tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Apr 25 06:45:59 2013
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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Dante qul'a'
nIqolay:
> A few months ago I tried translating the message above the gate to Hell
> from Dante's "Inferno", Canto III, keeping the terza rima aba-bcb-cdc
> rhyme scheme and the eleven-syllable lines. (I didn't preserve the stress
> patterns, though. chaq jImaw' 'ach jImaw'qu'be'.)
>
> tuvengDI' bechtaHghachna' vegh boghoSbej.
> tuvengDI' reH taHchu'bogh bepDaq boDuv.
> tuvengDI' chIlchoHbogh rIntaH chaH botlhej.
>
> muchenmoHchu'ta'bogh wa''a' tungHa' ruv.
> jItaHchoHmeH nItebHa' vang Qun woQ'a'
> Qorghchu'ghach wa'DIch je. vang je Sov'a' quv.
>
> taHchu'wI' neH luchenmoHlu' jIchenpa'.
> not vItaghlu'. not jIDor. reH jItaHchu'.
> naDev bo'elDI' pejegh 'ej petulHa'.
Since my Dante is rusty I had to look it up:
"Per me si va ne la città dolente,
per me si va ne l'etterno dolore,
per me si va tra la perduta gente.
Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore;
fecemi la divina podestate,
la somma sapïenza e 'l primo amore.
Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create
se non etterne, e io etterno duro.
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate."
"Through me the way is to the city dolent;
Through me the way is to eternal dole;
Through me the way among the people lost.
Justice incited my sublime Creator;
Created me divine Omnipotence,
The highest Wisdom and the primal Love.
Before me there were no created things,
Only eterne, and I eternal last.
All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"
http://italian.about.com/library/anthology/dante/blinferno003.htm (I don't know how old this translation is.)
> Some notes on word choice:
> Line 4: I'm not 100% sure if wa''a' is strictly acceptable, but its
> meaning is clear enough that perhaps it could be excused as poetic
> license.
Although I'm not sure what you're trying to get across, but Okrand's comments on the common tendency of some people to use *{Qun'a'} for God may be useful here:
{Qun'a'} "great god" ({Qun} plus {-'a'}, the augmentative
suffix) may or may not be an appropriate translation for
a single supernatural being in a monotheistic system,
since the {Qun'a'} would still be one among many.
[startrek.klingon (7/19/1999)]
Using {-na'} "definite, definitely, true, no doubt, real" might work better:
the noun suffix {-na'} (definite), which is used when the
speaker wants to indicate that he or she is absolutely sure
about what is being said (compare {maghwI'} "traitor", and
{maghwI'na'} "definite traitor", without a doubt a traitor).
[KGT 157]
Some examples: {jupna'} real friend, good friend; {DevwI'na'} a true leader (a definitely unquestioned leader); {jachwI'na'} "true screamer" (Master of the Scream, i.e. the traditional narrator role in Klingon opera [PB p. xvii]).
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
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