tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jul 17 09:26:28 2002

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Re: Hi :) And a question...



>Anyhoo my question is... how might one go about saying "I want to kill
>myself" ?
>
>I was all proud of myself thinking I had translated it correctly as "
>HoH'egh jIneH " , but my friend insists that it is "jIHoH'eghqang"
>
>But I am confused... to me the one my friend thinks it is is "I am willing
>to kill myself" (because the dictionary says -qang is willing). If I were
>WILLING to kill myself I would have done it already. To do the act is a
>desire, a WANT. So who, if either of us, is correct? If neither of is are,
>what is the proper translation?

I'm not intending to proselytize when I use this story; the Bible is a great 
piece of literature whether you believe in it or not, and this story 
illustrates the point I wish to make:

When Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane the night before he was 
crucified, he prayed and asked that his burden (dying on the cross) be 
lifted.  However, at the end of his prayer, he said "Not my will, but thine 
be done".  He didn't want to die, but he was willing to do so, because his 
father asked him to.  Despite the fact that he was willing to die, he had 
not yet done so.

Hegh neHbe' jeSuS.  'ach Heghqang, tlhobmo' vavDaj.  Heghqang, 'ach wej 
Hegh.

So you can be willing (-qang) to do something without wanting (neH) to do 
it.  You can also want to do something, but not be willing.  You can both 
want to do something and be willing to do it and not have done it yet.

(Aside: I can't figure out how to say "Not my will, but thine be done".  The 
closest I can come is

Doch vIneHbogh vIbuSHa',  Doch qaneHbogh vIchav.

But it seems lacking, perhaps because the English is so pithy, and the 
Klingon has two /-bogh/ phrases.

And /jeSuS/ is definitely an Anglicism.  It should probably be /yeSuS/ or 
even /yeSve/.)

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