tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Feb 02 00:41:01 2002
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Re: Translating into Klingon
- From: Qov <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Translating into Klingon
- Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2002 21:38:31 -0800
lab hamster
> > Does anyone have any tips about how to go about translating a
> > novel or story or whatever into Klingon (from English)?
lab DloraH
>First one would need to learn klingon. Then one would need to re-learn
>english. Depending on the story, one might need to research the author to
>understand their style and what they are really saying. And then one would
>need to say goodbye to their personnal life for several months. (I was
>single when I translated Gilgamesh, which took every night after work for
>seven months.)
I concur wholeheartedly. The steps for such a translation are:
1. Learn everything known about Klingon.
2. Learn the story, in the original better than the author himself knew it,
the meaning of every metaphor, the origin of every turn of phrase
3. Tear out your hair trying to reproduce it.
4. Give up, and go and write your own stories.
It is FAR easier to write your own stories in Klingon than to translate
anyone else's from another language. Given an idea and an hour, I will
produce a story in Klingon. Given a story of the same length in another
language, I want an hour just to decide where to start.