[Tlhingan-hol] Klingon Word of the Day: nav

[De'vID]

Voragh:
>>> Worf gave a bound paper copy of "The Dream of the Fire" (a famous Klingon novel by K'ratak) to Data as a going-away present. (TNG "Measure of a Man")

De'vID:
>> Incidentally, "The Klingon Art of War" is written with the conceit
>> that the commentary is by K'ratak, the author of "The Dream of the
>> Fire". The title of that work is given in the book as {qul naj}, one
>> of the few translations that was actually right.

loghaD:
> «qul naj» was one of the phrases we did for the book.
>
> It's actually a bit risky, since «naj» has never been used as a noun in canon, though it has on Star Trek.
> However, if it turns out that using «naj» that way is wrong, one might imagine that it actually means "she/he/it dreams fire".

Ah, I'd assumed that the Klingon title was the verb-based "(someone)
dreams of the fire", and the Federation translator just turned it into
noun-based (and hence more natural-sounding to English speakers) "the
dream of the fire". That sort of practice is common when translating
book titles from one language to another.

(Going with the rest of the "translations" in the book, I'd have
expected "The Dream of the Fire" to have been turned into *{naj vo'
baH}! So I'm happy with {qul naj}.)

-- 
De'vID