529364 must be unlinked from this sentence.

"ma li tawa sike" is definitely "The Earth rotates"
"ma sike" is definitely "The round Earth" or "round place" "round country"
But "ma li sike" could be both either "rotates" or "round".
Actually it is more "rotates" than "round"
AFAIK

Who taught you this? No dictionary I know even gives an intransitive verb meaning for "sike", neither Kipo's nor Lope's, and I never saw it used like this neither in the forums nor in the Facebook group. If there was a direct object for it ("sike e ijo") it would surely mean "to circle something, to revolve around something" but alone in the predicate, it definitely means "be a ball, be round" the closest to its word class listed by Sonja. Being after "li" doesn't mean it has to be translated as a verb, mainly if it is not a verb originally.

Well. Why sentence "me moku" is so special then? :)

I believe it is only because we can't use that magic separator "li" here.
http://tokipona.net/tp/classicwordlist.aspx

Jan Sonja was pretty clear about "li". She said - There is no "to be" form in Toki Pona. Which means "li" could not be translated to "is". So "The Earth is round" could not be derived from "ma li sike".
AFAIK
Here is more
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/U...asic_Sentences
http://ixite.ru/toki_pona/tp_rus_dictionary/

Why is "mi moku." so special? Because it may also mean "I am food." I'm not claiming "li" means "is" in "ma li sike." It simply connects "ma" to "sike", saying what it IS or DOES. That's "li". As "sike" means either "ball/circle" (something round/circular) or "orbit/circle" (make a circle around) if we take the first meaning, then "ma li sike" means "Earth is round", If we take the second "Earth makes a circle around".

There are two problems with the second meaning.
1. It lacks the object of the action of circling. It circles something, but that thing is omitted. It simply means "make a circle around something unespecified", not a very likely sentence.
2. It can't convey the meaning of rotating, because it is transitive. Even the russian dictionary you cited, states clearly that the verb is transitive (пер. гл. = переходный глагол = transitive verb), i.e. it needs an object. It does mean "rotate", but only if it "rotates something", "li sike e ijo".

Maybe "ma li sike e sama." = "the Earth circles itself." means "Earth rotates" and that's the sentence you wanted.

Well. Since I can't tell the difference between transitive and non transitive verbs (and you can) I'm not going to argue.:) But I hope you'll consider my previous input on the subject.

I'm gonna see what other tp-ers think in the Facebook group and the Forums. Somebody has to be liberal enough to accept "sike" to mean "spin (alone)". But even so, the meaning "be round" is too well stablished (since before 2009). I will also test other words to see what "sike" tends to mean with them ;)

Could you advise a forum where I could discuss toki pona things with people. I have translated a "Little Red Riding Hood" story and need some editorial help on it.

That's it: forums.tokipona.org
And the Facebook: facebook.com/groups/sitelen/

Edit: I just see you already found the forums.

Yep. :) Could you please read through the story and give your comments on grammar and editorial? I believe there are lot of things for me to fix.

Done. :)

jan Pina o, mi pana e toki pona tawa sina!
jan Mimoku (Joop Kiefte) (a famous tp-er) li toki tawa mi lon kulupu pi ilo Pesipu (Facebook). ona li kepeken toki "ma li sike" tawa toki Inli "the Earth rotates". tan ni la mi poka sin e toki ni. jan Mato (Matthew Martin) (another famous tp-er) li toki kin e ni: "ma li tawa sike" anu "ma li tawa sike e insa sama". jan ante li toki e ijo ante. taso ona li sona e toki pi jan ante. toki pona li ni.

CK, yes, strangely enough both of the English sentences match (haha), at least for some speakers. That's toki pona.

ni li musi. taso toki pona li ni.
kulupu nimi pi toki Inli li sama ala.
taso la kulupu nimi ni pi toki pona li ni kin.
ni li pona tawa me. :)