tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jun 10 20:27:53 1996

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Re: KLBC: *SuD'* toQDuj cheghta'

Adrian "Captain Ady" Luca writes:
>After carefully examining the Dictionary, began putting together
>words, and forming a couple of sentances. Here is what I reached :

Let me look at the subject of the note first...
>*SuD'* toQDuj cheghta'
"It did return *SuD'*'s Bird of Prey."  I suspect you have the verb
at the wrong end of the sentence, and you meant {cheghta' SuD' toQDuj}.

>not tIja' jumwI'mey !                   Never tell me the odds !

This isn't a quote, so {jumwI'mey} is obviously the object of the verb.
Objects come *before* the verb.  If this is rearranged to the correct
word order, it means "Never report to me odd things."  {jum} "be odd"
isn't the same idea as statistical "odds".  I don't know of a simple
way to express the idea of probability in Klingon; your sentence would
have to be changed drastically in translation to express the same idea.

>HoS Hoch'e' vIneH munoblaH Dujvam !     I want all the power this
>                                        ship can give !

"I want power's *everything*; this ship can give me!"  There's a word
that really belongs in the english: "I want all the power *that* this
ship can give."  It gets translated with the verb suffix {-bogh}.  If
I go along with {HoS Hoch} for "all of the power", this comes out as
{HoS Hoch'e' noblaHbogh Dujvam vIneH}.  Perhaps you could use the verb
{lIng} "produce" instead of {nob} "give".

This is still an extremely literal translation.  I'd probably state it
as a command: {Duj HoSna' yIghurqu'moHtaH} "Keep making the ship's power
really increase!"

>be'Hom bi'IHbej soH.                    You certainly are a
>                                        beautiful girl .

Stative verbs like "be beautiful" don't work this way; they don't take
objects.  One can't translate "I am a strong man" as *{loD vIHoS}.  We
need to turn "beautiful girl" into the object of "You certainly are".
Stative verbs can be used like adjectives by placing them after the noun.
"You are [something/somewhere]" is expressed using pronouns as if they
were verbs (see TKD 6.3): {be'Hom 'IH SoHbej}.

>qaSeytaHneSvIS.                         I am honored & excited
>                                        while with you.

"While I am being excited, your Honor."  Your english sentence really has
three verbs: "I *am honored* and I *am excited* while I *am with* you."
You translated it into a sentence fragment; the Klingon needs a main verb.
The suffix {-neS} indicates extraordinary politeness toward the person
being addressed; it's the wrong choice for the meaning of "honor" here.
You should use the verb {quv} "be honored".
"I am with you" is most easily translated as {matay'} "we are together".
Putting it all together: {matay'taHvIS jIquv 'ej jISey}.

>yIbaHlu' la' yIneH !                    Fire at will commander !
>                                (actually : fire commander when you
>                                            want it ! )

Actually, no.  {-lu'} with an imperative prefix doesn't make any sense to
me, and there's no "when" in the Klingon here.  If I wanted to translate
"fire when you want to, Commander" it would come out something like
{bIbaH DaneHDI' yIruch, la'} "As soon as you want to fire, do it, commander."

>quS yIba' .                             Take a seat
>                                (actually : sit on your chair ...)

Again, actually, no.  This says "sit a chair" -- there's no "on" in the
Klingon.  "Sit on your chair" would be {quSlIjDaq yIba'}.  But for the
meaning "take a seat", I'd just say {yIba'} "Sit!".

>qul poH wImeQ .                         Time is the fire in which
>                                        we burn.
>                                (actually that translates to : time
>                                 is the fire and we burn in it )

"We burn fire's period of time."  You don't have "in" or "and" or "is"
anywhere in the Klingon.  There's no good way to translate "in which";
your attempt to split it into two sentences is probably the best thing
to try.  The concept "time" as you want to use it isn't straightforward
either.  Trying to do it literally, I get:  {qul 'oH poH'e' 'ej
qulvetlhDaq mameQ} "A time is a fire and in that fire we burn."

>So, this is what I understood from the Dictionary and I can hardly
>wait for comments and suggestions on how it could be better .....

I hope the wait was worth it.

-- ghunchu'wI'               batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj

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