tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Feb 18 07:59:44 1999
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Re: naj
ghItlh charghwI':
> wa'maH chorgh ben bIboghpu''a'? bInajchu'.
Quvar muHwI':
: This made me think of "Don't dream your life; live your dream!"
: can {naj} take an object?
Apparently not. Okrand has used the verb {naj} "dream" twice:
yInajchu'
Dream well! KGT
bInajtaHvIS qeylIS Daghomjaj
May you encounter Kahless in your dreams! PK
In Klingon, you don't dream about someone or something as in English, rather you meet them (see them, hear them, talk to them, kill them, etc.) while you are dreaming {bInajtaHvIS}.
: literally: {yInlIj yInajQo'; najlIj yIyIn}?
So, the first clause of your motto now becomes:
bInajtaHvIS yInlIj yIyInQo'
"don't live your life while you dream"
or more simply:
bInajtaHvIS yIyInQo'
"don't live while you dream!"
I'm not sure how to handle the second clause. Perhaps by just reversing the first, as in the original:
bIyIntaHvIS yInaj
(lit. "dream while you live!")
Hmmm. That doesn't mean quite the same thing as "live your dream", does it?
: Oh, baQa', there's no noun for "dream"...
The only other use of {naj} is the derived noun {najmoHwI'} "lullaby" (thing that causes you to dream) from KGT.
: or is this perhabs aquivalent to {yInajQo'. yIvang!}?
Now this feels much more Klingon. For a motto, though, I would amend this naked command with {neH}:
yInajQo' neH; yIvang!
Don't merely dream; act (take action)!
and finally, I'll rephrase this in less exact but more colloquial English:
Don't just dream it; do it!
_____________________________________________________________________
Steven Boozer University of Chicago Library [email protected]