tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jul 03 11:25:25 2000
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: KBLC: mu'tlheghmeyvam vImughchu''a'
DujHoD:
> QaQ jaj yIghaj
> Have a nice day.
pagh:
: I doubt you can "have" a day - nice, lousy or otherwise - in Klingon.
But you can own it in Klingon. In a recent Voyager episode (whose name escapes
me) we leaned the Klingon exhortation "Own the day!", which we can render as
*{jaj yIghaj} "Possess the day!" Note that the Klingon version - at least in
translation - is more proactive than the English: Go out and make the day your
own. Or as the Roman poet Horace said, *Carpe diem!*
: Instead, I suggest a nice subversive little verb - <SIQ>. jaj QaQ yISIQ.
Hmm... that's still somewhat passive. We know that Klingons say {yIn DayajmeH
'oy' yISIQ} "To understand life, endure pain" (TKW). Note that for Klingons,
pain is a good thing; it's a character builder. I'm not sure the same can be
said of a day - unless, of course, it's the day of your death:
Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam
Today is a good day to die. (KGT)
DujHoD:
> Would something like {SoHvaD QaQjaj jajvam}
> (or {tlhIHvaD QaQjaj jajvam}) also be OK?
Better. The simplest translation is just {QaQjaj jajvam} "May this day be
good" - with "you" being understood by the person you're addressing. But as
others have indicated, this is still a very un-Klingon thing to say. You may
remember the hapless Terran tourist who greeted the Klingon shopkeeper in an
untranslated line at the beginning of "Power Klingon":
'IH jaj, qar'a'?
[Beautiful (i.e. "nice") day, isn't it?]
which was just the first of a series of mistakes he made, leading eventually to
his dramatic death.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons