tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Sep 07 20:11:34 1997
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translating vs original work
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: translating vs original work
- Date: Sun, 7 Sep 1997 23:11:50 -0400 ()
- Priority: NORMAL
For those beginners who are drawn to translate the writings of
others rather than writing their own stuff because, "I can't
think of anything to write," realize that in order to speak
Klingon well, you must thoroughly understand the thought behind
the sentence you are attempting to write. Klingon is not encoded
English. It is a language.
All languages contain ambiguities, and each langauge has its
strenths and weaknesses. Between languages, the strong and weak
areas differ. A grammatical construction in one language may
cover the territory of several different grammatical
constructions in a different language.
So, you must begin with the thought, pick up the appropriate
Klingon tool to express each piece of the thought and then
smoothe out the grammar of the whole sentence until it is a
polished work deserving of expression.
If you translate someone else's writing, you must begin by
translating the symbols of the other person's speech into
thought before you can begin to express that thought in Klingon.
If a phrase is ambiguous, you need to decide arbitrarily and
without consulting the writer which branch of meaning to take
and how best to express that in Klingon. You are more tempted to
use an equivalent grammatical construction as the original
writer, even if that does not fit the Klingon meaning well.
When the writing is your own, you know the meaning of all of
your ambiguous phrases. You know the thought and will feel more
free to change grammatical constructions to suit your meaning.
It is not simply easier. The exercise is more meaningful. It
builds your skills better than translating someone else's work.
charghwI'