A Klingon Christmas Carol

Have you always wished that Christmas classics were written in Klingon? If so, then a theater in Chicago has just the thing for you, "A Christmas Carol" in thIngan Hol, the language of the Klingon race. Written by Christopher O. Kidder and Sasha Walloch, the play features English Supertitles, and narrative analysis from The Vulcan Institute of Cultural Anthropology. "The story of Ebeneezer Scrooge is eternal and universal. But that alone isn't what does it. Also, Star Trek has worked its way into the fabric of American pop culture so much, that even those people who aren't Trekkies (or, Trekkers) understand what's going on," Kidder says.

Comments

Tiny Tim?

[RevWaldo]

How do they explain Tim's (presumably) Klingon parents not shooting his lame, shorty, sickly butt out the nearest air lock as soon as his illness manifested itself?

And for that matter, why doesn't Klingon Bob or Ebenezer's nephew simply challenge Ebenezer to bat'leth deul, cut his head off, and take over the company? Just sayin'....

.

Re:Tiny Tim?

[AdamThor]

My understanding is that Tiny Tim's plot point is not that he is sickly and may die, but rather that he has to prepare (be prepared) for his manhood ritual and without appropriate instruction may die.

The translation involves some conceptual work, it's not just a word-for-word type of thing. The play was put up this year in Chicago and in Minneapolis. In previous years it has been in Minneapolis alone. The greater exposure in Chicago seems to have gotten it a lot more press.

My wife is involved with the theater company, but I have not seen the play.

Not a Kilingon story.

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole Christmas Carol story is about the spiritual redemption of a man who spent his entire life in pursuit of wealth sacrificing his "soul" in the process and not helping his fellow man.

A Klingon would consider the sickly, weak and poor to be not worthy and therefore should be killed. A Klingon would have killed Tiny Tim or Tiny Tim would have died a honorable death in battle - maybe as a suicide pilot or something.

If anything, a Klingon Christmas Carol would have Bob Cratchit haunted and the ghosts would have convinced him to kill Tiny Tim and take over Scrooge's operation by kicking his ass.

Re:The one that needs to be done

[kahless62003]

Already done. Threw together an initial translation in 2001, concentrating on translation and syllable matching but not rhyming anything.

Reckoned if any language had a translation for "Mama, I killed a man, Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger. Now he's dead." Klingon would.

It's published on the net, but I reckon it's rather rough. I may consider returning to it and cleaning it up.

As slashdotting my own site ain't too brilliant an idea I'll not provide a direct link, but include some of it below.

Ahem:
teH'a' yInvam pagh
tojbogh pa'Daq jIHtaH'a'
mujon pumbogh puH
ghu'vam vItvo' vIHaw'laHbe'
mInDu'lIj poSmoH
chalDaq yInuD 'ej yIlegh
loDHom mIpHa' jIH, chovup vIneHbe'mo'
jIpo' 'ej nom jIvIHlaH
HoSchugh SuS pagh pujchugh SuS
chay' HoS SuS? vISaHbe'! jIHvaD SuS HoS vISaHbe'law'
-jIHvaD
SoSoy. qen loD vIchotpu'
nachDajDaq HIch (vI)vIHmoHpu'
chu'wI' chu'chu'pu', DaH Heghpu'.
SoSoy. qen taghpu' yInwIj
'ach DaH yInwIj naQ vIpolHa'chu'pu'
...
tlhoy paS, pawlI' HeghwIj
jIHeghvIpmo', bIr pIpwIj
DaHjaj 'oy'law'taH porghwIj
...
jIHvaD veqlarghHom poltaH veqlargh 'e' vISov
...
jIHaw'nIS neH - naDevvo' jIHaw'nISchu' neH
pagh vISaH 'e' vItu'
'e' leghlaH vay'
pagh vISaH 'e' vItu'. jIHvaD, pagh vISaH 'e' vItu'

Re:You might want to double check your work...

[ragdyann422]

So let me get this straight. Our goofy little Klingon show is lame. We had massive coverage in the Chicago area in all of the major papers (Trib, Sun-Times, Daily Herald) and had tv spots on WGN twice. We got the front page of the Wall Street Journal which lead to coverage by the BBC World Service, CBC, London Times, & Daily Telegraph... and then last night we got mentioned in Conan O'Brien's monologue.... and the night before that we got mentioned in Jimmy Fallon's monologue.... Quite frankly, if this is your definition of lame, then I don't want to be anything but lame for the rest of my life.