[279] in tlhIngan-Hol
Grammarian Corrections
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Wed Apr 22 22:23:16 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: Wed, 22 Apr 92 21:50:34 -0400
Eli's recent posting contains an error or three. Here's the
original, followed by his intended translation.
'IQtaHghach'a''e' yIn 'oH: nI'qu He batlh 'ach wa'logh jIHeghlaH neH
"This is the great sadness of life: The path of honor is very long but I
can die only once."
The main problem is that he has screwed up the noun-noun
construction, doing them in the wrong order. Thus, "He batlh" isn't
"the path of honor" as he intended, but "the path's honor" or "the
honor of the path". Also, I think the neH works better if we put it
on wa'logh, since that's what me mean-- not that we can merely die,
but that we can die merely once. Finally, the "This" doesn't really
come out. So here's my corrected version:
yIn 'IQtaHghach'a''e' 'oH Dochvam'e':
nI'qu batlh He 'ach wa'logh neH jIHeghlaH
Of course, the "This" really refers to the whole next sentence, so,
alternatively, we could do the whole thing with a nice 'e'
construction:
nI'qu batlh He 'ach wa'logh neH jIHeghlaH 'e' 'oH yIn 'IQtaHghach'a''e'
I think I rather like this one. It is a perhaps less literal translation,
but uses Klingon grammar more naturally.
--Krankor
