tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Dec 23 05:53:35 1995
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An attempted Klingon Poem :-)
Greetings!
I read the following bit of poetry in a ST novel (I think it was
"Klingon Gambit") and have tried to translate it for a poetry reading
coming up at our next Klingon meeting. Please understand I read this
novel in German, and first had to retranslate it into English
so I could present it here!
Quoted from the epic Ramenaa by Kahless:
ramena' ghitlh qeylIS' 'ej DaH vImuchvam:
(This is translated very loosely, as I do not have words for
"epic" and "quote". There is no epic by the name of Ramenaa in
ST canon, so I simply spelled it phonetically.)
Darkness will come.
ghoS ram.
(There is no real future tense in tlhIngan Hol, so I put everything
in the present tense. Would the verb suffixes -lI' or -taH express a
future aspect?)
Enemies will surround us from all sides.
nuDechqu' jaghpu'.
Their swords are more numerous than the trees of the forest.
etlh'meychaj mI' law' ngem Sormey mI' puS.
But we will not give in.
'ach majeghbe'.
We will wear faces of fire.
qul qabDu' matuQ.
(I used tuQ = to wear clothing on purpose. I *think* this is
not taking poetic expression too far. Would qabDu' meq be a better
way of putting " faces of fire"?)
As I won't be online for the next couple of days, just let me
wish you all a:
- Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
- ein frohes Fest und guten Rutsch
- tera'ngan yupma 'quv DIS chu` Quch je.
{{:-)
taj'IH