Translation Project

[qoSagh]

This is really for an art project, that will feature Klingon lettering, but I want to get the wording right. I am looking to translate two similar phrases.

Honored are you in your arrival

Honored are you in your departure

Thank you in advance for the help.

[tesseraktik]

Well, I guess the simplest way would be to just say "You arrive" and "You leave" and modify with the adverb batlh { honorably }.

batlh bIpaw
Honorably you-arrive

batlh bImej
Honorably you-leave

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Another way would be to say "You are honored while enter/leave":  bIquv bIpawtaHvIS and bIquv bImejtaHvIS
I actually wonder if you couldn't switch that around to "You enter/leave while you are honored." (bIquvtaHvIS bI(paw/mej); to me it indicates that the person is always honored, but and that this is why their arrival/departure is observed.

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Sometimes there is a difference between being honorable and being honored.  bIquv (you are honored/honorable) indicates to me that honor is some intrinsic property of the person being addressed, while DaquvmoHlu' (one honors you) suggests that the person is revered (in other words, his honor comes not from within but through how others perceive him).  If you want to suggest that it is the people within the room who honor the person being addressed, I'd suggest using DaquvmoHlu'(taHvIS) rather than bIquv(taHvIS).

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Arriving and departing can also be expressed in more than one way:

Arriving:  bIpaw (you arrive) ; pa'vam Da'el (this-room you-it-enter -> you enter this room) ; naDev bIjaH (here you-go -> you go here)
Leaving:  bImej (you depart) ; naDevvo' bIjaH (here-away you-go -> you go away from here)

I'm tempted to suggest things like you un-enter this room and you begin to not exist in this room, but I'm guessing such wordings are not ideal

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I'm no expert, but hopefully this might help with some ideas.

[qoSagh]

I am definitely looking at the idea that it is honor being bestowed on the one who enters and leaves the room, but it is not the perpetual honor that one may posses outside of the room. I guess the sentiment that I am looking for is best expressed as

We Bestow Honor On You As You Enter This Place

We Bestow Honor On You As You Leave This Place

I am however artistically looking to keep this short, as the lettering needs to be readable and not compressed. Although I could use initials to symbolize the sayings, that is something that I have never seen done in Klingon language or culture, so that is not my first choice.

[tesseraktik]

I guess the sentiment then is roughly "As soon as you arrive/leave, we honor you":  bI('el/mej)DI' pIquvmoH
Here it is in pIqaD:

[qoSagh]

Thank you for all the help. I am actually going to be trying this in several different pIqaD alphabets that I have, to see what looks the best, as it is primarily an art piece. It is important that it is actually readable by anyone who wants to or has the ability to, because I have always hated what has become known as Paramount Hol lettering, but is just so much gibberish.

The overall size of the words is important in that the size of the artwork is limited, each quote will be on a separate piece and they need to both be roughly the same size.

[Kesvirit]

If you want to experiment, I have a collection of several Klingon alphabets, some of which are suitable for use with pIqD: Klin Mura, Klin Sta Mura, Klin Zhan-Bur, and Rumaiy Klin Bur-Chak. I can also offer the Mandel alphabet (since demoted to a mere historical curiosity) and the mysterious Unnamed Source alphabet.
 
If you or anyone else would like to see them, I can email them to you zipped or post them to the Forums. Email I can get out tomorrow; posting may take another day because I still have to find a tidy way of chopping up 8.5’x11’ pages for transfer into a post.

-=- Kesvirit

[qoSagh]

Klin Mura, Klin Sta Mura, Klin Zhan-Bur, and Rumaiy Klin Bur-Chak are the fiorst four that I have. The fifth is my own, which uses mostly elements from the other four. I have never heard of the Mandel or the unnamed source, is that last one actually called that or is there a story behind the name?

[Kesvirit]

The Mandel script was first finalized when USS Enterprise Officer’s Mannual was published in 1980. (This is one of the few original references I *don’t* have access to; I got it from Trek vet Betty Bigelow at a panel on Klingon calligraphy. If anyone has the original with more information, please post!) Graphic designer Geoffrey Mandel fleshed it out from D7 hull markings that may or may not have been created by set/prop/model/etc. designer Matt Jeffries, after whom Federation engineers named their ships’ access ports.



The Unnamed Source alphabet just refers to the ever-mysterious and much revered proto-pIqaD faxed to the KLI(?) from “an unnamed source at Paramount.”



Will the one post his own? I am curious to see what you have synthesized.

-=- Kesvirit

[qoSagh]

I have seen that Mandel one before, I just never knew the name. I think I might even have it under a different name, I will look. If it worked better with tlhIngan Hol, I would probably use it, as to me it looks the best. I will post mine, as soon as I get my scanner back up and running, even though it has mostly drawn two opinions within fandom. Prior to the KLI picking one, and making it as official as they can, it was viewed with interest and even sometimes complimented. After that date, it was viewed as I somehow stole the sacred cow and had spit on the village square.

Now the best part of exploring Klingon culture through role play is that I can take all of the above mentioned alphabets and accept them all as regional or dialectic variations on a theme, although it is far more likely that at least one of them was for klingonaase. Thus giving my own work at least the same standing. From there, it is a matter of simply saying that mine is (in a role playing sense) an ancient one, and that is what is used by my order, since the great books were written in it.