tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Mar 09 00:03:39 1997
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: "Way of the Warrior" song in Klingon
On Sat, 8 Mar 1997, McReynolds wrote:
|Does anyone have either the script to "Way of the Warrior" (DS9) or the
|episode on tape so you could get the closed captions of the song sung
|during it? I have a wav file, so I can spell it phonetically, but
|that's all I have and I'd like to add it to my Paramount Hol page (which
|is under rennovation with a *lot* of new material). Anybody? Voragh,
|perhaps, Ca'Non Master? :-) The song doesn't seem to be good Klingon,
The closed captions for this as well as most other TNG/DS9 episodes are
routinely published in HolQeD--this is another good reason to subscribe.
All the "Klingonese" captions from the two-parter "The Way of the Warrior"
were in HolQeD 4.4 (Dec. 1995) p. 18-20. Here is the drinking song Worf
sang with old Huraga:
EJ IM-TA FEY DE-JA I...
EJADAHK-SO-TAS GHOS VA SKRAL BYTEEK
EMPA JAJ LAW-MOCH JAJ-PUSH
JAJ KAYLESS MOLOR-MIGH HOHK-CHEW KOO
This is translated in Diane Carey's novelization as:
And the blood was ankle deep...
And the River Skral ran crimson red
On the day above all days
When Kahless slew evil Molor dead.
There are tlhIngan Hol words in this though, as usual, the grammar has been
ignored. The whole episode, in fact, shows a surprising amount of *almost*
correct Hol in startling contrast to most episodes. ("Looking for
par'Mach..." sprints immediately to mind.) In order to find the tlhIngan
Hol you do have to keep in mind that what's in the script (which is
probably what we're seeing in the captions) is only a phonetic
transcription for the actors--and a transcription of how the *writers*
think it's pronounced at that. This is where the closed captions help in
deciphering what the actors are attempting to say through a mouth of jagged
plastic teeth. Some of the least obvious from the song are (I think):
I... 'Iw blood
EJADAHK 'ej Doq and red
SKRAL BYTEEK *SIQal bIQtIq the River Skral
HOHK-CHEW KOO HoHchu'qu' slew him dead
I rather like the sound of "*mo'lor mIgh HoHchu'qu' qeylIS" (Kahless slew
evil Molor dead) and Dorn and the other actor do draw out the last words
nicely. HoHchu'qu' has a nice folksy ring to it: "he really killed him
very dead" (in fact, it reminds me of the song the Munchkin coroner sang
in "The Wizard of Oz" about the late Wicked Witch of the East).
And notice how they put bIQtIq "River" *after* the proper name Skral, just
like ranks follow personal names (tlha' HoD "Captain Klaa" ST5) which is a
nice touch. It's just a pity that they didn't put just a little more effort
in really trying to get the tlhIngan Hol right for once.
-- Voragh