[Tlhingan-hol] Sunlight and Starlight

[Steven Boozer]

fiat_knox at yahoo.co.uk:
>> You'd imagine that Klingons would put great stock in having
>> a noun for starlight, particularly since it features so much
>> in their mythology of the Naked Stars. I'm reminded of the
>> proverb {Hovmey Davan} "You salute the stars."

QeS:
> Ignoring for the moment that the Naked Stars mythology is by
> no means a central one in Klingon thought, I really don't
> think that it's starlight so much as the stars themselves, as
> entities, that are the important part of that mythology. The
> stars, not the light they happen to emit, are the ones doing
> the remembering.

>From "The Final Reflection" (1984], p.23 et passim):

  "If there are gods, they do not help, and justice belongs
   to the strong: but know that all things done before the
   naked stars are remembered." 

Cf. also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_role-playing_game_%28FASA%29 :

   Ford's Klingons (at least those serving in their space
   fleet) believe that when they die they will serve in a
   "Black Fleet" in the afterlife. Given the fact that few
   stars are visible at night on most of Klinzhai due to
   cloud cover, they have a mystical reverence for "the
   naked stars" and believe they remember acts of courage
   performed under them, as this poem suggests:

     "And though I had slain a thousand foes less one,
      The thousandth knife found my liver;
      The thousandth enemy said to me,
      'Now you shall die,
      Now none shall know.'
      And the fool, looking down, believed this,   
      Not seeing, above his shoulders, the naked stars,
      Each one remembering."


It's interesting to note that, although Paramount rejected John Ford and FASA's view of Klingons, whenever we saw Kronos in the TV episodes the sky was obstructed by thick greenish-grey clouds.  <g>

> And again, are you thinking of a usage in particular that
> {Hov wov} "the bright stars" wouldn't deal with more than
> adequately?

Someone - I don't remember who (anyone?) - elegantly translated "the naked stars" as *{Hovmey Huv} using the otherwise unattested verb {Huv} "be clear, not obstructed".



--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons