tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Nov 12 11:46:21 1993
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<<tlhIngan 'o' Humghach>>vetlh
- From: [email protected] (Mark E. Shoulson)
- Subject: <<tlhIngan 'o' Humghach>>vetlh
- Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 14:45:46 -0500
- In-Reply-To: Captain Krankor's message of Thu, 11 Nov 93 18:26:15 -0700 <[email protected]>
>From: Captain Krankor <[email protected]>
>Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 18:26:15 -0700
[ Star Trekkin' reference ]
>I think the main confusion here is simply the slightly obscure reference. I
>know the song in question, but I'm not sure I would've gotten the joke even
>with the *English*, without an explanation.
It's more that the humor depended on a particular, recognizable quote (as
did "Quoth the raven 'Eat my phasers'") which simply doesn't come across.
The recognition hinges on the specific words ("quoth", "scrape off") or
sentence structure, and the words in question are in *English*, so they get
lost completely. If there were some well-known standard translation of
them into Klingon (like the KJV is a well-known translation of the Bible
into English), it would word (as "Honor thy father and thy guinea pig"
could conceivably be funny, since it recalls the well-known translated
phrase, but without the recognition, it's just puzzling).
Basically, you did a good job trying to translate the jokesd, you were just
too hard on yourself, picking jokes that simply *cannot* be translated.
Don't be such a taskmistress next time! :-)
~mark