[145] in tlhIngan-Hol
Revenge on Toast
dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Feb 16 19:17:31 1992
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: krankor@IMA.ISC.COM (Captain Krankor)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 92 17:51:11 -0500
Some thoughts on this whole Revenge-is-a-dish- discussion.
First off, remember what I've said a billion times: Take those
fool sentences in the back of the book with a grain of salt! There
is no verb suffix -reH, they just forgot to put the space in between
the verb and the reH adverbial. The pronounciation guide makes that
clear.
Second, there is an old Klingon proverb that says: No matter how thin
you slice it, it's still baloney. In this case, I refer to the concept
that QaQqu' somehow means 'best'. It does not. No two ways about it.
Give it up.
So we're back to the problem of how to convey the 'bestness'. I completely
agree that the translation in the phrase guide in the back is awful, and
I also agree that trying to rig it with a law'/puS construction is klunky.
In this case, I think we have to stop and take a step back.
Klingon is not English, it's not even close to English, so there's gonna be
times where a literal, word for word translation simply isn't possible.
This is not a bug, it's a feature, because it cuts both ways -- we'll have
wonderful things we can say to each other in Klingonese that just won't
translate so well to non-Klingon speakers. Let's remember that in this case,
we're talking about a *Klingon* proverb that was translated to *English*, which
we are now trying to translate *back* to Klingon. Proverbs are always treated
somewhat poetically, so it's a fair bet that the original Klingon did not match
what they came up with for an English translation word for word, that is, they
took poetic license when they translated to English. So to get the Klingon
version, let's stop trying to translate the English words, and try to get at
the concept instead.
I offer my humble attempt as a possible, though not necessarily definitive
version. Note that no attempt whatsoever is made to come up with either a word
or a construction for 'best'.
bortaS jablu'DI' nay' bIr 'oH reH neHlu'
Literal translation: When one serves revenge, one always wants it to be a cold
dish.
It is easy to see how, if this were the original Klingon, someone translating
it to English could take a little license and get "revenge is a dish best....".
'
As with learning any language, you must learn to think in the language and
accept it as it is, rather than try to force it to be English.
--Krankor
