tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Aug 22 22:00:33 2000

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

RE: tlhIngan "Tao" ?

taj'IH chopwI':
>Sun Tzu is the exact context for "Tao" I was thinking of.

vaj /ghob/ Dalo'laHbej.

>Before even attempting to translate any of his writings (to be quoted
>at our festivities in Germany) I wanted to clarify concepts and important
>vocabulary *first*. Grammar will follow later :-)

I think the two are inseparably linked.  You really can't translate
a concept outside of the context of a sentence.  

>Let us return to Sun Tzu:
>A relatively new translation by R.L.Wing "The Art of Strategy" was
>published that only contains the 13 core chapters. I like it, it is short
>and to the point :-)
>- I seek a Hol transcription of this honored name - would Sunchu' be
>acceptable?

I don't know.  Someone else will have to answer this.

>- How would one translate "Art"? Here it is not artistic art, it very 
>sophisticated knowledge. Yet Sov'a' seems inappropriate - "great knowledge"
>is not Art.

Are you seeking to translate the English or Chinese title?  The title
in Chinese is Sun Tzu ping fa - ping means military, soldier, etc. and
fa means law, rule, strategy, etc.  (While we're on the subject, fa is
another common rendition of dharma into Chinese, the other word being
Tao.)  The "Art of War" is only one possible translation into English.
It seems to be the name that everyone knows the book by, but I suspect 
it's only because that's the name it was given when it was first 
translated and it's stuck ever since.  The Chinese word fa doesn't 
really have the connotation of "art" or "knowledge".  It literally
means "law"; not in the sense of "commandment", but in the sense of
"set of rules which governs something".  The word fa when used in
philosophy means a set of natural laws which are to be understood 
(hence its use in some cases for dharma).  What Sun Tzu's title suggests
is that there are natural strategies that exist for the art of war,
and that he discovered them (i.e. rather than invented them).

But I digress... My point is that neither "art" nor /Sov'a'/ accurate
convey the meaning.  /chut/ "law" may work, but I'm not sure if the
Klingon language distinguishes between "law in the sense of a
natural principle" and "law in the sense of a particular rule laid
down by an authority".  And I suspect that /chut/ refers to a
specific rule.  Other possibilities are /Dup/ "strategy" and
/to'/ "tactics".  

Also, ping doesn't need to be translated by the word "war".  It can
mean military (as an abstract principle), army (as a concrete; it can
also refer to an individual soldier), etc.  So it's possible to use
/QI'/ "military", /mang(ghom)/ "soldier (army)", /vaj/ "warriorhood",
or any of the plenty of Klingon words dealing with war and warfare,
depending on the word you've chosen for fa.

So /QI' to'/ "military tactics" might work.  Or you can go for
a less literal translation with /mangghom QapmoHmeH Dup/
"strategy for ensuring an army's success".  (FYI, I used /veS to'/
"tactics of warface" myself.)


--
De'vID

--
tlhIngan-Hol FAQ and unsubscribe instructions:
http://www.bigfoot.com/~dspeers/klingon/faq.htm
To unsubscribe, send e-mail to [email protected]



-------------------------------
Beam to http://www.StarTrek.com
The official site of the Star Trek universe

Back to archive top level