[Tlhingan-hol] "Never give up; never surrender"

[ghunchu'wI']

On May 28, 2012, at 1:09 PM, David Trimboli <david at trimboli.name> wrote:

> In the context of a qep'a', when Galaxy Quest is mentioned, someone will
> whip out {not yIjegh; not yIjegh}.

If you say so. I only remember hearing it once, prompted by the NOTJEGH license plate (on DloraH's car?).  I thought it was appropriately funny at the time, mostly because of the idea of having it both on the front and rear of the car.

>> I've always translated it as {not yIbup; not yIjegh!} Repeating
>> {jegh} seems contrived, as it carries the wrong meaning of "give up"
>> for the first phrase.
> 
> How do you determine that? "Surrender, give up" carries both connotations to me. Surrendering to the futility of a task or giving up to an enemy work just as well as surrendering to an enemy or giving up due to the futility of a task.

Right, that's probably why both are used in the definition of {jegh}. 

But {bup} "quit" only works for the task idea. It is not right for the "never surrender!" of the Galaxy Quest phrase.

> Of course repeating {jegh} sounds contrived; that's what makes it funny.

I obviously misunderstood your intent. I assumed you were trying to make a clearer translation, not to elaborate on the joke. But if you like contrived humor, you can turn the joke around and translate my Klingon version into English as "Never give up; never give up!" I think there's a satisfying symmetry in that.

-- ghunchu'wI'