tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 05 14:25:31 1994

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Re: Fwd:re: Re: Good day to die.



According to David Barron:
>  
> As a long time member of this list and coordinator of the  
> Klingon Language Postal COurse I regularly come across attempts
> to translate the phrase (here we go again) 
>       
>       "It is a good day to die."
>  
> We have yet to find a satifactory translation even though we have
> ALOT of attempts.
>  
> I am going to  providing each example and let the grammarians show 
> the reasons why they dont do the job.
>  
> Hegh(wIj)vaD QaQ DaHjaj 

This works for me, though I'm not excited about it. The feel of
it for me is that today is in the act of being good with the
intent of benefitting my death. The literal would be something
like "For the benefit of my death, today is good." Still, I
think it is the best translation here.

> Hegh(lu')meH QaQ DaHjaj

This is probably okay, but it gets into that weird world of
applying {-lu'} to an intransitive verb. I'd be happier if
Okrand gave us a little more explicit instruction on this one.
If it is grammatically sound, it would have that same sense
that the day is intentionally being good (whatever that means)
in order that it fulfills the goal of one dying.

> Hegh(lu')meH QaQ 'oH DaHjaj'e'
>  
> HeghghachvaD QaQ 'oH DaHjaj'e'

Both of these state the "to be" verb twice. {QaQ} means "be
good", or in this case, "is good". Meanwhile, {'oH} is being
used to mean "is". "Today is is good...". It doesn't work. This
use of {'oH} is meant only to state equivalence between two
NOUNS. {QaQ} is not nearly a noun. Nowhere close. These two
sentences are built from the kind of English-centric,
replace-each-English-word-with-a-Klingon-word that drives me up
a wall. They are wrong. Bad. Evil. Tainted. Repulsive. Forget
that anybody ever thought of them.

Okay?

> HeghghachvaD QaQ DaHjaj

The interview with Okrand in HolQeD better be good to explain
this one.

> No dought newbies to the list and the postal course will attempt to 
> trans this phrase...FOREVER...(ugh) sence is does bring a fire to the 
> belly of would-be Klingons.
>  
> That is just one thing I am going to have to live with but could 
> some one more lingisticly savvy than I post a pithy and turgid 
> explaination as to WHY THIS PHRASE IS SO HARD.

As long as one begins with English statements instead of
beginning with prelingual concepts and expects a verbatum
translation from English to Klingon, this kind of problem will
exist. Because an English speaking writer who knows no Klingon
wrote a script for a Star Trek episode in which he repeated the
phrase he stole from Little Big Man, a movie about people who
were not Klingons, and because that writer attributed the line
to Klingons, so people who watched that episode decided, "Gee,
it MUST have a literal translation in the Klingon language,
we've been set up for failure.

The old warriors who spoke this English line were expressing
something like:

DaHjaj batlh jIHeghnIS pagh tugh jIHegh neH 'e' vIHaj.

They hid that dread in a more cheerful statement closer to:

DaHjaj jIHeghrup 'ej jIQuch.

But none of this literally translates to the English words
originally written for an American Indian character: 

"Today is a good day to die."

> I will copy it and just send it to them when they ask.
> 
> -- 
> David Barron || [email protected]  ||   lup Hoch yIyInqu'
>    Klingon Language Postal Course       ||   qaStaHvIS wa' lup
>     P.O. Box 37, Eagle ID 83616         || yInpu' wa'netlh yInmey
> IT'S FREE!!! Send S.A.S.E (Not available by e-mail so don't ask!)
> 
charghwI'



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