tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Feb 03 20:59:21 2002

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: Translating into Klingon

lab qonwI'

> >It is FAR easier to write your own stories in
> >Klingon than to translate
> >anyone else's from another language.
>
>In that case, does anyone have any tips for *writing* stories in Klingon? 
>:) I do have one question, though: When translating fiction into Klingon, 
>how literally should you translate?

Lawrence's rules look good.  There's also a writing cliche: write what you 
know.  We also do better if we write what Klingons know, that is about 
topics that Klingon vocabulary covers.  Use Klingon grammatical structures, 
rather than writing or thinking in English and then trying to find some 
Klingon to match your thoughts.  Complicated grammar does NOT a story 
make.  I have read some brilliant beginner-posted stories that use only the 
most basic OVS sentence structure.

Let the time structure of the story be linear, so that each sentence 
describes events that happened after the events in the previous 
sentence.  The first story I ever posted to the list started with the 
protagonist sitting injured on a rock, then backed up to explain how she 
got there, then went on to get her out of the situation.  I don't know if 
anyone ever understood it.  I still love the story, but it was before the 
existence of ngugh, ghIq or pIq, so it was hard to establish the time shifts.

A challenging story to write would be one about topics poorly covered in 
our vocabulary, and with a complicated time structure.

I'm purely an amateur writer, and most of my "stories" are posted about an 
hour after someone asks, "are there any stories written for my ability level?"

Check out the story <Qagh tlhIngan> just posted.  Basing it on a proverb 
was an interesting idea, which worked quite well.

Another idea that I like is to take a Star Trek episode, any one, and make 
a short summary in Klingon.  It's a good way to go if you're short on ideas.

yuQDaq Qol Kirk, 'ach QapHa'law' jol.  'enterpray'Daq ghaHlaw'taH.  chImqu' 
Duj.  wa' be' tu'lu' neH.  Duj ngeb 'oH.  toj yuQ Duy'a'. DujqoqDaq tay'mo' 
Kirk be' je, be' ngej Kirk.  yuQDaq not Heghmo' roghvaH, Kirk rop 
luneH.  be' vor McCoy. rop ngaStaHmo' 'IwDaj, mej Kirk 'e' luchaw'.

Back to archive top level