tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Apr 21 16:47:35 1997
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
RE: KLBC Conan's wisdom
- From: "David Trimboli" <[email protected]>
- Subject: RE: KLBC Conan's wisdom
- Date: Mon, 21 Apr 97 22:36:18 UT
[email protected] on behalf of Stefan (SovwI) wrote:
> While I was watching Conan the barbarian last nite I noticed some very
> tlhIngan wisdom and have tryed to traslate it.
> tlhIngan maH, qo' Hugh 'uch nuchaw' 'ej raD nunob nuq maneH
>
> lit (We are Klingon, it allows us to hold the world by the throat and force
> it to give us what we want.)
>
> original (Let us take the world by the throat and make it give us what we
> desire.)
When you say, "We are Klingon, it allows us to . . .", you are really using a
sentence-as-subject. The subject is the previous, the "We are Klingon" part.
You may not do this in Klingon.
tlhIngan maHmo' qo' Hugh wI'uchlaH
Because we are Klingon, we can hold the world's throat.
Although you got it in the wrong order anyway, saying *{nuq wIneH nunob} is
using one of those awful question-as-object sentences. This is extremely
silly in this case, because we already have a suffix which does this!
maHvaD Dochmey DIneHbogh nob 'e' wIraD
We force them to give us the things which we want.
Of course, {Doch} is really too limited here. We don't just want "things," we
want power {woQ}, and strength {HoS}, and money {Huch}, and lovers {bang} . .
. It might be better if we said
maHvaD Hoch wIneHbogh nob 'e' wIraD.
We force them to give us everything which we want.
> poH yap lamvaD molDaq
>
> Time enough for dirt in the grave
That's disappointing. You just took each English word and found the Klingon
one, and stuck them one after the other.
What is this sentence *saying*? That's what is important. You can talk in
Klingon all night, but if you're speaking nonsense, you're getting nowhere.
This sentence seems to be saying that you may as well act now, since when
you're dead you'll have lots of time to do nothing. Here's the catch:
Klingons believe that when you die, your spirit leaves the body, which becomes
an empty shell. You've got to eliminate dead bodies, because they're quite a
health hazard, but corpses are not treated with respect. The spirit does not
spend all its time in the ground resting, but fighting forever in the Black
Fleet (see the Rite of Ascension in the Immersion Studies of KCD). Therefore,
this saying seems rather silly in Klingon. Instead, I suggest you find one in
TKW which gets a similar idea across (pIpyuS yIghor!).
Okay, if you want the literal phrase, I'll make up something close:
lamDaq leSmeH, molDaq poH yap tu'lu'
In the grave, one finds plenty of time to rest in the dirt.
> Stefan (chovwI')
I thought that was "SovwI."
> batlh Daghajbe'chugh, nuq Daghaj?
romuluSngan.
--
SuStel
Beginners' Grammarian
Stardate 97305.8