tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Nov 12 03:20:49 2013
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Re: [Tlhingan-hol] Story: ghuv = The Recruit - 49
Qov:
>> 'aplo'Daq vIng nguSDI' 'e' Qoylaw' torgh. = "In the container a motor
>> whines - Torg uncertainly hears that." i.e. "Torg thinks he might hear a
>> motor whining in the container."
De'vID:
> {-law'} expresses uncertainty on the part of the speaker, not the subject,
> though.
Qov:
> It is my custom when I write stories, to transfer the degree of certainty in
> V6s to the POV character in the scene. I can’t remember if anyone has
> complained about it before. I think it’s a valid objection but I also think
> it’s a valid technique, less ‘out there’ than concrete poetry. I think it’s
> akin to describing a scene in the voice and experiences of a character, so
> that when one POV character passes the field s/he sees “a horse” while
> another sees “a three year old anglo-arab, chestnut with a white stocking on
> the off hindleg.”
I'm not objecting to the Klingon sentence so much as the English
translation you give of it.
I accept the literary conceit of speaking in the character's voice.
That is, I get the meaning you apparently intend when I read {Qoylaw'
torgh}. But to me, it's the narrator saying, "Torg seems to hear..."
or "I think Torg hears..." (i.e., the narrator is feigning ignorance
of what Torg is actually hearing for dramatic purposes), rather than
indicating that Torg is unsure of what he's hearing. We can infer that
Torg is unsure of what he's hearing, because the narrator (and hence
audience) isn't sure, either. But this is inferred, not stated
explicitly as your translation suggests.
Qov:
> By your logic I could almost never use –Hey in a narrative, because when the
> characters see what to them is a mangHey, I the author know it is a mangna’.
{mangHey legh torgh}
"Torg sees what is apparently (i.e., to the narrator) a soldier"
Again, I have no problem with the literary conceit of the narrator
feigning ignorance. What I would object to is the above being
translated as "Torg sees what appears to him to be a soldier", because
it's not what it means.
--
De'vID
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