tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 09 18:16:06 2003

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RE: Tao Te Ching Chp. 19

Nancy Nielsen-Brown ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 



-----Original Message-----
From: Agnieszka Solska [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 1:46 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Tao Te Ching Chp. 19


19K
bInIv 'e' Damevchugh [A]; bIval 'e' DalIjchugh,
vaj chepqu'choH ghotpu'. [B]
bIwIHHa' 'e' Damevchugh, bImay 'e' DalIjchugh,
vaj muSHa'chuqqa' tuqnIghpu'.
bI'ong 'e' Damevchugh, bIqur 'e' DalIjchugh,
vaj nIHbe'choH 'ej Hejbe'choH ghotpu'. [C]

'ach paQDI'norgh luchenmoHmeH naQHa' wejvam'e'.
'ut latlh potlh; chelnISlu'bej:
bInItnIS, bInapnIS;
Sor Hap pe'be'lu'pu'bogh DarurnIS.
ngoQ DaghoSbogh Da'vuSnISmoH.
vay' DaneHbogh DapuSnISmoH. [D]

19K
Give up being great; forget being clever
And people will benefit enormously.
Give up being kind, forget being just
And love will return to the family.
Give up being sly, forget being greedy
And there'll be no more thefts and robberies.

Yet as a lesson these three are incomplete.
The essential part to be added is this:
Become plain and simple like uncut wood.
Restrain your ambitions,
Make few your desires.

[A] Having considered {bup}, {lon} and {baq} I decided to use good old {mev}

here. It may be a little bland but at least the << CLAUSE 'e' mev >> 
construction is strongly supported by canon.

[B] The original actually says: "And people will benefit a hundredfold". My
first idea was to render this as {vaj wa'vatlhlogh chepchoH ghotpu'} but I'm
not sure if {-logh} can really be used to capture this meaning.

[C] The first six lines of this chapter are modeled on various canon 
examples
in which the subordinate clause with {-chugh} is followed by the main clause
introduced by {vaj}. All of their English translations contain imperatives:

   bIje'be'chugh vaj bIHegh.
   Buy or die!    [TKW p. 213]

   bIjeghbe'chugh vaj bIHegh
   Surrender or die! [TKD p.170, CK]

   bIDIlbe'chugh, vaj bIHegh
   Pay or die! [PK]

The fact that these examples are relatively common might indicate that the 
construction is more idiomatic than imperative forms which could also be 
used here:

   bInIv 'e' yImev; bIval 'e' yIlIj,
   ............
   bIwIHHa' 'e' yImev, bImay 'e' yIlIj,
   ............
   bI'ong 'e' yImev, bIqur 'e' yIlIj,
   ............

[D] Because no imperatives are used in the first six lines I continue using 
indicative forms in the final section, too. However, imperatives might 
actually sound better:

   yInItchoH, yInapchoH;
   Sor Hap pe'be'lu'pu'bogh yIrurchoH.
   ngoQ DaghoSbogh tIvuSmoH.
   vay' DaneHbogh tIpuSmoH.

'ISqu'
http://www.geocities.com/taoteching_klingon

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