tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Sep 21 12:06:13 1997
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law' - puS improvisation...
- From: Jeremy Cowan <[email protected]>
- Subject: law' - puS improvisation...
- Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 14:02:54 -0700
Tad Stauffer wrote:
> > >{pagh wagh Sagh Qagh wagh Dogh}
> > >"Nothing costs more than an error."
ghunchu'wI' wrote:
> > "A mistake costs less than nothing does." The meaning seems backwards.
Tad Stauffer wrote:
> > To me, the phrase is merely (intentionally) ambiguous - using the "law'/puS
> >construction without the law'/puS", translated it would be something like,
> >"Nothing's expensiveness is many, an error's expensiveness is few."
Qermaq wrote:
> The Klingon implies that the expense of a null, of no thing, is
> greater than the expense of an error.
> The English yields the more expected meaning, that there is no greater
> cost than the cost of an error.
Though it appears that Tad may not have written what he intended, I
think
he came up with a reasonable Klingon sentiment. Though an error may be
woefully inadequate and the results may be disgraceful, it is at least
better to err than to do nothing at all (which is the opposite of what
one meaning of the English says). I find it reasonable to think that a
Klingon might say that the expense incurred by doing nothing may be
quite
serious and the expense occured by erring is more likely to just be
something foolish. Of course, an English translation of, "Nothing costs
more than an error," comes nowhere close to expressing this wonderful
Klingon insight.
janSIy