tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Feb 18 09:23:45 1996

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Re: KLBC: HIboQqa' (cha')

>ghunchu'wI' (latlhmey je) HIboQqa':

qaboQneS.

>De'vam mughlI' vInIDqa':

nuqjatlh?  "He is translating this information I try again."
Perhaps you mean "I try again to translate this information."
That would be {De'vam vImughlI' 'e' vInIDqa'}.

>Mark 1:17, "Then Jesus said to them, 'Follow me and I will make you fishers
>of men.'"
>
>vaj *yaSu jatlhpu': HIghoS, ghotpu' boSwI' SamojmoH 'ej. *maQ 1:17

I don't think {vaj} has the right meaning here.  Its definition is given
as "so, then, thus, in that case" -- it doesn't seem to indicate an event
simply following another one in time.  I think it's supposed to refer to
a cause-and-effect relationship.  I'm not familiar with the reasons behind
the biblical usage of "then", so maybe it *does* mean "thus" in this case,
but it doesn't seem right to me.

Your word order is broken.  Quick refresher course in Klingon sentence
structure:  OBJECT, then VERB, then SUBJECT.  The subject comes last.
Who is speaking?  The subject of the sentence is speaking.  Where does
the subject go?  After the verb.  {jatlhpu' *yaSu}.

You're using the perfective {-pu'} as if it were past tense, and that's
not what it means.  If you mean "He spoke", you write {jatlh}.  If you
mean "He was finished speaking", then you can write {jatlhpu'}.

Thank you for marking {*yaSu}, but which transliteration are you using?
And why transliterate in the first place? {*jIySIS}, {*yeSu}, {*moSI'aH},
they're all pretty arbitrary, and add nothing to the translation.  When
you use a name, you should use a name people will recognize.

You have an interesting translation of "Follow me" as {HIghoS}.  I don't
know if "approach me" is any better than {HItlha'}, though.  Maybe you
could say {HIpab} or {HewIj yIghoS}.

Another quick refresher course in conjunctions:  noun conjunctions follow
the nouns; sentence conjunctions come between sentences.  {'ej} joins two
sentences, and must appear between them.

But what does the phrasing "Do this, and I'll do that" mean in English?
I think you need to restate the sentence a bit.  By simply using {'ej},
you imply that both sentences are true.  The true meaning behind it is
more like "If you do this, I will do that."  You should probably change
the translation to reflect this meaning.  That can be done by rephrasing
it to use {-chugh}, or by using {vaj} instead of {'ej} to connect the
sentences.  "Do this, thus I'll do that."

The whole phrase seems almost hopelessly metaphorical anyway.  I don't
think trying to translate Bible quotes is a productive way to learn the
Klingon language.  ("Fishers of men" indeed -- there are volumes of
unspoken context behind those three words.)

>chay' vIta''a'

QaQbe' ta'lIj.  pab DabuSnIStaH.

>cholughqa'qu'

{lugh} means "*be* correct" -- you should say {cholughmoHqa'qu'}.

>qatlho'neS ghunchu'wI' joH

chopongHa'.  joHna' jIHbe'.  jIghojlI' neH.

-- ghunchu'wI'               batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj

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