tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 26 11:47:15 2000
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Re: Corruptisima republica plurimae leges
De'vID asks:
: "Corruptisima republica plurimae leges."
: It means "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."
: (From Tacitus, Annals III 27.)
When translating, it's always best to go back to the original and avoid relying
on a translation. How does the Latin translate *literally*? )"A republic of
many laws is most corrupt"?) How does "plurimae leges" relate to
"corruptissima republica". To my very rusty Latin, it looks like they are both
nominative phrases.
: {qalbe'chugh qum, puS chut. qalchugh qum, law' chut.} doesn't
: quite capture the proportional relationship.
Let's consider those relationships...
If the state is corruptissima because of the many laws:
law'chugh chut, qalqu' qum.
If there are many laws because the state is corruptissima:
qalqu'chugh qum, law' chut.
If many laws are merely a symptom of the corruption - i.e. the two tend to
occur together, for whatever reason:
chut law'; qum qal.
on the model of Worf's famous comment, "Nice house. Good tea." Or, if you have
an aversion to incomplete sentences:
law' chut; qal qum.
I like this version. Now, to render that extra, superlative sense of
*corruptissima* and *plurimae*, how about:
law'qu' chut; qalchu' qum.
It's succinct and - as the Latin apparently does - leaves the exact
relationship up to the reader. I would also omit plural suffixes and all
syntactic markers like {vaj} and {-chugh} to mimic the concise style of the
original.
ghunchu'wI' suggests:
> chut law'choHmoH woQ qalchoHghach
"Power's corruption [becoming corrupt] multiplies the law(s)."
Are you sure that's what he meant? Tacitus could have made the relationship
more explicit in Latin, but he chose not to. A good translator should trust
his author and resist the impulse to improve on or explain the original, except
where absolutely required by the grammar of the target language. Leave any
interpretation for the footnotes. YMMV.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons