On Sat, Dec 02, 2017 at 08:42:46PM -0500, nIqolay Q wrote:
Strictly speaking, {ghevI'} just refers to gagh sauce and not condiments in general, though the metaphor probably works fine even if a specific condiment is named, so it's not a big deal.
That's what I was going for. I don't think there's a word for condiments in general, and since {qagh} is so central to Klingon cuisine, I figured that {ghevI'} would probably be reasonably likely to show up in this sort of proverb-ish saying.
Your translation seems fine in terms of getting the meaning across: "When one fails, the event makes success delicious, it's like gagh sauce." What sort of stylistic qualities are you going for? Do you want something concise? Something that's similar to the structure of the original? Something that avoids {-ghach}?
Given how Klingon seems to work, I've been trying to avoid both {-ghach} and {-bogh} unless I decide that I really need them, since so many things (especially proverbs of this sort) that in English use nominalized verbs and relative clauses tend to skip them in Klingon. I'm also trying to work around English-style phrasings such as "give something a flavor". But I guess these aren't absolute necessities as long as the resulting sentence is grammatical. Ideally, the resulting phrase would be fairly short, or at least not long enough that it feels like an explanation rather than a pithy remark that fits in a clause or two. I realize after thinking about this again that you can get something fairly short that matches the English more closely: Qapla' 'eymoHbogh ghevI' 'oH lujlu'ghach'e'. Or maybe this: Qapla' 'eymoHbogh ghevI' bIH Qaghmey'e'. I may end up going with the last one; {Qagh} is about as close as Klingon has to a non-{-ghach} noun for "failure". - SapIr
On Sat, Dec 2, 2017 at 6:41 PM, kechpaja <kechpaja@comcast.net> wrote:
The above quote, unless I'm mistaken, can be attributed to the late Truman Capote. However, it sounds extremely Klingon, and I figured I'd try and translate it. At the moment, I have this:
lujlu'DI' Qapla' 'eymoH wanI', ghevI' rur.
I thought about including something like {'ej SIbIHa' Qaplu'DI'} before the noun {Qapla'}, but it felt like the resulting phrase would be too long, and the meaning should be clear without the additional words.
What do you all think?
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