tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 22 13:45:33 2001

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RE: Saying (KLBC)




> qalanIy said:
> 
> So... I have this pin, and it has a sentiment on it that seemed almost --
> if not quite -- Klingon.  And so, as a next attempt at Klingon, I tried
> translating it.
> 
> The original pin reads "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I
> cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the weaponry to
> make the difference."
> 
> I had no idea how to translate this, so I recast it as "May I have
> calmness in order to accept events which I cannot change.  May I have
> courage in order to change events which I can change.  Maybe I have the
> weapons to make the first events into the second."  Which is rather
> repetitive, but it does make the same point.
> 
When translating something, it is important to understand the point of the
original sentence. Recasting helps, because the idea is more important than
the exact words.
One suggestion I have for this recasting: You actually are trying to say
"May I be calm", instead of "May I have calmness". This is good, since it is
less noun-oriented and more action-oriented, which Klingon is good for. So
I'd suggest that you could do the same with the second sentence. Rather than
saying "May I have courage", you could say "May I be brave". This way, you
will use three different verbs. This makes the sentences less repetitive.


> I then translated this into:
> 
> wanI'moH vIchoHlaHbe'bogh vIlajlaHmeH vIpongjaj.
> 
In all three sentences, you don't want {-moH} at the end of {wanI'}. Since
{-moH} is a verb suffix, it would go on a verb rather than a noun. {-moH} is
used when the subject is causing the verb to happen.
For example, {targh vIghungmoH} is "I make the targh hungry/I cause the
targh to be hungry".

In this sentence and the second sentence, you have {-laH} used twice each
time. The second {-laH} in each case is unnecessary.

Also, I think you made a look-up error for the verb "be calm". {pong} is to
"call". You want the verb {jot} ("be calm").
Since you are "being calm" in general, the verb {jot} doesn't have an
object, just a subject. So you want to use the verb prefix {jI-}. {jIjotjaj}
"May I be calm".
If you said {*vIjotjaj*}, that would mean "May I be calm him/her/it/them",
which doesn't make sense.

So your first sentence would be:
{wanI' vIchoHlaHbe'bogh vIlajmeH, jIjotjaj} "May I be calm, so that I accept
the event(s) which I can't change."


> wanI'moH vIchoHlaHbogh vIchoHlaHmeH toDuj vIghajjaj.
> 
> wanI'moH cha'DIch mojmeH wanI'moh wa'DIch nuHmey vIghajjaj.
> 
These two sentences are fine, aside from the comments I already made. These
Klingon sentences might seem redundant to an English speaker, but they're
fine in Klingon. If you want to focus on the *weapons* in the last sentence,
you can add the noun suffix {-'e'}:
{...nuHmey'e' vIghajjaj} "May I have WEAPONS..."

- taD



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