tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Sep 14 22:04:01 2013

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[Tlhingan-hol] Story: ghuv - The Recruit - 26

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



In the previous installment, Torg finished off an incapacitated Romulan and
discovered that he really likes killing Romulans. Next installment, and then
explanation and translation, below. Explanations remain suitable for
beginners, but I'm making you look up vocabulary words, because the
irritation of having to do so drives memorization.
---
lojmItDaq wewchoH wovmoHwI'. HIch lel torgh. poSchoH lojmIt 'ej pa' 'el
HIvje' qengbogh be'. HIch bachDI' torgh, be' qab Sang. ravDaq DuD 'Iw
SuDqu', qa'vIn je. SoQchoH 'e' nID lojmIt 'ach waQ be' lom. Duv torgh.
lojmIt veb veghDI' chob'a' paw. moD torgh tIq. DaH loS SaD romuluSngan
HoHrup. qetqu'choH. tlhoy'Daq wewchoH wovmoHwI'mey 'ej ghum QoychoHlu'.
---
lojmItDaq wewchoH wovmoHwI'.

A very standard Klingon sentence. <location>Daq <verb1>choH <verb2>wI'.

"A thing/person that does <verb2> starts to <verb1> in/at/to the location."

In this case,  "A light starts to glow on the door." or "A light on the door
comes on."

HIch lel torgh.

Even more standard. noun1 verb noun2 => noun2 does the action of the verb on
noun1.

"Torg gets out a pistol." - the default pistol for this setting is a
disruptor.

poSchoH lojmIt 'ej pa' 'el HIvje' qengbogh be'.

poSchoH lojmIt = the door changes to being open

HIvje' qengbogh be' = EITHER "a woman who carries a cup/glass/drinking
vessel" or "a drinking vessel which a woman carries". Seeing as they BOTH
enter the room, it isn't important which is the head noun and I saw no
reason to disambiguate with -'e'. Like noun plurals, when there's no
confusion, don't feel obliged to use a tool just because it exists.

"The door opens and a woman with a cup enters the room." - As I wrote this I
imagined her with a Romulan coffee analogue in an old fashioned styrofoam
coffee cup, but as I was not specific it might be a tall glass of water, a
Super Big Gulp or whatever on-duty Romulan space station control room
workers imbibe in your imagination.

HIch bachDI' torgh, be' qab Sang.

Technically it's the tIH that torgh must bach, but it's acceptable to say I
bach the weapon.

"When Torg shot the pistol he obliterated the woman's face."

ravDaq DuD 'Iw SuDqu', qa'vIn je.

SuDqu' = green -  most of the time I'm happy to just use the colour
granularity provided by basic tlhIngan Hol and let context determine the
colour, or just have it not matter any more than it matters what shade of
blue, if I tell you in English that a character is wearing a blue hat.  I
find it's a beginner-ish thing to do to always drill down and provide the
most specific Klingon colour word possible, because the writer's native
language does it. Here I have used the more specific SuDqu' because I'm
pausing to paint a picture of the intermixed blood and coffee (so I guess if
you pictured a beer stein in the previous sentence you would have readjust
here. I could have said she was carrying a qa'vIn HIvje', but neither I nor
Torg knows what a Romulan coffee cup looks like until it spills coffee on
the deck.

"On the floor green blood and coffee mixed."

SoQchoH 'e' nID lojmIt 'ach waQ be' lom.

SoQchoH = the opposite of poSchoH

I find when I'm reading or listening to narrative in a non-native language
that I sometimes miss important events because the writer didn't say
straight out what happened. Here I don't say <be' HoH torgh> but he
obliterated her face with a pistol, her blood mixes on the floor with the
coffee she was carrying, and her corpse blocks the door. That really should
be enough evidence.

"The door tries to close but the corpse of the woman obstructs it."

Duv torgh. lojmIt veb veghDI' chob'a' paw.

vegh (verb) = go through [an existing aperture]
chob'a' (noun) = main corridor
paw = arrive, can take destination as object.

"Torg advances. When he goes through the next door he arrives in a main
corridor."

moD torgh tIq.

This is not an established Klingon idiom, just an understandable way to
describe a biological phenomenon.

"Torg's heart hurries." I hope you will think to translate it with an
English expression like "raced" or "beats rapidly."

DaH loS SaD romuluSngan HoHrup.

The subject of this sentence could be taken to be torgh tIq, and I'm okay
with that. It's a reference to the proverb qaStaHvIS wa' ram loS SaD Hugh
SIjlaH qetbogh loD - four thousand throats can be cut in one night by a
running man.

HoHrup = ready to kill, prepared to kill

"Now he is ready to kill four thousand Romulans." or "Now it is ready to
kill four thousand Romulans," if you interpret the heart as the subject.

qetqu'choH.

Also a reference to the above proverb.

qet = run
qetqu' = run hard, run extremely
-choH indicates onset.

"He bursts into a sprint." 

tlhoy'Daq wewchoH wovmoHwI'mey 'ej ghum QoychoHlu'.

tlhoy'Daq - on the wall(s)
QoychoHlu' = begins to be heard

"Lights illuminate on the wall(s) and an alarm begins to sound."

And probably a commercial break if this is on TV. Do people still watch
things on TV with commercial breaks? Do kids these days even know what I'm
talking about? I haven't watched TV like that in years. 

- Qov


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