tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Oct 30 14:31:27 2001
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Re: Klingon literature: clipped or flowery?
Daniela B wrote:
: Are Klingons as curt in their literature as they are in their everyday
Well to start with, we know that they *do* have longer literary forms. Okrand
posted:
The verb for "write" in the sense of "compose" is {qon}, literally
"record." This is used for songs and also for literary works
(poems, plays, romance novels, and so on). As has been pointed out,
it's as if the song or story is somehow out there and the "writer"
comes into contact with it, extracts it (to use Qov's nice phrase),
and records it." (st.klingon)
In TNG "Measure of a Man (?)" Worf gives Data a wrapped bound copy of the
famous Klingon novel "The Dream of the Fire" at Data's farewell party. He
mentioned to Dr. Pulasky that it was the Klingons who truly developed the novel
as a literary form. Of course, she disagreed and presumably they continued
their discussion elsewhere. (The book wasn't more than an inch thick so it
must not have been too long!)
G'trok wrote the epic poem {lu qeng} "The Fall of Kang" [DS9 "?"], which is so
well-known that it's even studied at Starfleet Academy. One of it's most
famous lines:
Hoch jaghpu'Daj HoHbogh SuvwI' yIvup
"Pity the warrior who slays all his foes."
has become a Klingon idiom describing a person who is leading a meaningless,
empty life, one lacking any challenge (cf. KGT p.107):
Hoch jaghpu'Daj HoHpu'
He/she has killed all his/her enemies.
FWIW, notice that in the original {yIvup} is not clipped.
: conversation? Would an author be called weak or un-Klingon if he used
: more words than strictly necessary?
How many words are "strictly necessary"? <g>
: This question really made me think when I considered translating "The
: Oval Portrait" for the Poe Project. This story could be expressed in
: -hm- five(?) sentences of Clipped Klingon, and thus be about 90%
: shorter than the original.
As has been pointed out, that's a summary, not a translation. If you're not
going to translate it accurately, which includes the author's style, why
bother? Just write your own story.
: So, what do you think: should telling a Klingon a story be like giving
: a report, or is it okay to be more verbose?
Re-read the section in TKD on Clipped Klingon {Hol poD}. It's primarily used
in battle conditions and other emergency situations where time and rapid
response are of the essence, such as martial arts training:
When teaching someone to use the bat'leth, the tutor will shout
out movements--for example, {yIjop! yIway'!} ("Lunge! Defend!").
Generally in such a situation, however, the tutor will used the
shortened form of the language known as Clipped Klingon and skip
the imperative prefix {yI-}, leaving only the bare verb: {jop!
way'!} It is important to note that the tutor is giving the
student direct commands ("Lunge! Defend!"), not shouting out the
names of movements." (KGT 59)
Reading belles lettres hardly qualifies as an emergency. (IIRC, though, Okrand
did mention that some people do use it more than strictly necessary, perhaps in
an attempt to evoke the ethos of battle.)
It seems unlikely that Klingon literature is routinely written entirely in {Hol
poD}, but it seems entirely reasonable - and expected - to use it for dialogue,
particularly in battle or disaster scenes. As a stylistic device, you might
even get away with it in exposition to occasionally move the action along
quickly in an exciting and breathless fashion (again, during a battle scene);
if you do, I would use it very sparingly in such cases.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons