tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 30 21:37:13 1998
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Re: De'wI' malja'
ja' charghwI':
>On Mon, 30 Nov 1998 07:30:24 -0800 (PST) [email protected] wrote:
>
>> There is a PA Dutch saying that goes something like this:
>>
>> jImoDtaHvIS ghIgh puS vIrIn!
>>
>> ("the faster I go, the behinder I get")
>
>I can't just see this happen. {rIn} doesn't mean "finish
>(something)". It means "be finished". It is not transitive.
Right. {ghIgh puS vIrInmoH} 'fixes' that problem, but it doesn't
produce a very understandable sentence. "I finish few necklaces"
(using the "necklace" idiom for "assignment") implies to me that
you have a succession of temporary assignments, not that you have
a list of tasks that must be accomplished.
>Also, even if it were transitive, your phrasing doesn't really
>convey what you seek. I want to try:
>
>nom Qu' vIta'taH 'ach Qu' chu' vISuqbogh law' law' Qu' vIta'bogh
>law' puS.
>
>Yuck. Maybe it's better as:
>
>batlh Qu'meywIj vIta'taH 'ach reH ghurtaH Qu'mey vIta'nISbogh
>mI'.
Yuck indeed. They are correct and grammatical -- and they are also
wordy and sterile. They lack pith. I think pithiness and brevity
can be even more important than perfect accuracy when translating a
"saying" such as this. My attempt:
DowIj vIghurchugh SerwIj vInup.
-- ghunchu'wI'