tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue May 20 04:41:00 2003

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10 000 things [Was: Re: Tao Te Ching Chp. 34]

lab ghunchu'wI':

:>yInmeH luwuv wa'netlh Dol
:>Ten thousand things depend on it for life

:The repeated English "ten thousand" sounds rather odd.  Consider using the
:word "myriad".  I think it's a very nice translation of Klingon {netlh}.

I am aware of this possibility. The Chinese phrase "wan4 wu4" (literally 
"ten-thousand things") can be treated as an idiomatic way of referring to 
all things, the whole world of creation, everything that is contained in the 
universe. Some English translators translate the phrase literally, e.g.:
    -"ten thousand things" (G-F.Feng & J. English; R. Henricks),
    -"the ten thousand creatures" (A. Waley)
Some merely attempt to retain the sense, e.g.:
    -"the myriad creatures" (D.C. Lau),
Some (J. C. Wu; Lin Yutang) hesitate between two renditions:
    -"all things" as well as "the myriad things".

When I started to post my translation I decided against "the myriad 
things/creatures" simply because I didn't want some literary-minded soul to 
say "Hey, there is no <myriad> in the Kligon text. It has <wa'netlh> in it." 
Later I continued to use the same phrase, just like I continue translating 
"sheng4 ren2" (the sage) as <yajchu'wI'>, even though I keep considering 
other options.

I have to admit that I like the phrase "ten thousand things" because it 
seems to give the text an alien feel. Despite its universal appeal "Tao Te 
Ching" is a product of a specific culture and my impression is that this 
literal translation allows the reader to get a glimpse of that culture with 
its own way of thinking.

On the other hand, it is not my intention to present the world with yet 
another "definitive" English of "Tao Te Ching". What I want is to translate 
the book into Klingon and the English version is meant to be a readable 
gloss of the Klingon text. Now, rendering the Klingon <wa'netlh Dol> as "the 
myriad things" would probably work as a nice reminder that - unlike humans - 
Klingons may be inaccurate but they are never approximate.

'ISqu'

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