tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Oct 10 03:49:59 2004

Back to archive top level

To this year's listing



[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

Re: Another translation, correct?

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



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "oneqtcat" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2004 1:25 AM
Subject: Another translation, correct?


> How about this one?
> A warrior that uses courage while facing the unknown will not be
> defeated.
>
> 'op qaDtaHvIS toDuj lo'bogh SuvwI', jeybe'
>
> vIghro'
>

Your sentence reads "While a warrior who uses courage challenges some, he 
does not defeat."

Good news, bad news:

Bad news:
Your sentence lacks the element of "the unknown", and the last part does not 
say "he is not defeated". I think your sentence needs a recast.

Good news:
I'm here to help }}: )

OK, first, let's recast your sentence. That will make the rest of our task 
easier.

First, I would recast most of the ideas as a conditional, using {-chugh}. 
The English has a very conditional "feel" to it.

Instead of {'op} "Some, unspecified quantity", I would use {vay'} 
"something, someone, anything, anyone"

When you say "the unknown", you could also be saying "something that is not 
known", right? And just like before, to change "to know" to "to be known", 
we use Verb 5 {-lu'}:

{vay' Sovbe'lu'bogh} "Something which someone/ something (it is unimportant 
who) does not know."

And the last part of your sentence needs to go from "to not defeat" to "to 
not be defeated", also done with {-lu'}:
{jeybe'lu'}
(The same thing's happening in your last post.)

To keep the idea of "warrior who uses courage", you want to use {lo'bogh} 
"which uses it", and use {-'e'} to disambiguate the head noun:

{toDuj lo'bogh SuvwI''e'} "A warrior who uses courage."

Without the {-'e'}, the phrase could equally mean "Courage used by the 
warrior" OR "Warrior who uses courage"

Putting it all together, we have:
{vay' Sovbe'lu'bogh qaDchugh toDuj lo'bogh SuvwI''e', vaj jeybe'lu'}
"If a warrior who uses courage challenges the unknown, then he is not 
defeated."

Some other options, strictly suggestions, to consider, depending on the 
"feel" you're going for:

 You could change {toDuj lo'bogh SuvwI''e'} to {SuvwI' yoH} "Brave warrior", 
and you could change to last verb:

{vay' Sovbe'lu'bogh qaDchugh SuvwI' yoH, vaj Qapbej}
"If a brave warrior faces the unknown, then he will certainly win."

{vay' Sovbe'lu'bogh qaDchugh SuvwI' yoH, vaj lujlaHbe'}
"If a brave warrior faces the unknown, then he cannot lose."

These are just ideas, though. }}: )

--ngabwI'
Beginners' Grammarian
Klingon Language Institute
http://kli.org
HovpoH 7021478.0 





Back to archive top level