tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Nov 05 09:37:48 1997

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Re: bIchuSchoHqu''a'

According to Terrence Donnelly:
> 
> At 01:36 PM 11/4/97 -0800, ghunchu'wI' wrote:
> >Joel Peter Anderson <[email protected]> signs:
> >>    *** QI'tu' Holmey ghot Holmey je vIlo'chugh, ***
> >>    *** 'ach parmaq  vIghajbe', vaj jIchuSchoHqu'***
> >
> >"If I use Paradise's languages and people's languages; however, I 
> >don't have romantic/aggressive love; so I *start* to be noisy."
> >
> >nuqjatlh?
...
> >Do you use this signature in other contexts, Joel?  If so, I'd feel 
> >much better if I could comprehend it...
> >
> 
> It's a quote from one of the New Testament letters of St. Paul. Actually, 
> the grammar looks correct to me. "If I speak with the language of men or 
> of Heaven but I have not love, then I am like a sounding cymbel" (or 
> something like that). 

Okay, here's my stab at it, if you have any interest:

jIjatlhchugh 'ach tIqwIjDaq lalDanwIj qechmey vIlajchu'be'chugh
vaj ramqu' mu'meywIj. chuStaH neH ghoghwIj. ghIlob ghew vIDa.

The only way I can translate this sort of thing is to peel away
the poetry to get back to the thought, then paint the feeling
back in with some other poetic elements. Poetry rarely
translates directly, and this is a very poetic reference. I
think that the Agape you seek here is best expressed in Klingon
as perfect acceptance of the ideas of your religion. Trying to
hold on to the word "love" is going to cost you in translation.

Similarly, holding on to "the language of men or heaven" will
likely cost you as well. These are poetic leaps which do more
to intensify the degree of meaning than to give one any detail
of actual meaning. I tend instead to peel them away, try to
express the core meaning, then try to come up with something
perhaps completely unrelated to the original quote which may
add the same kind of intensity offered by the original quote.

I hope this attempt pleases you. If not, well, I tried...

> I might quibble about some of the vocabulary.
> {parmaq} is, as you note, romantic love, not the disinterested love
> represented by the Greek AGAPE.  There is no direct Klingon term for this;
> maybe something like *quvmoHtaHghach would be closer.  

Perhaps in meaning it is closer, but it feels like something
large, heavy and held together with duct tape. Instead of
trying to find a word to replace the word, try to go to the
concept and express it as a word or a phrase or a sentence or a
paragraph if necessary. I chose {lalDanwIj qechmey vIlaDchu'}
to fit where you would place {quvmoHtaHghach}. I believe it to
be easier to understand and perhaps more accurate to the
meaning.

> Also, the last verb is
> not quite right.  Now that we have KGT, maybe we could use something like
> {chuSbogh baS 'In vIDa} 'I act like a noisy bell'.

I thought {ghIlob ghew} was better, in that it is, in Klingon,
already a poetic reference for something which is noisy and
insignificant; an annoyance.

> -- ter'eS
> 
> http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/2711


charghwI'

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