tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Mar 25 11:09:55 1998

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Re: Warriors Anthem

Lance Corporal Quvar muHwI' wrote:

: You probably know about the song from the Klingon CD and one DSN episode
:     "Qoy qeylIS puqloD, Qoy puqbe'pu', yoHbogh..."
: I've got only one single question:
: Is the text on http://www.simonsays.com/titles/0671009958/excerpt2.html
: canon?  Or is this just _somebody_ who has written it down?

As I understand it, the version on the Simon & Schuster site is correct.  I
believe Hilary Bader (who wrote the CD script) wrote the Anthem in English,
then S&S had Marc Okrand translate it into Klingon.  This is probably why
Okrand provided S&S with a literal version of his translation, to help those
confused by Bader's more poetic original.

: The reason for my question is the fact that we discussed this on the mailing
: list last year and there are some minor differences between that one and the
: one Eddy Fonseca posted on July 15th 1997.  e.g. 
:     {SeymoHchu' mayu'} and 
:     {Say'moHchu' may' 'Iw}
:     {yo' qIjDaq vavpu'ma' DImuvpa' reH maSuvtaH} and 
:     {yo' qIjDaq vavpu'ma' DImuv pa' reH maSuvtaH} and so on.
: How serious should we take it? Can I keep teaching people the song I learned
: it, or should I learn the song like on Simon&Schuster's page?? Is it canon or
: not?????

Personally, I trust the S&S lyrics though we really should get confirmation
- has anyone actually asked Okrand about this?  The version worked out on
the list was just an analysis of the dreadful Closed Captions (which were in
the script simply as a phonetic aid to the actors who had to sing them) and
what we were able to make out by ear between the three times the Anthem was
sung (once on the CD and twice in the DS9 episode).  But again, this was
only a guess, which turned out to be fairly accurate.  The few discrepancies
were a result of the Klingon being a rendering of Bader's original English
lyrics and thus harder to predict, rather than an original composition by
Okrand, who had to make do with the existing vocabulary.  

'Tis a pity Okrand wasn't able to publish the official lyrics in Klingon for
the Galactic Traveller.  Oddly enough, the full lyrics didn't appear in
Bader's novelization either.

Voragh

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