tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jul 28 08:09:41 1994
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short story from charghwI'
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: short story from charghwI'
- Date: Thu, 28 Jul 94 20:06:06 EDT
My friends,
In response to mutterings that people would like to see me
write things of greater length than the single sentence gems
that I've managed to come up with so far, while seeking to
write something that feels like home to me, today, I am
translating the short story I wrote long ago, which has become
the beginning of my unpublished novel. It just felt like an
appropriate subject matter. Besides, I don't have to worry
about interpreting what the author meant by choosing certain
words. {{:)>
The novel would be called {be'pu'vo' boghwI'pu'}
[Of women born]. Extracting the short story, I'll call it
{Sor SuS HuD je}.
I'll write the English part first because the prose tends to be
somewhat poetic in nature, so the Klingon is far from a literal
translation. It takes its own poetic license. For those who
will trouble themselves to translate it, my hope is that the
relationship between the one and the other will be rewarding.
Of course, I'm sure there will be grammatical corrections...
{{:(>
The wind came in waves like the harmonics of a vast,
subsonic tone. Black clouds shielded the dark against
starlight. A city never sees such darkness. Large
raindrops, like crystal spearheads, fell at sharp angles
directed by the fury of the wind.
[The word {yu'egh} is missing from the English-Klingon side of
TKD]
ghoSqa' 'ej mevqa' SuS. yu'eghmey Da SuSvam. Hovmey So'chu'
'engmey Hurgh. yoSvam Hurgh law' vengmey Hurgh puS. SuS ghopvo'
baHlu'bogh loSSaD tajmey rur SISqu'bogh chal.
The storm played its melody from the northeast down the
funnelled valleys of the Appalachian mountains. These ancient,
rounded hills once stood tall among the Earth's highest peaks.
Though the thick, soft soil of these smoothed slopes appears
to lie still beneath these forests, it covers a complexity of
geological formation second only to the Alps. Once flat
layers of sediment now have folds and faults, intrusions and
angles, as they continue to erode and shift in a huge, slow
violence. We live atop this raging dance, yet our lives span
such a brief, frozen moment, we are deaf to this music.
ngechmeyDaq ghoStaHvIS SuS bom chal. qaStaHvIS poH tIQqu'
HuDmeyvam jen law' Hoch jen puS. vIHbe'law'taHvIS yav, lam Qop
bingDaq QIt jevtaH puH. DaH nechpu'bogh lam DuDbejtaH HoSmey.
nI'be'mo' yInmaj vIH yav 'e' wIleghlaHbe'.
Placed in a pace of experience somewhere between the brevity
of the storm above and the longevity of the storm below and
on a scale of size miniscule to either, the old hickory showed
every exterior sign of health. Having reached out from the
earth like a burst of fireworks over the span of its life, it
now stood over a hundred feet tall with a base more than four
feet in diameter. The October warnings of oncoming winter had
not scared off a single leaf. Every branch held thick foliage.
[The word {jeD} is "be thick", from Power Klingon]
nom yIn SuS. QIt yIn HuDmey. cha' Dovammey joj rur Sor Do. SuS
HuDmey ghap tIn law'qu' Sor tIn puSqu'. pIvlaw' Sor. yIntaHvIS
Sor yavvo' QIt jor 'oH. DaH Sorvam jen law' cha'maH tlhInganpu'
jen puS. Sor jeD law' jav tlhInganpu' jeD puS. wej bIrchoH muD.
Sor ghopvo' pumchoHbe' Sor joqwI'mey. joqwImey law'qu' tuQ
Sorvam.
Deep in the heartwood, tiny insects and tinier microbes fed
upon the fibrous flesh at the heart of this natural tower.
Each seemingly insignificant creature consumed very little
substance in its brief life. Over decades, the accumulative
effect of their labors reduced the core of the tree to a soft,
spongy, crumbling mass. This core still served its primary
function: to carry water and nutrients from the roots to the
leaves. It was the relatively thin mantle, between the
heartwood and the bark, that supplied the structural support
while also bringing food from the leaves to the roots.
