tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Apr 15 20:05:46 1996
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Re: TKW: That wacky Okrand
- From: Consulat General de Pologne <#[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: TKW: That wacky Okrand
- Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 23:05:02 EDT
David Bibb <[email protected]> wrote:
> >Speaking of new words in The Klingon Way, I see that Okrand is up to his
> >old tricks. One of the proverbs, {yIvoq 'ach yI'ol} 'Trust but verify'
> > is attributed to an ancient political movement {ghIlaSnoS}. Trying to
> >figure out which political movement he meant, I recalled another new term
> >{ghIlab ghew}, rendered in English as 'glob fly'. If {ghIl} -> 'gl',
> >then that ancient political movement is 'glasnost'. Now, can any of you
> >scholars of recent Soviet history tell me what connection "Trust but
> >verify" had with Gorbychev and/ or glasnost'?
>
> Trust but, verify is an old Russian [and Irish] proverb. President Regan
> often quoted it when refering to the Start II Treaty. He did so so often
> that Gorbechev made a joke of it, "You say that every time we meet the
> press..." It was the foundation for the START II Treaty and the easing of
> the superpower conflict. Each side was given the right to inspect a certain
> number of sites and to fly over the other's territory in special spy planes
> to verify complience with the treaty. It is indeed a joke, and a rather
> good one.
This is not the case. I know nothing about Irish proverbs, but
if Russia is concerned, this is not "an old proverb". This was a beloved
maxim of Feliks Dzherzhinskiy, the founder of the Soviet secret police
(CheKa) in 1918 (which later on changed into NKVD and KGB).
It sounds in Russian "Dovyeryay, no provyeryay!" (see the parallelism)
and is just the opposite in meaning to "glasnost'" which means: "openness",
"publicness".
The last Soviet president's name is Gorbachev (or more correctly: Gorbachov).
> >-- ter'eS
> David
macheq
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