In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner) makes the comment, “You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon”.
Nick Nicholas, a business analyst and linguist in Melbourne, Australia, took those words to heart and, as a public service, has translated some of Shakespeare’s work into Klingon along with several Christmas Carols and popular songs.
Here is Hamlet’s “To Be Or Not To Be” soliloquy from Hamlet:
'Crude Terran Forgery'
To be, or not to be: --- that is the question: ---
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? --- To die: --- to sleep; ---
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, --- 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, --- to sleep; ---
To sleep! perchance to dream: --- ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
Romanised Klingon text
taH pagh taHbe'. DaH mu'tlheghvam vIqelnIS.
quv'a', yabDaq San vaQ cha, pu' je SIQDI'?
pagh, Seng bIQ'a'Hey SuvmeH nuHmey SuqDI',
'ej, Suvmo', rInmoHDI'? Hegh. Qong --- Qong neH ---
'ej QongDI', tIq 'oy', wa'SanID Daw''e' je
cho'nISbogh porghDaj rInmoHlaH net Har.
yIn mevbogh mIwvam'e' wIruchqangbej.
Hegh. Qong. QongDI' chaq naj. toH, waQlaw' ghu'vam!
HeghDaq maQongtaHvIS, tugh nuq wInajlaH,
volchaHmajvo' jubbe'wI' bep wIwoDDI';
'e' wIqelDI', maHeDnIS. Qugh DISIQnIS,
SIQmoHmo' qechvam. Qugh yIn nI'moH 'oH.
Translating the Romanised Klingon text to English yeilds the following:
It either endures, or it does not endure. Now, I must consider this sentence. Is it honourable, when one endures the torpedoes and phasers of agressive fate? Or, when one obtains weapons to fight a seeming ocean of troubles, And when, by fighting, one finishes them? One dies. One sleeps. One merely sleeps. And when one sleeps, its is believed that one can finish the pain of the heart And the thousand revolts which one's body must succeed to. We are certainly willing to initiate this way to finish life. One dies. One sleeps. When one sleeps, perhaps one dreams. Well, this situation seems to be the obstacle! What we can soon dream of, while sleeping in death, Having thrown away from our shoulders the cargo of the mortal --- When we consider that, we must retreat. We must endure disasters, Because this idea makes us endure them. It lengthens the life of the disasters.
For those who have some trouble reading Klingon, Mr. Nicholas has been kind enough to provide this audio file.
The “original Klingon” is very different than the “crude Terran forgery”. The Klingon Christmas carols are also quite interesting.
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