[Tlhingan-hol] Six, Six, Six (song translation)

[John R. Harness]

Wow wow wow!

The questions you ask seem tricky to me, too:

[1] best I could do for "stranger"

Makes sense to me. What about mebHey? If you're interested maybe also look
up nIyma' and 'eIl'jaH, which I don't think are quite right but could add
interesting connotations given the song!

[2] trying to express duration of the talking; does this work?

I'm not sure if that works or not, since I think only certain words (like
{ben} can be used as time stamps like that. (But maybe not? I seem to
remember some advice like "Just throw some time words at the beginning and
we'll know what you mean.")

If -- if -- that doesn't work, maybe {majatlhtaHvIS qaS rep law'}.

And remember the adage: Klingons may sometimes be incorrect, but they are
never *approximate*.

[3] couldn't manage "New Age Eve", so I tried to say "tomorrowbegins a new
age", and didn't quite manage that either...

It depends on how you want to parse the sentence. (Is 'tomorrow' the
subject or a timestamp? Is New Age the subject or the object?)

I'd go with:
wa'leS tagh bov chu' -- Tomorrow, a new era begins. Or,
wa'leS bov chu' taghlu'. ???


--

Socialist Alternative <http://www.socialistalternative.org/>
Klingon Language Institute <http://www.kli.org/>

On Tue, May 31, 2016 at 12:07 PM, chransberry at gmail.com <
chransberry at gmail.com> wrote:

> qunnoq's complaints gave me an irresistible urge to translate this Degarmo
> and Key song released in 1983 into Klingon. It's titled "Six, Six, Six",
> and everyone I know agrees that it's a pretty weird song...
>
> (no attempt is made to preserve rhyme or meter, sadly)
>
> (English original in parentheses)
>
> ---
>
> (I was feeling kind of restless
> So I went out for a walk
> And I ran into a stranger
> And for hours we just talked
> Said I'm waiting for this moment all my life
> This is it)
>
> jIngojmo'
> jIyItmeH jImej
> nov [1] vIghom
> 'ej rep law' [2] majatlh
> jatlh "jIyIntaHvIS reH tupvam vIloS
> tupvam 'oH"
>
> (And when I asked him to explain it
> He just smiled and he told me, six, six, six)
>
> QIj ghaH 'e' vItlhobDI' mon neH 'ej jatlh "jav, jav, jav"
>
> (He said «Things will get much better
> And the night is New Age Eve
> I can even change the weather
> I can do things you won't believe
> I got signs and wonders in my bag of tricks
> Hummm tricks !)
>
> jatlh "QaQchoHqu' Hoch
> wa'leS bov chu'choH [3]
> muD vIchoHlaH
> 'ej ta'wIj DaHarlaHbe'
> jItojmeH maQmey, Dochmey Dun vIghaj
> Hmm jItoj"
>
> (When I asked him to explain
> He just smiled and he told me, six, six, six
> Six, six, six)
>
> QIj ghaH 'e' vItlhobDI' mon neH 'ej jatlh "jav, jav, jav
> jav, jav, jav"
>
> (I said, «Jesus won't you save me from this evil man of sin
> I have read about his future, I don't want to go with him»
> And when I looked he had gone
> But he had left a note that said
> «My number is, my number is, my number is
> Six, six, six»)
>
> jIjatlh "jeSuS, yemwI'vamvo' migh HItoD.
> SanDaj vIlaDpu'
> chaH vItlhej vIneHbe' "
> jIleghDI' Dach
> 'ach QIn tulu':
> jatlh "mI'wIj, mI'wIj, mI'wIj 'oH jav, jav, jav'e' "
>
> (Remember me, remember me, remember me,)
>
> HIqaw, HIqaw, HIqaw,
>
> (Said my number, my number, my number is six, six, six)
>
> jatlh "mI'wIj, mI'wIj, mI'wIj 'oH jav, jav, jav'e' "
>
> (When morning came I laughed
> At what I thought was just a dream
> And I went to call my neighbor
> And tell him all I'd seen
> But when I reached for my address book
> I felt sick
> Ooh sick)
>
> po jIHagh
> jInajlaw' neH
> jIlwI' vIja'meH
> ghogh HablI' vIlo'rup
> 'ach mI' paqwIj vIleghDI'
> jIropchoH
> uuu jIrop
>
> (Cause, written across the page,
> Every number there was six, six, six
> six, six, six)
>
> tenwalDaq
> Hoch mI' bIH jav, jav, jav'e'
> jav, jav, jav
>
> (Flight 666 .... departing - WELCOME
> six, six, six)
> [here I got stuck]
>
> ---
>
> [1] best I could do for "stranger"
> [2] trying to express duration of the talking; does this work?
> [3] couldn't manage "New Age Eve", so I tried to say "tomorrow begins a
> new age", and didn't quite manage that either...
>
> and yeah the punctuation in both versions is rather haphazard.
>
> -QISta'
>
> *Verbing AWESOMES language!*
>
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>
>
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