[Tlhingan-hol] payback is a bitch

[mayqel qunenoS]

> In other words, this is a literal translation of an idiomatic expression
yes indeed, that's what I intended to do.

> You might stick a {jay'} at the end of either to invoke the sense of invective in the English
this is a good idea

On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 5:07 PM, SuStel <sustel at trimboli.name> wrote:
> 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
>
>
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