[148] in tlhIngan-Hol
Re: Revenge on Toast
dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (dcctdw@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Feb 16 19:17:41 1992
Errors-To: tlhIngan-Hol-request@village.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
From: mreisch@dreamtime.unm.edu (Mique Reisch)
To: "Klingon Language List" <tlhIngan-Hol@village.boston.ma.us>
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 92 10:18:53 MDT
In-Reply-To: <9201282251.AA10144@ima.ima.isc.com>; from "Captain Krankor" at Ja
> 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*, whi
ch
> 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 mat
ch
> what they came up with for an English translation word for word, that is, the
y
> 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.
Oddly enough I had a totally different idea of what the
proverb. I always thought the meaning behind the saying was that
revenge is best when you have so much contempt for your victim that
you don't prepare it, you just execute it with whatever is handy. A
good poetic translation of this idea into English is the idea of a
dinner guest whom you'd show contempt for by pulling the meal out of
the fridge and serving it cold. This level of contempt for someone
seems to be what the proverb meant to me.
Translation of this ideal into Klingon is left as an excercise for
the more literate.
Mique Reisch
mreisch@dreamtime.unm.edu