[While the word {puj} is in both sides of TKD, {pujmoH} is
listed as a separate word in the Klingon-English side, but is
missing from the English-Klingon side.]
Sor botlhDaq Sor porgh Sop ghewmey. nI'be' wa' ghew yIn 'ej Sor
'oy'be' wa' ghew 'ach qaStaHvIS DISmey law' Sor botlh pujmoHbej
ghewmey law'. Sor qamvo' Sor joqwI'meyDaq bIQ qengtaH Sor
botlh. Sor qamDaq Sor joqwI'meyvo' Soj qengtaH Sor Hur. DaH Sor
QammoHtaH Sor Hur neH.
Each leaf acted as a tiny sail, drawn to the rhythm of the
wind. These tiny vectors collectively pulled with tons of
force, bending twigs, branches, limbs, and the massive trunk
with each rising gust. As the gust expended itself, the air
paused for the next wash of force. The resilience of the wood
combined with the momentum of the massive tree to whip the
mammoth into the next rising wind.
SuS He ghoSqangbogh Dujmey'e' Da joqwI'mey. HoSghajbe' wa'
joqwI' 'ach HoSghajqu' joqwI'mey law'qu'. nItlhDu' yuv
joqwI'mey vaj ghopDu' yuv nItlhDu' vaj DeSDu' yuv ghopDu' vaj
porgh yuv DeSDu' 'ej Sor SIHmoH SuS. yevDI' SuS vaj SIHHa' Sor.
At the top of the tree, it felt harmless enough. The arc of
travel did not exceed memories of many other storms. Below, the
immense pressure and then pulling force alternated between the
windward and lee sides. In earlier times, the core always
provided so much more support than on this occasion. In an
instant, scarcely three feet from the ground, living tissue
separated on the windward side. No longer could the base
provide a limit to the travel of the upper branches across the
sky. Fibers broke or uprooted from adhering resin as wood
splintered, then shattered. The shape of the new opening
formed a widening smile of acceptance before three vertical
feet of the trunk exploded into flying fragments.
Sor nachDaq Qobbe'law' wanI'. QomvIpbe' Sor. ramlaw' SuS. yav
Sumbogh Daq yuv 'ej yuvHa' HoS'a'. qaSpa' DaH HoSqu' Sor
botlh 'ach DaH pujqu' 'oH. pay' ghor Sor porgh. jorpa' Sor Dop,
Hegh chaw'choHmo' Sor, nuj Quch rur SorDaq poSbogh Daq. ghoS
joqwI'mey 'e' chaw'choH porgh.
Above the break, the tree became one freely flying object. Tons
of mass experienced the weightlessness of free fall for the
first time. All internal stresses simultaneously dissipated as
the whole of it twisted slightly and swept an arc across the
sky. Limbs entwined with nearby smaller trees that gave way to
the irresistible momentum of the hickory. Trunks swayed to
clear a path and large branches severed with little resistance
to the giant's motion. It fell, oddly enough, uphill.
qaStaHvIS poH nI'be'qu' puv Sor. pumtaHvIS Sor, tlham ghovbe'
Sor 'ej leS Sor. ghoStaHvIS Sor loQ tlhe' 'oH. Sormey mach qIp
Sorvam 'ej bIH yuvqu' 'oH. chaq wanI'vam pIHbe'lu' 'ach yav
jenDaq pum Sorvam.
The cupped palm of the earth gently brought the tree to rest.
Amid the continuing storm, a new sense of calm arose. The
secure warmth of death's blanket swept over the tired branches.
The storm could have the sky now. The tree was done with it.
[The word {QongDaq} was used in Conversational Klingon as a
noun for "bed". I'm making the monsterous leap of using it as
such, assuming that as a noun it can take noun suffixes. Also,
because of the suffix type sequence rules, there is no way to
disambiguate "not need to begin to possess" and "begin to not
need to possess". The latter is my intent here.]
QongDaqDaj chu'Daq Qot Sor. jevtaH SuS 'ach rojchoH Sor Hegh
je. chal ghajlaH SuS. chal ghajchoHnISbe' Sor.
THE END - as if I had to tell you...