tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 05 19:39:39 1994
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Good day to die
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Good day to die
- Date: Wed, 5 Oct 94 22:39:26 EDT
One last try on a concise to say, "Today is a good day to die,"
as a Klingon would say it, concise, from the heart and clear:
DaHjaj batlh jIHeghrup.
I actually don't care if it is far from a literal translation.
It is closer to a Klingon sentiment than the English, and the
English literal of "Today, I am ready to die with honor," is as
odd and lacking in emotional content; shallow by comparison to
the Klingon statement. Simply, the English word "honor" is
a pale shadow of the Klingon word {batlh}. It lacks the
cultural significance and background.
Actually, I've felt for a long time that to say that "Today is a
good day to die," without mentioning honor is the height of
folly by Klingon perspective. To die is a small thing. To die
with honor is a great thing. To die without honor is either an
honorable man's failure or a fool's inescapable fate. Today is
never a good day to merely die.
To die with honor is the symbol of a full life dedicated to a
purpose that extends beyond the bounds of one simple life. Each
life is insignificant without the wider perspective of the
social continuance of the tribe. A person is but a brick. A
tribe is a cathedral. To live and die honorably is to be a
perfect brick in what can be a perfect monument to the
potentials of the tribe. To live and die without honor is to be
a flawed brick that can draw the eye to the ugliness of this
spot in the wall. Too many such lives will bring down the wall
from its own weight.
Honor is important. It is more important than any transient
goal of a single individual. It is more important than life and
death itself, since these things will happen with or without
the ongoing consciousness of the tribe. These things are
insignificant. One person can live a whole life and die without
either achieving honor or dishonor. That person will not be
remembered. That brick is a blank spot on the wall lacking
either beauty or hideousness. It is a life without passion;
food eaten and air breathed without appreciation or sentience
beyond the shallow moment of the life unplugged from the tribe.
The most humanly misunderstood point about honor is that death
with honor is not the whole of a Klingon's drive. Life with
honor is the forming of the brick. Death with honor is the
firing of the brick. One is meaningless without the other. It
is incomplete. By passing through this flame, the brick proves
the quality of its form. Strength is not important to a single
brick, but the strength of each brick is important to the wall.
This is why discommendation is so significant. It sets a brick
apart so that it shall never become part of the whole. It
becomes just another rock in the soil.
charghwI'