tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 09 16:01:19 2004

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Re: weQqul's Urdu poem

Steven Boozer ([email protected]) [KLI Member] 

ngabwI':
>however, have a verb, {lay'} "to promise". Perhaps you could do something
>with this. Not being able to read urdu, I'm not sure of the precise meaning.

weQqul wrote:
>part of it goes like this:
>
>   Tun ne kasam kia tha jamal se ek din.
>   aaj le mein aya haan hi syrf tera kasam hum.
>
>   you made a promise to the heavens one day.
>   Today i come for you. i am your promise.
>
>wada and kasam can be used interchangebly.  kasam is more intense than wada
>though. but since klingons don't have the word, i guess i can't use it! LOL

I think you have a pretty good match with the VERBS {lay'} "promise" and 
{'Ip} "vow, swear" -- since a vow is a more intense or solemn type of 
promise.  Since the "more intense" *kasam* is the word used in this 
couplet, I see no problem with using {'Ip} which, fortunately for you, is 
the one with the homophonous noun.

>i know that doesn't make much sense in english, but in urdu it makes perfect
>sense. Hopefully when i translate to tlhlngan Hol it will too.

Let's make a rough stab at it:

   wa' jaj chalvaD bI'Ip.
   DaHjaj SoHvaD jIghoS.  'IplIj jIH.

   One day you made an oath to the sky.
   Today I come/approach to/for you. I am your oath.

Seems pretty close in meaning, at least.  Let's try a second draft (I don't 
like that {wa' jaj} time stamp at the beginning):

   wa'Hu' chalvaD bI'Ip SoH.
   DaHjaj jIghoS. 'IplIj jIH.

   Yesterday *you* made an oath to the sky.
   Today I come.  *I* am your oath.

That's a little better.  You may want to play with the rhyme, meter and 
syllable count to turn it into poetry, but I'll leave that for those who 
have a better ear than I do.



-- 
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons

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