tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 25 13:44:47 1995
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Re: }}} KSRP (was KBTP)
- From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: }}} KSRP (was KBTP)
- Date: Tue, 25 Jul 1995 13:44:47 -0400
>Date: Tue, 25 Jul 1995 10:24:48 -0700
>From: [email protected] (Arden R. Smith)
>>Richard Kennaway writes:
>> > ghunchu'wI' writes:
>> > >I'll accept the fantasy that Shakespeare's writings are translations from
>> > >the "original Klingon" for two reasons: 1) ST6 "The Undiscovered Country"
>> > >claims that they are;
>> >
>> > Does it? I didn't read General Chang as seriously claiming that, but
>> > rather as suggesting that the Klingon version of Shakespeare amounts to an
>> > independent, original work of literature (a reading with which the KSRP is
>> > equally consistent).
>I have always regarded General Chang's statement as a variation on one of
>the running gags in the original series: Ensign Pavel Chekov always
>claiming that something was a "Russian inwention".
Both, I think, are cases of art imitating life. During the Cold War, the
USSR was famous for claiming that everything from sliced bread to pogo
sticks were "Russian Inwentions"; Chekov's lines were references to that
(and he'd go further, like when he'd talk about something disappearing
"Like the Cheshire Cat in old Russian story").
As to Shakespeare, a friend of mine tells me that something similar
happened in the 20's(?) when some American/English delegation was talking
to a group of German diplomats, and one of the Germans said that you can't
truly appreciate Shakespeare until you read it in the original German
(apparently the other person was on the ball, as he responded "Yeah, but
the English translation is pretty good.")
The German line is not totally false though, in a sense. According to Nick
Nicholas, Shakespeare is in a very real sense one of the most influential
poets in *German* literature. Not that he wrote in German, but apparently
the German translations of Shakespeare were/are *fantastic* works in their
own right, and had a profound effect on the development of German poetry
and literature. Nick, IIRC, has said that he's heard of bilingual
German-speakers saying with a straight face that the German version is
better than the original.
So it looks like art is imitating life imitating art and so on...
~mark