tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Sep 26 14:36:42 2003

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Tao Te Ching Chp. 70

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

70K
mu'wIj luyajlu'meH ngeD.
ngeD je mu'wIj pabmeH Qu'.
'ach qo' HochDaq bIH yajlaH pagh
'ej bIH pablaHbogh pagh [A] tu'lu'.

tIQ mu'meywIj mung. [B]
ta'meywIj SeH meq. [B]
'ach 'e' luSovbe'lu'
vaj vISovbe'lu' je.
puS muSovbogh nuvpu'.
quv muqImbogh nuvpu'.
nap yajchu'wI' Sut.
tIqDajDaq mIpna' So'chu'.

70E
My words are easy to understand
and it's easy to follow them.
Yet they can be grasped by no one in the world
and there is no one who can follow them.

My words are of an ancient origin.
My actions are guided [C] by reason.
Yet this remains unknown,
So I remain unknown, too.
Those who know me are few
Those who heed me are honored.
The sage's clothing is plain.
His true wealth concealed in his heart.

[A] <pagh> should be marked with {-'e'} but it would make the line too long.

[B] Since the Chinese uses idioms here I thought it was better to capture 
the sense rather than translate the actual words, i.e.:

      My words have an ancestor
      My actions have a lord.

      qempa' lughaj mu'meywIj.
      che'wI' lughaj ta'meywIj.

It seemed to me that such literal translation would obscure the meaning too 
much.

[C] {SeH} means "to control", not "to guide". I could have used {Dev} in 
Klingon but leading didn't seem to be what {meq} can do to actions. On the 
other hand, in the English version the phrase "guided by reason" seemed much 
better than "controlled by reason". Hence the discrepancy.

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

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