tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 14 16:48:16 1999
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Re: A little riddle
ja'pu' pagh:
>I also don't know if the metaphor of a progressing day
>representing a progressing life works in Klingon. I'll leave
>that to intepretation by others.
ja' Voragh:
>I don't see his point either. The metaphor isn't idiomatic to just English
>but works for any culture living on a planet with dawn (sunrise), midday
>(noon) and twilight (sunset).
It works only if the comparison between a lifetime and daytime is
recognized. I don't see much similarity, myself, but I recognize
the common idiom of "twilight years" even without accepting it.
I wonder how the metaphor is viewed by people raised in a culture
where an early afternoon siesta is customary.
There's no reason to assume the metaphor would be recognized in a
warrior culture. I've never noticed anything presented in Klingon
culture or idiom to suggest that sunset represents death, or that
daytime makes an appropriate substitute for talking about life.
bogh tlhInganpu', suvwI'pu' moj, Hegh. -- TKW page 5
This succinct description of the Klingon Way makes no mention of
daytime or nighttime. A "day" begins at dawn, but it does not end
at sunset.
> It wouldn't work, for example, on Mercury
>which keeps the same side facing the sun at all times IIRC.
bIlughbe'. DIngbej Mercury. pem ram je ghaj ghorDaj.
> But since
>tlhIngan Hol has such words - not to mention words for day (pem, jaj) and
>night (ram) - we could assume that Klingon speakers are familiar with the
>phenomena.
Watch out -- {pem} is specifically "daytime", and {jaj} is the period of
time from one dawn to the next, which includes both {pem} and {ram}.
>I believe Kurn once referred to "high sun" in one episode, so
>we can also assume they relate specifically to Kronos.
Okrand has also said that he had no intention of having the word "high"
implied in the term {DungluQ}.
-- ghunchu'wI'