tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Sep 20 16:31:41 1997
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Re: KLBC: The Unforgettable
ghItlh Qov:
>If you wanted to say it absolutely literally, you'd choose something like:
>"Kahless, whom none can forget" {qeylIS'e' lIjlaHbogh pagh}
ghItlh qoror:
|I'd like it that way, but I think we got it another way on a Skybox card.
|Let's see... oh drat. But I could have sworn I saw {qeylIS'e'
|lIjlaHbe'bogh vay'} from there somewhere. I also remember slightly
It's from Skybox card S8 ("bat'telh, Klingon Sword of Honor").
|disliking the translation, but accepting it under the grinding wheels of
|canon. {qeylIS'e' lIjlaHbogh pagh} is better, but it is probably analogous
|(if I remember correctly) to saying something like "Kahless the
|Nonforgettable."
You're not alone in disliking this translation. It occurred to me that the
solution may be in the nature of {pagh} "no one" vs. vay' "someone,
anyone". Okrand has never used {pagh} with a negated verb, that is, a verb
plus {-be'} -- unless there's something new in KGT. (This is not true of
{vay'}, however.) The options may be:
qeylIS lIjlaH pagh "No one can forget Kahless."
qeylIS lIjlaHbe' vay' "One cannot forget Kahless."
Perhaps {qeylIS lIjlaHbe' pagh} is as grating to Maltz's ears as "No one
can't forget Kahless" is to mine. Hmm... {ta' Hol} doesn't use double
negatives, does it?
Voragh