Uncle Jazzbeau’s Gallimaufrey

vaj Duj

Languagehat posted this entry on the artifical language Klingon. It was about Semantic Compositions’ coming to terms with the warrior’s language. And it also mentions two blogs written in tlhIngan Hol: bo logh and jIqel’s Journal. QaQqu'!

I’ve always been interested in constructed languages from Hildegard von Bingen’s divine tongue through Bishop John Wilkins’ Real Character to Schlayer’s Volapük and Zamenhof’s Esperanto. Besides I always had a fondness for Marc Okrand’s Klingon. It wasn’t just that we studied linguistics at the same place, but that he had gone out of his way to create a credible language on contract to Hollywood.

I have copies of Shakespeare’s Hamlet translated into both Klingon and Esperanto. Here’s a speech in both versions from Act One:

Horatio: As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on
When he the ambitious Norway combatted;
So frown’d he once when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.
’Tis strange.

Not the Bard’s best, but I wanted to see how the two different translators would handle the blason populaire. First Zamenhof’s version:

Horacio: Ne malpi multe, ol vi al vi mem.
Jes, gxuste tian portis li armajon
En la batalo kontrau la Norvegoj,
Li gxuste tian vidon havis glavon
En la glacion batis. Strange!

He handles the national slur by elision. His elder Hamlet simply fights with his sword on the ice. Now Nick Nicholas’ version:

Horey'So: bIrur'egh je!
DuraS pIn tlhIvqu' Hay'taHvIS je ghaH,
yoDSutvetlh'e' tuQ. qejmeH qabvetlh 'ang ghaH,
chuchDaq yoDDuj qInSaya qIpDI' je,
QeHtaHvIS ja'chuq. Hujqu'.

He leaves in both the King of Norway and the Polish soldiers, but their names have been changed to ones that presumably a Klingon would be more familiar: Duras (a Klingon usurper) and Kinshaya (an alien race that fought the Klingons during their early imperialistic years). Here’s a more literal translation of the Klingon version:

Horatio: You also look like yourself.
And while he was dueling an insubordinate boss, Duras,
he wore that very armor [shield-clothing]. He showed that face in anger,
when he struck the Kinshaya sleds on the ice,
and while he was angry, they spoke with one another.
Quite strange.

My Klingon is pretty rusty, but I’m sure somebody can correct any of my solecisms.