tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Dec 09 15:40:13 2003

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Tao Te Ching Chp. 18

Agnieszka Solska ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol po'wI']

18K
mIw'a' lIjlu'DI'
wIHHa'wI' maywI' je tu'lu'. [A]
vallu' 'ej HaDlu' net taghDI' [B]
tojwI''a' lutu'lu'.
qorDu' SolmoHlu'DI'
muSHa'bogh puq, vav SoS je lutu'lu'.
Sep Dotlh mujmoHlu'DI'
qum toy'wI' matlh lutu'lu'.

18E
When Tao is forgotten
There is kindness and justice.[A]
When cleverness and learning arise.
There is great duplicity.
When conflict breaks out in the house
There are loving parents and children.
When the country falls into chaos.
There are loyal ministers.

[A] Literally, there are those who are "un-ruthless" and those who are fair. 
I could have used {pung} and {ruv} here:

   pung ruv je lutu'lu'
   There is mercy and justice

However, I wanted to use the same words, i.e. {wIHHa'} and {may}, both here 
and in chapter 19, where they are repeated:

   *bIwIHHa'* 'e' Damevchugh, *bImay* 'e' DalIjchugh,
   [Give up being *kind*, forget being *just*]

Now, since the Klingon version of chapter 19 seems to beg for verbs rather 
than nouns:

   bInIv 'e' Damevchugh; bIval 'e' DalIjchugh,
    [Stop being great; forget being clever]
   .....
   bIwIHHa' 'e' Damevchugh, bImay 'e' DalIjchugh,
    [Stop being kind, forget being just]
   .....
   bI'ong 'e' Damevchugh, bIqur 'e' DalIjchugh,
    [Stop being sly, forget being greedy]
   .....

in Chapter 18 I used verbs, too, or – to be more exact, I used nouns derived 
from some of those verbs.

[B] My original idea was to translate this line as {valchoHlu'DI' 'ej 
HaDchoHlu'DI'}. However, phrased like this the line stood out from the rest. 
Besides, I did not want to say that someone begins to be clever and to 
study. Instead the meaning I wanted to convey was that studying and being 
clever this is something that begins to happen on a large scale, that people 
begin a systematic series of actions. Since {tagh} is glossed as "to be 
begin a process, initiate [proceedings]", it seemed the right verb here.

'ISqu'
http://www.geocities.com/taoteching_klingon

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