tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Sep 22 11:09:48 1997
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Re: KLBC: that old joke
- From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: that old joke
- Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 14:09:33 -0400 ()
- Priority: NORMAL
On Sun, 21 Sep 1997 11:09:14 -0700 (PDT) [email protected] wrote:
> Maybe somebody did this before, but it seemed a good exercice to me.
>
> ghItlh ghunchu'wI'
> > There's an old joke that relies on this idiomatic ambiguity:
> > "How can a chicken sandwich be better than complete happiness?..
>
> {chorgh qagh QaQ law' quv QaQ puS}
> (when ghagh better than honor?)
>
> {DaH qaja'}
> (now I tell you:)
>
> {pagh QaQ law' quv QaQ puS} (?)
We've never seen this construction in Klingon and I personally
doubt that it works. Instead, one would say:
quv QaQ law' Hoch QaQ puS.
Note that this doesn't translate well literally in English.
"Honor is better than everything." Note that this implies that
Honor is better than itself, so it is not factually or logically
true. Meanwhile, it is the idiom which we KNOW works in Klingon
for this kind of comparison. And that makes this whole joke fall
apart in Klingon. Most of this kind of humor falls apart in
translation.
For a joke to translate well, we depend on words having similar
double meanings. My favorite joke that I translated depends on
the same double meaning for the verb {ghaj}:
loS 'uS wa' DeS je ghaj nuq?
targh Quchqu'!
It works because so far as we know, the way a very happy targ
has four legs is different from the way he has one arm, so it is
unexpected that the four legs and one arm fall into the same set
of things (things that a very happy targ has).
> {Doch QaQ law' tu'lu'be'} (?)
> This makes me hesitate...
> It sounds like "nothing is BETTER than honor"
> But the meaning is that there is NOTHING better than honor,...see?
I suggest that the words don't carry the MEANING that you WANT.
You are driving a nail in with a screwdriver.
> {qagh QaQ law' pagh QaQ puS}
> can I use this for "better"?
ghobe'. Besides, anyone suggesting this, even in jest, is likely
marked for death. Imagine walking up to a gang leader in a
violent drug neighborhood and very badly telling a racial joke
which attempts to make fun of the subculture embraced by the
gang leader you are telling it to.
Stick to asking what color warriors are.
> ______________
> mHwI'
> Stardate 97721.8
>
charghwI'