tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jun 18 06:03:18 2002

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I think, therefore I am.

I m sure this has been asked a few hundred times already, yet I have to
ask again.

After I read an article yesterday, in which the autor stated that the
line "I think, therefore I am" does not make sense in every language
because the part "I am" often requires an attribute, I thought about
translating it into klingon - the meaning of the sentence.
Since I didn t find a word for "exist", I used "taH" in the meaning of
"continue" to build the sentence. Hopefully I used it correct.

When I got home, I instantly searched for the phrase on the internet -
surely someone will have translated it before me. Interestingly, I only
found one site with that phrase(I must have searched for the wrong
words).
Since their translation is a bit different from mine, I d like to know
why.

Here s what I found on
"http://www.khemorex-klinzhai.de/Hol/itabashi/mumey.html":

jIQubmo' jIHtaH.
......COGITO ERGO SUM. [I think, therefore I am.] (Descartes)

Now my translation:

jIQubmo' jItaHbej.

It s almost the same, I know, but what makes me wonder is that they
used "jIH" instead of giving "taH" a prefix. Also, why not separate the
two words?
Additionally, I added "bej" because I think that the part "I am" means
that one obviously is(exists), or otherwise there would be no thought.
(I at first wanted to use "ba' " - "obviously", but AFAIK it means
"obvious to the listener", which is not what I wanted.

Much writing for such a tiny phrase...

I d be glad for some enlightenment.

Christoph

P.S: Just curious - does the word "Qub" - "think" mean "thinking about
a decision" as it does in english/german? Because I d like to translate
a joke into klingon - but I m not sure if "Qub" is the fitting word.
The joke:

Descartes walks into a bar, the bartender asks him: "Care for a beer?"
Descartes answers: "I think not" - and vanishes.

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