[88361] in tlhIngan-Hol
RE: wovmoHwI'mey yupma'
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven Boozer)
Thu Dec 2 15:41:48 2010
From: Steven Boozer <sboozer@uchicago.edu>
To: "tlhingan-hol@kli.org" <tlhingan-hol@kli.org>
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2010 14:25:24 -0600
In-Reply-To: <C305E6BD33E2654DAE1F8F403247B6A60218AD8D40CA@EVS02.ad.uchicago.edu>
Errors-to: tlhingan-hol-bounce@kli.org
Reply-to: tlhingan-hol@kli.org
I posted yesterday:
>nuQum naHQun:
>> weQlop botIvjaj!
>
> DIngwI' mach vIghaj jIH.
> lamvo' vIchenmoHpu'.
> QaDchoHpu'DI' 'eHchoH,
> ghIq DIngwI' vIQujqu'!
I thought there would be comments by now! I guess some people don't recognize the "Dreydl Song" ({DIngwI'} "spinner, top".) Here's the English version I translated off the top of my head:
I have a little dreydl.
I made it out of clay.
When it's dry and ready,
then dreydl I shall play.
I'm not happy with how I translated "I made it out of clay" - there being no known word for "clay". {lam yIQ} "mud, wet dirt" or {lam jeD/Hum} "viscous/sticky dirt" didn't feel right and didn't fit the tune. Last night I even thought about updating this for the 21st (not to mention 24th) century with {mep} "plastic" and avoiding the whole clay issue.
Yes, I know {-vo'} "from, direction away from" doesn't work like this. I suppose I could have used our all-purpose {-mo'} "due to, because of", but that wasn't right either. Rephrasing as "using clay I made one" scans nicely in English, but {lam Hum vIlo'taHvIS wa' vIchenmoHpu'} is too long for one line. Hmm... if we drop the third line, and rearrange things a bit it almost works:
DIngwI' mach vIghaj jIH,
vIchenmoHlaHpu'.
lam Hum vIlo'taHvIS,
DIngwI' vIQujlaHqu'.
OK, so you try coming up with something sing-able on your coffee break!
Certainly what's written on the dreydl is easier: the Hebrew initials N.G.H.SH. (*Nes Gadol Hayah SHam*) "a great miracle/sign/wonder was/happened there" -- {pa' qaSpu' wanI' Dun}.
For more information see the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreidel_song where a slightly different version in Yiddish is provided:
Ikh bin a kleyner dreydl,
gemakht bin ikh fun blay.
Kumt lomir aleh shpiln,
in dreydl eyns tsvey dray.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons
