[tlhIngan Hol] Misty mountains cold...

[nIqolay Q]

On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 11:35 AM, Aurélie Demonchaux <
demonchaux.aurelie at gmail.com> wrote:

> muDuQ bomvam !
>
> tlhIngan Hol jatlhwI'vaD Damughta' 'e' vIQuch. majQa' !
>
> vIbomchu'meH bomvam vIghojlI' ;)
>
>
> On the other hand, I agree with SuStel on rhyming in Klingon - I have a
> couple of songs I'd like to translate at some point, but it does feel like
> mixing and matching suffixes at the end of each line...
>
> It would be great if at some point we had access to some cannon, full
> Klingon songs, so we might figure out the rules and best practices for
> klingon songwriting.
>

I once translated the inscription over the gates of Hell in Dante's
Inferno, keeping the rhyme scheme and the eleven-syllable lines. It was fun
to do (and I didn't rhyme a suffix with itself) but it is difficult. (If
you search the mailing list archives for "Dante" you can find my original
draft without any of the suggested corrections; I don't have the revised
edition saved on this computer.)

I think the only canon song (as opposed to play or poem) is the Warrior's
Anthem, which doesn't really rhyme or have much of a meter. It's just kind
of chanted monotonically. The paq'batlh is written in three-line stanzas,
which is described as a common thing.

To be honest, I think it's probably okay to just go ahead and invent your
own poetic or lyrical form as long as you aren't trying to claim it as
Okrandian-level canon. Think of it as "Klingon culture fanfiction" and go
nuts. There's probably hundreds of kinds of poems in the history of the
Empire. It's not like Maltz is going to look at your style and say
"Klingons have never done that, anytime, anywhere". He's not a poet!
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