tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jan 14 14:31:22 1996
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FAQ on "Today is a good day to die"
- From: [email protected] (M. Whiteacre)
- Subject: FAQ on "Today is a good day to die"
- Date: Sun, 14 Jan 1996 16:38:15 -0600
This was orginally posted in November 1994 (that give you all a feeling for
how long ago this matter came up).
This is a compilation of about 50 messages which deal with the subject of
how to say "Today is a good day to die". Since the list in general has seen
enough traffic about this, any questions should be directed to charghwI'
([email protected]), ~mark ([email protected]) or me
([email protected]).
Initially I will list and number the various attempts at this phrase, then
each will be examined in more detail.
Finally, I will include a wonderful discussion by charghwI' dealing with,
well let's leave it at that and encourage you to read the entire post.
The candidates are:
1. DaH QaQ Hegh
3. DaHjaj QaQ Hegh
4. HeghvaD QaQ jajvam
5. maHeghmeH QaQ jajvam
6. HeghmeH jaj QaQ 'oH jajvam'e'
7. jIHeghmeH QaQ DaHjaj
8. HeghghachvaD QaQ 'oH DaHjaj'e'
9. HeghmeH QaQ 'oH DaHjaj'e'
10. jIHeghchugh vaj QaQ DaHjaj
11. DaHjaj Hegh vIlajlaH 'e' vItIvqu'
12. HeghmeH QaQ jajvam
13. Hegh jaj QaQ 'oH
14. maHeghmeH QaQ DaHjaj
15. DaHjaj jIHeghrup 'ej jIQuch
16. HeghwIjvaD QaQ DaHjaj
17. Heghlu'meH QaQ DaHjaj
18. HeghghachvaD QaQ DaHjaj
19. DaHjaj batlh jIHeghrup
Looking at them more closely:
1. Now death be good.
3. Today death be good.
4. This day be good for the benefit of death.
There was no discussion on this, but it seem strange to me.
5. This day be good in order that we die.
Again not explicitly discussed, but see the discussion under number 7.
6. For the purpose of dying, today is a day be good.
The verb "to be" does not exist in Klingon the way it exists in English. In
Klingon, there are two, and only two, ways to express all our "to be" words,
AND IT IS NOT OKAY TO USE BOTH WAYS AT THE SAME TIME. Meanwhile, that is
exactly what you just did.
First, there is a large set of "adjectival" verbs that imply the verb "to
be" combined with an adjective. {QaQ} is one of them. {jIQaQ} means "I am
good." {QaQ 'oH} means "It is good." {QaQ jajvam} means "This day is good."
It should be noted that using a locative ending like {-vam} on a temporal
noun like {jaj} is normal in English, but quite possibly weird in Klingon.
The other way to express "to be" is to use a pronoun with no verb. {tlhIngan
jIH} means "I am a Klingon." A variation on this is to use the pronoun as a
verb "to be" between two nouns, the second of which needs the suffix {-'e'}.
Note, this ONLY works with NOUNS, implying that the two nouns are equal, or
at least that one is a subset of the other. {tlhIngan ghaH Holtej'e'}.
Holtej is a Klingon.
In English, "to be" is used either with adjectives or nouns and there is no
grammatical difference. "My car is a Honda. My car is red. Red is good." See?
In Klingon, the adjectives are always implied in adjectival verbs. Nouns
being equated to other nouns always "to be"ed by pronouns. These are
unrelated grammatical constructions. In
Klingon, for example, I can say {"Honda" 'oH DujwIj'e'} and {Doq DujwIj.}
Note that in Klingon, these are completely different grammatical
constructions. There is no way to say, "Red is good," in Klingon. I can say
{QaQ Dochmey Doq} - "Red things are good," but I can't say "Red is good"
because adjectives like "red" and "good" are verbs in Klingon, and a verb
cannot act as a subject of another verb in Klingon, and in Klingon, every
verb needs a subject.
7. In order that I die, today is good.
Meanwhile, ~mark, who is far better at the language thinks that every
instance of {-meH} should fit the "in order to" phrase, so my submission
would be translated as "In order that I die, today is good," which makes no
sense at all.
Well, Okrand *does* say (p.64) that "-meH" is used when "...an action is
being done in order to accomplish something, or for the purpose of
accomplishing something"; i.e. that it indicates purpose (hence the term
"purpose clause", which he uses). Your usage is based solely on the fact
that he gives "for the purpose of" as another gloss of "-meH" (since that,
too, means "in order that"), and that "for the purpose of" in English
happens to have another, unrelated meaning of "regarding". Your reading is
based on the many meanings of the word "for" in English; and duplicating
English's idiosyncrasies in Klingon isn't what we're after. So you're
right, I wouldn't accept this phrasing for what you want.
8. Today is for the benefit of good deadness
(My own translation)
No, Heghghach does *not* mean the same thing as the noun Hegh, and Marc
Okrand does address this point in the HolQeD interview (in fact, it's
probably my favorite point). There are far more subtleties to -ghach and
the kinds of nouns it creates than most have speculated.
9. No translation possible
Both of these state the "to be" verb twice. {QaQ} means "be good", or in
this case, "is good". Meanwhile, {'oH} is being used to mean "is". "Today is
is good...". It doesn't work. This use of {'oH} is meant only to state
equivalence between two NOUNS. {QaQ} is not nearly a noun. Nowhere close.
These two sentences are built from the kind of English-centric,
replace-each-English-word-with-a-Klingon-word that drives me up a wall. They
are wrong. Bad. Evil. Tainted. Repulsive. Forget that anybody ever thought
of them.
10. If I die, then today be good.
11. I enjoy that I can accept death today
12. In order that it die, this day is good.
13. It is a good day of death
This one is a little thorny, involving one of those things it would be good
to get more information from Okrand about. In this case, "it" really means
"today", so using "it" is rather idiomatic to English and we are not sure it
works in Klingon.
14. For the purpose that we die, today is good.
This grammatically works, though people may argue about the MEANING of the
thing. Today is in the act of being good explicitly in order that we die? If
today were bad, does that mean that we would NOT die? For {meH} the sense is
that the subject of the main verb is performing the action of the main verb
in order to accomplish the goal implied by the verb modified by {-meH}.
mu'meywIj DalaDmeH bIH vIghItlh. "I write my words in order that you read
them." The whole reason that I write them is to progress toward the goal of
having you read them. That sort of thing.
15. Today I am ready to die and I am happy
16. For the benefit of my death, today is good
17. For the benefit of ones death, today is good
18. For the benefit of deathness, today is good.
19. Today I am ready to die with honor.
I actually don't care if it is far from a literal translation. It is closer
to a Klingon sentiment than the English, and the English literal of "Today,
I am ready to die with honor," is as odd and lacking in emotional content;
shallow by comparison to the Klingon statement. Simply, the English word
"honor" is a pale shadow of the Klingon word {batlh}. It lacks the cultural
significance and background.
Actually, I've felt for a long time that to say that "Today is a good day to
die," without mentioning honor is the height of folly by Klingon
perspective. To die is a small thing. To die
with honor is a great thing. To die without honor is either an honorable
man's failure or a fool's inescapable fate. Today is never a good day to
merely die.
To die with honor is the symbol of a full life dedicated to a purpose that
extends beyond the bounds of one simple life. Each life is insignificant
without the wider perspective of the social continuance of the tribe. A
person is but a brick. A tribe is a cathedral. To live and die honorably is
to be a perfect brick in what can be a perfect monument to the potentials of
the tribe. To live and die without honor is to be a flawed brick that can
draw the eye to the ugliness of this spot in the wall. Too many such lives
will bring down the wall from its own weight.
Honor is important. It is more important than any transient goal of a single
individual. It is more important than life and death itself, since these
things will happen with or without the ongoing consciousness of the tribe.
These things are insignificant. One person can live a whole life and die
without either achieving honor or dishonor. That person will not be
remembered. That brick is a blank spot on the wall lacking either beauty or
hideousness. It is a life without passion; food eaten and air breathed
without appreciation or sentience beyond the shallow moment of the life
unplugged from the tribe.
The most humanly misunderstood point about honor is that death with honor is
not the whole of a Klingon's drive. Life with honor is the forming of the
brick. Death with honor is the firing of the brick. One is meaningless
without the other. It is incomplete. By passing through this flame, the
brick proves the quality of its form. Strength is not important to a single
brick, but the strength of each brick is important to the wall.
This is why discommendation is so significant. It sets a brick apart so that
it shall never become part of the whole. It becomes just another rock in the
soil.
____
|INRI|
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|____ ____|
| | Matt Whiteacre
| | [email protected]
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