[Tlhingan-hol] The Dhammapada: A Klingon Translation, verses 1-2

[Josh Badgley]

Qov-

I usually try to read a few passages from the English version as part of my own practice. I am not a fluent Pali reader so I can't really sit down with the text and read it as well as I could say the English or even Klingon version.   I am translating from the original Pali, and also consulting some of the English versions. I am able to scan the Pali lines and try to come up with the closest Klingon equivalents.  I like to look at the English versions for inspiration in writing my own English translations.  Does that make sense? :) Maye not...


De'vID-
You read my mind! I was definitely thinking that ghob would be an appropriate term for Dhamma/Dharma.  There's the Dhamma, "the Buddha's teaching" (paQDI'norgh?), then there's dhamma in the sense of phenomena.  I already translated that "dhamma" as wanI' in the first two lines.

manopubbangama dhamma
wanI'mey nung yab

Then we have dhamma as the sense of what's morally righteous, what conforms with the super-mundane, world-transcending "law" or dhamma.  And I think ghob works great, mainly because of the way <<batlh ghob yIpab>> is explained in TKD.

Leaving Buddha untranslated would be cool, but I was thinking...if you read the into to the Klingon Tao Te Ching, the whole idea was that while Klingons don't necessarily agree with all of Laozi's thoughts, they still think it's important to understand humanity (the "enemy" or at least former "enemy").  Pali and Klingon are very different languages.  Pali is soft, beautiful, and almost perfect for composing long, flowing, philosophical texts.  Klingon is very to-the-point, so I think that calling and "Enlightened One" a jIvHa'wI' or "un-ignorant one" feels more Klingon, if that's possible.

-- jhb


Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:43:20 +0100
From: de.vid.jonpin at gmail.com
To: tlhIngan-Hol at kli.org
Subject: Re: [Tlhingan-hol] The Dhammapada: A Klingon Translation, verses 1-2

Josh Badgley:

> >                   Even though "Dhammapada" really means

> > something like "Path of Dhamma", I am calling it "The

> > Buddha's Path of Wisdom" or {jIvHa'wI' Sov'a' He}
Let me first say that I think this is a fantastic idea.  I tried many years ago to do this.  I'm not sure if I, or someone else, may have posted translations of Dhammapada verses to the mailing list.  I remember wrestling with how to express certain terms, which you soon will have to do, but I don't remember whether that was in private or in public.  Too bad the search functionality for the mailing list is not working.  Part of the reason that the project stalled was that it was very difficult to come up with terms like "forgiveness" in Klingon, but as we learned recently from the {paq'batlh}, something like it does exist in Klingon (I think it was expressed as {qeHHa'}, if someone remembers the page number).

Voragh:

> Well, you've stumbled upon one of the hidden landmines right away WRT {He} "course, route".  Apparently Okrand told SuStel (?) at a {qep'a'} that {He} cannot be used in a metaphorical or spiritual connotation of "way" or "path," such as the Way of the Warrior or the Path of Wisdom.  Consequently, Okrand translated the title of _The Klingon Way_ as {tlhIngan tIgh} and he has used the inscription {tlhIngan tIgh DaHaDrup'a'?} on books and photos.  (FYI the original title of TKW was {tlhIngan ghobmey paq} "The Klingon Book of Virtues".)  I believe 'ISqu' had the same problem with her _Tao Te Ching, a Klingon Translation_ which she translated as {pIn'a' qan paQDI'norgh} "The Old Master's Teachings".


>

> More travel-related metaphors are {ghoch} "destination", {jey} "itinerary", {lurgh} "direction", {qIgh} "shortcut", {pu'jIn} "map" -- but these may not work any better than {He}.


>

> Other useful words include {ghob} "ethics, virtue", {nugh} "society (group of people with a shared culture)", {potlh} "consequential thing, something important", {qolqoS} "essence", {vIlle'} "follower, disciple, fan, admirer, minion", {vIt} "truth".

I wouldn't worry too much about translating "path" part of the title literally.  While the book is known as the Dhammapada in Pali, the Chinese version is titled <法句經>, i.e., "dharma (law) - verses - scripture".  This is because the Pali <pada> has the primary meaning of "foot" or "step" (and if anyone knows Latin they should recognise the cognate immediately); the "path" or "verse" (i.e., a "foot of verse") meanings are secondary.  In many Asian languages, the local translation uses the "verse" meaning (<句>) rather than the path meaning.   I think something like {vIttlhegh} might work.

The more difficult part of the title is the <Dharma> part.  I see you've chosen to bypass it by calling it "The Buddha's Path of Wisdom" instead, but the word <Buddha> presents just as many difficulties as the word <Dharma> (but more on that later).  <Dharma> (or <Dhamma> in Pali) is a hugely overloaded word with zillions of meanings (well, at least four, according to the traditional dictionary definitions).  In the case of the title of this book, it means something like "virtue" or "ethics", and the closest correspondence would be to {ghob}, I think.  The Chinese chose to translate it (and the idea of "the Buddha's ethical teachings" in general) as <法>, i.e., "law".  I'm not sure if the Klingon {chut} would have the same connotations though (i.e., does it only refer to a law in the legal sense, or can it refer to a "law of the universe" or be used for "the law of gravity"?).  You might find yourself having to use a different word for each sense of <Dharma>, as the Chinese did.

As for <Buddha>, my inclination would be to leave it untranslated, with a footnote explaining its meaning.  If I had to provide a one-word Klingon gloss, I might go with something like {vemta'wI'} (then <samma sambuddha> would be {vemchu'ta'wI'}).  {jIvHa'} would also work instead of {vem}.  But I really like the economy of expressing the qualifier <samma sam-> as {-chu'} in Klingon. :-)

Putting it together, my translation of the title of <Dhammapada> would be {[buDa lalDan] ghob vIttlheghmey paq}.  Of course, that's my suggestion only, based on my own preferences (and my choices here are obviously influenced by the Chinese version rather than strictly sticking to just the Pali).  Also, there's no urgency to settle on a final title before finishing the rest of the book. 

I will say more about the translations of the actual verses when I dig my Pali books out of my boxes later today or tomorrow.
--

De'vID

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