[Tlhingan-hol] payback is a bitch

[SuStel]

On 4/20/2016 9:47 AM, lojmIttI'wI'nuv wrote:
 > On Apr 20, 2016, at 3:52 AM, mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun at gmail.com
 > <mailto:mihkoun at gmail.com>> wrote:
 >>
 >> be' Ha'DIbaH 'oHbej bortaS'e'
 >> (tera'ngan vIttlhegh tIQ)
 >>
 >> vIttlhegh lunaDbejbogh tlhIngan..
 >
 > This is a really bad translation for so many reasons…
>
> It’s culturally wrong. It takes the perspective of the victim of revenge
> rather than the victor, which is not very Klingon, and it includes a
> completely inappropriate gender association. This is not how Klingons
> think about females of any species.

You gave one reason, not many, and it's not a very good one.

The actual problem with this translation is that the English word 
"bitch" has multiple senses, only one of which is "female dog." 
Dictionary.com gives it nine senses, several of which have sub-senses, 
and only 6b applies here: "anything difficult or unpleasant" (slang). 
This English idiom doesn't translate to Klingon: {be' Ha'DIbaH} only 
means "female animal" which, if we equate "animal" with "dog" (which 
isn't correct either), is only sense 1 of the definition.

In other words, this is a literal translation of an idiomatic expression.

Unfortunately, I don't think we have an equivalent idiom in Klingon, so 
the best we can do is a literal translation: {Qatlhbej bortaS} "revenge 
is certainly difficult." Alternatively, you might try {belHa'moHbej 
bortaS} "revenge certainly causes [people in general] to be displeased." 
You might stick a {jay'} at the end of either to invoke the sense of 
invective in the English.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name