tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 12 10:00:25 2011
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RE: "nargh tar DatlhISmeH 'eb"
- From: Steven Boozer <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: "nargh tar DatlhISmeH 'eb"
- Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:59:00 -0500
- Accept-language: en-US
- Acceptlanguage: en-US
- In-reply-to: <[email protected]>
- References: <CALPi+eRvs+sztydpcJinA83Y=24_HFEggv1qcU5vGkdn_hO-rg@mail.gmail.com> <[email protected]>
- Thread-index: AcxAsD6d0LWZVAErRO6IJiLHPSz4/gAAgaRQ
- Thread-topic: "nargh tar DatlhISmeH 'eb"
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lucifuge Rofocale
> I stumbled upon this sentence:-
> nargh tar DatlhISmeH 'eb - "It is too late for you to spit out the poison."
You really need the perfective suffix here to indicate that the opportunity has indeed escaped {narghpu'}:
narghpu' tar DatlhISmeH 'eb.
> Two things.
> One, I got a chill up my spine at the nargh ...-meH 'eb "too late" construction which
> is new to me. How and where did this come about, and can someone give me an
> attribution?
Okrand introduced it on the st.klingon group back in January 1998. He was asked how to translate "I was too late to visit you" and came up with three variants:
jIpaSqu'mo' narghpu' qaSuchmeH 'eb
"Because I'm very late, the opportunity to visit you has escaped."
qaSuch vIneH 'ach narghpu' 'eb. jIpaSqu'
"I want to visit you, but the opportunity has escaped. I am very late."
qaSuchlaHbe'. jIpaSqu' vaj narghpu' 'eb
"I cannot visit you. I am very late, thus the opportunity has escaped."
FYI there's also an idiom from KGT: {pel'aQDaj ghorpa'} "before it breaks its shell" meaning "before it's too late" or "while there's still time". Okrand provided an example sentence:
pel'aQDaj ghorpa' qama' yIHoH
Before it breaks its shell, kill the prisoner!
(i.e. "Kill the prisoner now, while you've got a chance") KGT
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons