tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Nov 08 16:56:20 1998
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Re: KLBC Shakespears Sisters lyrics.
ja' Zrajm C Akfohg:
>Is there a way to say "pray to (a god or diety)" in Klingon, or can I use
>{qoy'} "plead, beg" as if it meant that?
The word "pray" can mean several distinct things. There are prayers of
thanksgiving, prayers of petition, and prayers of praise (which are most
closely related to the word "pray" itself). Each form of prayer has its
own best translation in any language. It sounds like you already know
which meaning you want, and you've chosen an appropriate word for that
meaning. But you've managed to interpret the original line in a somewhat
different fashion than I would, which points out the dangers in trying to
do a translation of poetry before one is completely at ease with both the
source and target languages. Successful translation also requires quite
intimate understanding of the original author's intent in order to be
faithful to the goals of the work.
You're obviously aware of the difficulties here, as you asked very good
questions about what you were trying to say. But I'm going to give you
(and anyone else who's reading) some very strong advice: Don't try to
translate songs as an exercise in learning Klingon. It brings up trouble
that a beginning speaker shouldn't need to deal with. Instead, describe
things using your own ideas. Translating *into* a new language isn't all
that helpful when trying to learn the grammar anyway, which is what really
ought to be a student's focus. In my experience, learning vocabulary is
almost automatic by comparison.
-- ghunchu'wI'