tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 23 10:25:45 1998
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Re: DS9 Finale Kl;ingon
- From: Terrence Donnelly <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: DS9 Finale Kl;ingon
- Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 12:24:37 -0500
At 08:10 AM 6/23/98 -0700, Voragh wrote:
>True, but what was it supposed to be? Before we argue further over the
>grammar (or lack thereof), let's see what the actual text was. Last night I
>taped the rerun and transcribed the closed captions. These are:
>
> NEH TAH KRONOS.
> HEGH BAT'LHQU HOCH NEJ MAH.
> NEH TAH KRONOS.
> YAY JE BAT'LH MANOB HEGH.
>
>Four separate lines. This is apparently verse, though it wasn't identified
>as such in the story. Is it an extract from a death chant? Worf's favorite
>battle song? A quotation from Kahless? Dax's favorite historical epic?
>Worf didn't say and Sisko didn't ask him.
>
>Note that it is a *bit* better than the total gibberish the writers usually
>make up. If you noticed, Michael Dorn seemed to be trying to carefully say
>the lines - at least, to get them right as they were in the script. Someone
>obviously was trying to translate a bit of poetry using The Klingon
>Dictionary but used English syntax in places. If {manob} means "we give",
>then s/he found the table of verb prefixes, but didn't understand how the
>subject-object prefixes work. So, if we want to give this any more thought,
>I suggest we try to reconstruct the underlying English original and then
>re-translate it into correct tlhIngan Hol.
>
Just squinching up my eyes and taking a sort of impressionistic stab
at it, I come up with
Kronos alone endures
We all seek honorable death
Kronos alone endures
Death gives us honor and victory
(I'm assuming that they got the O-V-S order basically right, that they are
understanding {neH} wrongly to mean "only, solely" and not just "merely")
So, re-translated (with no attempt at rhyme or meter):
taHbej Qo'noS
batlh maHegh wIneH
taHbej Qo'noS
yay batlh je nunob Hegh
Just a thought 8+)
-- ter'eS