tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu May 24 16:00:40 2001
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Re: When writing Klingon fiction...
- From: "Dr. Lawrence M. Schoen" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: When writing Klingon fiction...
- Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 18:59:56 -0400
In response to my post Alan wrote:
>I imagine it would be appropriate to remind everyone at the start that
>there is no actual "English version" of the story, and you're basically
>translating it on the fly. I read <puqbe' bortaS> to my family that
way,
>and it was odd coming across a couple of phrases that resisted
narrative
>translation. The *ideas* were perfectly clear in my mind (I wrote the
>thing, after all), but they came out in English so much less
satisfyingly
>than the Klingon.
I intend to start by explaining the title. That should set them on edge
a bit. The whole idea for the story began with the title (and my known
fascination with the <<-Ha'>> suffix), and grew out of the Klingon idea
inherent in that word. Which may be precisely why the story works in
Klingon but feels so weak (and yes, less satisfying) in English. For
example, I've never appreciated the emphasis suffix so much as in the
last line of <<jubHa'>> when the Vulcan character proclaims <<ghobe'.
yInqu'.>> It works in a way that is utterly lost in the English.
One thing which should help the reading this weekend will be the use of
players. Our own Qor'etlh (aka Kevin Burgess) and other members of a
Maryland-based Klingon group will read and act out the dialogue of the
three supporting characters. I'll read the POV character's portion
myself, and after each character's lines I'll provide a simple English
translation.
We'll see how it goes.
Lawrence