tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Jun 30 04:38:11 2011

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Re: Some things are best left untranslated.

R Fenwick ([email protected]) 

ghItlhpu' lojmIt tI'wI' nuv, jatlh:
>During my pedestrian commute, I pass a boxcar that someone has spray painted,
>"Tonight, the streets are ours!" It's got deixis written all over it.
 >While I enjoy a translation challenge, this one quickly got too ugly. 
 
For my part I'd say {veng} "city" as a replacement for "streets" (I've never
been quite happy with using {He} as a replacement for "street"). I'd simply
say the whole as {DaHjaj ram vengmaj 'oH vengvam'e'} "tonight, this town is
our town".

To be honest I found this easy to translate, but it may have to do with the
fact that I understood the meaning on the basis of the context, as much as
anything else. I don't know that it's "best left untranslated"; but because
it's so dependent on the context of the deixis, to an extent the sentiment
will have the same issues you raise no matter what language you render it in,
even English.

QeS 'utlh

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