Request: "stinking green card?"

[KAllen]

This is a big private joke w/in my ship.  My mate is 1/2 Mexican and we always kid her about her "legal status" in the US.  This is of course a total joke since she was born in the US...but fun none the least.  Anyway, I was wondering if you could translate into Klingon the following:

"I don't need no stinking green card"

Thanx for any help

[ngabwI]

"I don't need no stinking green card"

Oh, this is a tough one...

I don't know how literal you want your translation to be. In the past, I have done translations of concepts like this ("green card", "stinking"), only to have the requester shoot back, saying I didn't translate at all, just changed the words.

To avoid this, I am posting both a literal translation, and a translation that carries the original meaning, but perhaps less humorous.

Literal Translation:
{He'bogh navHom SuD vIpoQbe'}
"I do not require a small green (or blue, or yellow) paper which emits odors."

Please bear in mind that this Klingon sentence is as far off the original meaning as it's English translation. The phrase "green card" is culture-specific, and "stinking" is idiomatic, so this translation DOES NOT WORK. I provide it only in case a ridiculously literal translation is what is required.

Now, onto the real answer:
"green card" refers to a permit to work and reside within the US, while not a citizen.
I believe {vummeH chaw'} "permit for working" does nicely here.

"stinking" lends a very mild  invective quality to the English statement. We have no analogous idea in Klingon. It appears that invective in Klingon is either/ or: You're either cursing or you're not.
(Exception: {QI'yaH}, so vile it defies translation.)
But I digress...

To add an invective quality to a Klingon utterance, add {jay'} to the end of the sentence. It intensifies the sentence, and makes the whole thing a curse.

You still awake?  

So, your sentence would be:
{vummeH chaw' vIpoQbe' jay'!}
"I do not require a @#%$! work permit!"

This lacks the humor of the original, but only because "Blazing Saddles" probably has yet to be released on Qo'noS.  

I hope this helps...

HovpoH 700916.5

[KAllen]

Thanx

I enjoyed both translations

[Kesvirit]

quoth ngabwI This lacks the humor of the original, but only because "Blazing Saddles" probably has yet to be released on Qo'noS.

Not through official distribution channels, but between privateers and the black market you would be amazed at the oddities that make it into Imperial space. (Or perhaps not.) I heard through the tendrils of the administrators' network -- from an "unnamed source", of course -- that the Directors of Inspirational Media mistook it for a documentary.  Word has it that the film, whose title translates into "Flaming Riggings", is used as an educational tool for those agents of Imperial Intelligence seeking to destablilize alien governments.

Perhaps this is one of those instances in which it is best that I not understand my superiors' reasonings...

-=- Kesv

[qoSagh]

I also enjoyed both translations, I thought the first one was hilarious, especially becaue of the lack of actual humor.

I think however that while a Green Card is a permit to work and reside in this country, when used in an insulting manor (even in jest, like this) the residential status is more important than the employment status. The question "where is your green card"? is really asking, by what right are you here (in this place)

So instead of Work permit the phrase whoud be reside permit. Not finding a word for reside, and thinking that live would be too widely misunderstood the best I can come up with is paw (arrive) or Dan (occupy)
There is also Qam (stand) but that would require someone to state where the one was standing in order to not be misunderstood.