tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Feb 11 12:17:31 2002
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Re: -di' or -chugh
At 05:03 AM Monday 2/11/02, you wrote:
>The first part is rendered from "No battle (in history) has ever been won
>according to plan," or paraphrasally, "Whenever a battle has been won, the
>plan has never been followed exactly."
>
>But how do you express "ever", "sometime", "anytime"? In this case, I'm
The only example of these words I can find in canon is:
not lay'Ha' tlhIngan.
No Klingon ever breaks his word. TKW
(lit. "A Klingon never breaks his word."
Note Okrand just used {not} "never" = "not ever".
>trying to contrast several events that happen over a range of times from an
>event that happens only hypothetically. This difference is easily expressed
>in English by "ever", e.g. "Have you seen him?" (once or a few limited times)
Dalegh'a'?
Did you see him?
>vs. "Have you ever seen him?" (choose from among all past times).
Since you're speaking about one completed - if hypothetical - event out of
several, just use the perfective:
Daleghpu''a'?
Have you (ever) seen him?
>Ok, scratch that. Let me start over. What about this?
>
>not nab pabchu' may' Qapbogh vay''e', 'ach not may' Qapqu' nabbe'bogh je vay'.
"As for someone who wins a battle (he) never follows the plan exactly, but
someone who doesn't also plan will never really win a battle."
I'm not sure I have an elegant solution, but here are two proverbs from TKW
which might be worth studying:
noH QapmeH wo' Qaw'lu'chugh yay chavbe'lu' 'ej
wo' choqmeH may' DoHlu'chugh lujbe'lu'.
Destroying an empire to win a war is no victory, and
ending a battle to save an empire is no defeat.
noH ghoblu'DI' yay quv law' Hoch quv puS
In war there is nothing more honorable than victory.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons