tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Dec 08 14:44:24 1995
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: [batlh Suvchugh vaj] ???
- From: [email protected] (Alan Anderson)
- Subject: Re: [batlh Suvchugh vaj] ???
- Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 17:44:59 -0500
QetaH writes:
>I've tried for hours now to figure out [batlh Suvchugh vaj] with no
>meaningfull results.
>
>[batlh SovchoH vaj] I've translated as: "a warrior begins to know honor."
maj. "A warrior comes to know honor" vIjatlh.
>[batlh Suvchugh vaj] seems, to me, to mean: "if a warrior fights honor"
Qap qechvam, 'ach QaQbe' qechvam.
<batlh Suv> Dayajbe''a'?
"adverb" je 'oH <batlh>'e'.
>I've tried to get it to say:
>
> "If a warrior fights _with_ honor" or
> "If a warrior fights _for_ honor"
>
>but it doesn't seem to translate to either of these.
>
>What am missing?
"batlh" is also an adverb, meaning "with honor" or "honorably".
{batlh Suv} can mean "fight [against] honor" or "fight with honor".
(A true Klingon would consider the first meaning rather perverse.)
{batlh Suv} usually means "fight with honor", and {batlh Sov} usually
does not mean "know with honor", so there's only a little ambiguity.
{vaj} also has two meanings: "warrior" or "then, thus". I wrote my
tagline as a double play on words; it can logically mean either
"If he fights with honor, then a warrior comes to know honor" or
"If a warrior fights with honor a warrior comes to know honor."
This ambiguity remains, but it doesn't affect the meaning. In fact,
it's the whole point of the sentence. It is my attempt to match in
Klingon the wordplay of the English "Know Kahless, know honor; no
Kahless, no honor."
-- ghunchu'wI' batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj