Well, probably not, but I’ll admit I was tickled to learn “How the Washington Shakespeare Company came to offer Shakespeare in Klingon”:
… [N]ow, we Terrans have an opportunity to savor Shex’pir as the Klingons do. The Washington Shakespeare Company, that Arlington outpost of offbeat treatments of classic plays, is going where no D.C. enterprise has ever quite gone before, offering up a whole evening of Shakespeare — in Klingon.
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At the company’s annual benefit Sept. 25 in Rosslyn, selections from “Hamlet” and “Much Ado About Nothing” will be performed in the language that was invented for the Klingon characters of the “Star Trek” films. Actors will be speaking the verse in two languages, English and Klingon, and the lines in each will correspond to the Bard’s signature meter: iambic pentameter. The translations are courtesy of the Klingon Language Institute, a Pennsylvania group that published “The Klingon Hamlet” several years ago, in addition to composing the Klingon version of “Much Ado About Nothing.”
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… The chairman of Washington Shakespeare’s board just happens to be the man who invented Klingonspeak for the films: Marc Okrand, a longtime linguist at the Vienna-based National Captioning Institute.
[…] __
The Klingon Language Institute’s director, Lawrence M. Schoen, a science-fiction writer who works as chief compliance officer for a medical center in the Philadelphia area, had applied once upon a time to the Folger for a fellowship to aid in the effort to translate Shakespeare into Klingon. Although he was turned down, the group, whose members are a small global band of Klingon speakers, independently had set about the task. The effort was inspired by a line from “Star Trek VI,” in which a Klingon chancellor played by the classical English actor David Warner declares, “You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.”
Ticket information, and much enjoyable detail (including YouTube vids) about Marc Okrand’s rediscovery invention at the link.
(I have the linguistic abilities of a reasonably bright dog — I can pick up individual words quickly, but concepts like “syntax” and “tense” are almost impenetrable mysteries. But I was a Trekkie when that was just an insult, and many of my dearest life companions are linguists, so I can enjoy the idea of Klingon just as I enjoy any craft-form that brings inutile joy to our utilitarian world.)
Yutsano
bortaS bIr jablu diH reH QaQQu ny.
Okay I’m just showing off now, but that is my favorite phrase in Klingon. Oh and you can minor in it at Berkeley. I’m so pissed my parents didn’t move us to SFO when I was a junior in high school.
morzer
Syntax is not grammer. Tense is not aspect. Surely that ought to clarify everything.
Now, back to my Quenya version of Kagemusha.
asiangrrlMN
Damn. Another geek thread which leaves me out. #Goes to the corner to pout and to plot morzer’s demise#
Yutsano
@morzer:
FIFY. Before you really get jumped on.
morzer
@Yutsano:
Some go after Chomsky, I go after Kelsey. I am prepared to answer for my thought-crimes before the People’s Tribunal!
Batocchio
Fun! I’d check it out if I was in town. The Shakespeare Theatre in DC (another company) does some of the best classical theater on the planet. The greater DC area, including Arlington, does a pretty surprising amount of Shakespeare. (Speaking of translations, I own a copy of Gamlet by Boris Pasternak: “Bweet – elee ne bweet – vott va chem vapross…”)
MattR
Very cool. Even better it reminded me of MacHomer and it turns out that Rick Miller is giving a performance 10 minutes from my apt in a couple months. Now I just have to remember to check back to find out when tickets go on sale.
(EDIT: Rick Miller doing Bohemian Rhapsody as performed by 25 of the most annoying voices in the music industry)
freelancer
@asiangrrlMN:
how bout we just drunkenly stumble around, knocking over their boardgames, making fun of things we don’t understand, and generally make assholes of ourselves (You know, just like the “cool” kids in high school).
+5 and PS, Fuck the Fucking Tea Party! (That was the first draft title.)
asiangrrlMN
@freelancer: Sounds good to me. Except, you do the drunken stumbling part for both of us, OK? OK!
freelancer
@asiangrrlMN:
Whatever.
+6
Yutsano
@freelancer: Wifey be a wee bit allergic to booze. And I abstain for other reasons. so we let FH #1 do the vast majority of the liver destruction in the household. It seems to balance out. Although now I want a date tart dammit.
MattR
@Yutsano: And I want to date a tart.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Nom nom nom.
@MattR: Saw that one coming from a mile away.
Yutsano
@MattR: Don’t we all! Oh wait…
@asiangrrlMN: I think Pedro finally done and ate him. I warned him and Bradley about getting too creative with the Vegemite.
Anne Laurie
@morzer:
[Tips head to one side, focuses intently on speaker’s lips, looks attentive… ]
Yutsano
@Anne Laurie: It’s a papillion look isn’t it?
BTW thanks for this thread. I haven’t gotten a chance to use any thlingan in a long time.
Anne Laurie
@asiangrrlMN: But you just introduced me to Girlyman! I have been playing thru YT and so far my favorite is ‘St. Peter’s Bones’…
… so you have the satisfaction of being Ahead of My Curve in other areas…
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Not me! I am the tart!
Or maybe FH#1 finally told his boss to take this job and shove it!
@Anne Laurie: Another excellent song by them! And, I haz a jelus ‘coz you can embed.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: That would be teh awesome, but I think he would have dropped us a line telling us. That’s not the sort of thing you really keep from your famiglia, especially when they keep hoping/praying that moment is coming.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: True that. #Nods in agreement#. OK. I got four hours last night, so I should probably hit the sack (yes, early). Night, all.
roshan
Ha. The geezers are going to love this!
Heh!
freelancer
Cee-lo Green has gone viral this last week with “Fuck You!”, and I agree, it is quite awesome, but his best work, IMHO, can be found in this cover of Band of Horses’ “No One’s Gonna Love You More Than I Do” and this collaboration with Bruno Mars with “The Other Side“.
Just sayin’.
+6
freelancer out.
Yutsano
@roshan: Keep fornicating that poultry dude. Keep fornicating that poultry.
And I’m out too. Bon nuit mes amis.
Snooze
Has anyone asked if John Cole has received any outside funds not including ads revenue? Has anyone given him money to blog outside his blog ads?
I guarantees your world will be rocked viewers.
MeDrewNotYou
I want to see Klingon Macbeth. The original is nice and gory as is, but let Lady Macbeth hand her husband a bat’leth… Now we’re talkin’!
stuckinred
Here’s a study for all you mooks
To determine whether the increase in status from winning an academy award is associated with long-term mortality among actors and actresses.
Erikthered
No, actually that quote came from the villain, General Chang.
WereBear
@roshan: That’s hilarious. And a bit sad.
And in my geeky way, I don’t fit that mold, either…
I swear, if I get to heaven and there’s cliquey lunch tables, I don’t want to go.
roshan
GASP!
Immigrants are good for the economy!
-A study by Fed Reserve of San Francisco
They tekk err jaabs!
Emma
OOOOOOHHHH…. I’d love to see that. I was one of those near-original Trekkies too…
AxelFoley
Stovakor!
schrodinger's cat
Anne Laurie@ top
So which is your favorite trek? Mine is DS9 followed by TNG,
My favorite Klingon, Martok!
gwangung
An event made for me.
Just sayin’….
Cyrus
Ooh, I’m not a Trekkie myself – I’m a geek, but I’ve probably seen less than five whole episodes of any Trek show and probably less than half the movies – but my roommate is, and he works for the Shakespeare Theater Company in DC. (Thanks for the tip, Batocchio, I probably wouldn’t have known they were separate companies.) This might be fun to go to.
gnomedad
@roshan:
Teabaggers are doubleplusgood bellyfeelers. Don’t need no fancy elite “research”.