tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 23 23:17:35 1994

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Re: KLBC

On Feb 24,  5:30am, Captain Krankor wrote:
> Subject: Re:  KLBC
> 
> Regarding charghwI's rather lengthy translation thing for the beginners:
... 
> >"I want to write something to help beginning Klingon students."
...
> >tlhIngan Hol ghojbogh taghwI'pu'vaD vay' vIghItlh vIneH
> 
> Slight problem here.  As given, this translates back as:
> 
> "I want to write something for beginners who learn Klingon
> languages."

     Thank you. This was exactly the sort of help I wanted. I KNEW I'd screw
up SOMETHING.

> Thus:
> 
> tlhIngan Hol lughojbogh taghwI'pu'vaD vay' vIghItlh vIneH

     Yes. This is much improved. 
 
> Now, as a side comment to the non-beginners who want to argue style,
> I don't think I would have translated "beginning Klingon students"
> this way.  I just don't like taghwI' as the base noun.  They are not
> fundamentally "people who begin", they are fundamentally "people who
> learn", and the fact that they are early in this process is a
> modifier.  How about:  ghojwI'pu' 'Itlhbe'vaD or perhaps the
> somewhat more encouraging:  wej 'Itlhbogh ghojwI'pu'vaD
> 
>                 --Krankor

     All of your suggestions are good. I favored {taghwI'} instead of
{ghojwI' chu'} as has also been suggested and these suggestions of my Captain
because for me, I intended to focus on the sense that these people are
beginning a process. They are beginning to learn. They are at the start of a
journey. I probably spent more time settling on {taghwI'} than anything else
in the translation.

     While writing the original, I almost selected {ghojwI' chu'}, but
decided against it specifically because I wanted to focus on this aspect of
the people I was addressing. Meanwhile, I do not want to place too much
emphasis on this. I did not comment on the {ghojwI' chu'} suggestion because
I thought it was perfectly valid, though not my personal preference.

     I did not think of Krankor's suggestions while writing this and I also
believe that they are perfectly valid. I still do not find them preferable to
my intent behind the sentence, but this is a small thing. I do enjoy seeing
the thought through Krankor's eyes all the same.

     Mostly, I think this example serves to show that the more complex the
idea, the less likely that there is a single mapping of an English statement
to a Klingon statement. Instead, you have choices. The choices one comes to
prefer help define the style of the writer. The most important stylistic
requirement is that your style successfully communicates your thoughts to
most people who speak the language. After that, the artistic merit is more
subjective (and sometimes delightful).

charghwI'

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