For many years I’ve argued about the use of {qamuSHa’} for “I love you.” The problem is that “I love you,” is completely dependent upon context to give it meaning.
A mother means one thing when saying it to her child, a different thing when saying it to her husband, a different thing when saying it to a sibling, a different thing when saying it to HER mother, a different thing when saying it to a childhood friend, a different thing when saying it to her dog, a different thing when saying it to her favorite TV star… etc.
The relationship and the circumstance give meaning to an otherwise uselessly vague statement.
I love you is not uselessly vague, as you have just demonstrated. It is a phrase that has many meanings, given the context. When your spouse does something nice for you and you feel gratitude and say I love you, it means a very specific thing. The words themselves don't convey the specificity, but both of you know the exact meaning.
So who says this doesn't happen in Klingon? Why is Klingon
ultra-specific in your mind? I mean, sure, there's the bit in Power
Klingon about Klingon being accurate, not approximate, but
this doesn't have to apply to intimate moments like this. The
stuff in PK is all about how to maintain the respect of
the people and animals around you, not the finer points of Klingon
subtlety.
I don't necessarily think that qamuSHa' has a one-to-one relationship with I love you, but if Jadzia does something really nice for Worf, who feels gratitude, why can't he say qamuSHa' and both of them know exactly what he is talking about?
Klingon actually has a lot of scope to be vague in very useful ways. I once wrote a story in Klingon and when I was done I realized I had not given a single clue to the reader about the sex of any of the characters. Then I thought, does it matter? My story wasn't really focused on character development. The Klingons were just performing their duties.
Being specific is nice when you need to do it, but if you're
translating something that is already vague in the source
language, then it's perfectly fine — maybe even more faithful — to
keep it vague in the target language.
-- SuStel http://trimboli.name