Let's talk about Klingon Opera

Just watched DS9'S "Looking for Par'Mach in all the Wrong Places" and heard for the first time in years Worf's Klingon opera playing.

I liked it. I'd love to get a recording of it without Micheal Dorn's lyrical stylings.

How many other times do we hear Klingon opera? Is it just a DS9 phenomenon? (I assume not, which is why I put this in General, but if needs moving I have no objections.)

I recall hearing the same Klingon drinking song a couple times too, once in maybe "Way of the Warrior" and again a few episodes before LFPiatWP.

Any translation of the lyrics?

Any fan productions of original Klingon opera out there?

Am I the only one who wants to hear more Klingon opera?

--Alex

 

Not actually opera, but I did like the Klingon bridge officers singing as they went into battle in Soldiers of the Empire. You know, if Star Trek ever does a musical episode it has to be Klingon centred.

 

Not exactly Klingon opera, but some Klingon music in Voyager:

Real Life, in which the Doc programs an ideal family for himself, and Torres reprograms it to make it more realistic. The son then gets rebellious, and takes to Klingon music that he plays way too loudly.

Barge of the Dead: EMH teaching 7 a klingon drinking song (with translations).

 

The performance about Kahless and Lukara in that particular episode has translations in the script, and I believe also in the subtitles; not sure if there were any subtitles.

Lukara: MoVas ah-kee rustak!
(Today was a good day to die.)

Kahless: Kosh tomah ehpaq Lukara kaVeir.
(The day is not yet over, Lukara.)

Lukara: Ish-tovee chuCH thling nuq?
(Would you kill me too?)

Kahless: Meklo boH ka Mech.
(I smell the burning of your blood.)

Lukara: Te-doQ roos ka... Mech-TOH.
(The fire is your doing.)

There is also another line, which we don't quite know because Quark couldn't pronounce it properly:

Quark: Besh... besh-opar gree uchan -- no, gee urchun omaH te... te... te-doQ maugh-shta.
Intended translation: No, but I would gladly die by your hand if you will not mate with me this day.)

Now, like most Klingon dialogue on DS9, this exchange has little to nothing to do with Marc Okrand's tlhIngan Hol language.
However, in Klingon for the Galactic Traveler, Marc Okrand states that this is because because they are acting out a famous legend, which was originally written in a no' Hol, or "ancestral language". While part of the legend are often translated for a modern audience, the lines they are reciting are so iconic that they are rarely translated. Any Klingon with even a decent education is expected to know these lines by heart, similar to "Veni, vidi, vici." or "Et tu, Brute?", or the Finnish lyrics to the DuckTales theme song.

When an opera is performed in its original language and styling, it is called a ghe'naQ nIt, or a "pure/unsulllied opera". Devoted opera-goers are expected to to study the libretto of the opera they're about to see ahead of time, so that will understand the lines even if they don't know the language the opera is in.

In my own, highly speculative head canon, the language used in this opera is Molor's native tongue, which would have been the standard language of the Klingon Empire under Molor's reign, so it would make sense that Kahless and Lukara would both be proficient in it. Being from different parts of the Empire, perhaps the two were raised speaking two mutually unintelligible languages, but used Molor's tongue to communicate with each other.

Another reason why I believe this is that modern-day tlhIngan Hol is purported to be derived from Kahless' native tongue. However, the lines recited in Looking for par'Mach... sound nothing at all like Okrandian tlhIngan Hol, in terms of vocabulary or grammar. For example, compare the line mova' 'aqI' ruStaq (or MoVas ah-kee rustak! according to the script) with the Okrandian Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam; while it's certainly not inconceivable that the latter language evolved from the former (after all, modern-day English is barely mutually intelligible with Old English), I find it is a more satisfying conclusion that these were two separate languages, especially when you consider the similarity between the word betleH ("bat'leth", and also archaic form of "sword of honor") with the modern day batlh 'etlh ("sword of honor").

There was a Klingon opera called 'u' ("universe") which was created by a Dutch artistic team, and which has been performed both in the Netherlands (at the Hague, even!) and in Germany. They were planning a tour in the U.S., but they couldn't get the funding for it.

The libretto was translated into tlhIngan Hol by Marc Okrand and published by ; most of it was into "modern" tlhIngan Hol, but there were three cantos which were written in an ancestral form of the language. For example, the first stanza of the book goes:

tog’det q’uti ‘qoolit
‘usru Dya ‘qinmaa Dya q’op Dya at
q’uty qoot’ag’

English:
It began with destruction of everything,
Energy, gods, matter,
Everything will eventually destroy itself.

In Okrandian tlhIngan Hol, this might be written:

taghDI' Hoch QIHlu'
HoS Qunpu' Hap je
QIH'egh Hoch

We can see some similarities between the ancient and modern (or rather, future) version. For one thing, the word Dya appears to have morphed into je, and whereas in the old version it followed every word in the conjunction, in the modern version it only appears at the end.
We can also see that a has morphed into e in other places, such as in qoot'ag -> QIH'egh.
Looking at other parts of the text, we also see that this old form apparently only had a singlu plural suffix, -maa, whereas modern tlhIngan Hol there are three: -pu' (for being capable of language), -Du' (for body parts) and -mey (for everything else; possible descended from -maa).

Here you can find a chart detailing the "Great Klingon vowel shift":
http://muchmich.yolasite.com/hol.php (chart by 'ISqu', a talented Klingon-speaker and linguist)

You are not!

I am personally working on my own opera, which tells one legend of the creation of the Fek'lhr and the kos'karii, as well as how Kortar became charged with ferrying the dead.

 

^^^AWESOME

Fascinating concept for the decent of language. I have no objection to the original language being that of Molor's people and it being different from Kahless' people. That said, the events of Kahless and Molor are supposedly from the 14th Century (1000 years prior to the events of DS9) and, as you said about English v. Old English, 1000 years can lead to a lot of change.

History can make big changes to a language. With English those changes come largely for foreign intrusion into the physical place of England. The Introduction of Norse and French vocabulary and that fact that settling Vikings sort of invented a half-creole version of English they spoke with their children are the sort of factors that altered our speech so much over the past millennium. OTOH I am given to understand that modern Greenlandic is so close to Old Norse that people there can read the old Viking Sagas without too much difficulty. (I do not know Greenlandic, so I may be wrong about this.)

I suppose we don't know nearly enough about the history of Qo'NoS to make assumptions about the historical influences various local variations would have on what becomes "modern" Okrandian Klingon. But it's a fascinating idea and it makes plenty of sense.

--Alex

 

Very true, on all counts, @Albertese.

Actually, one of my early Klingon language projects (which I've unfortunately more or less abandoned) was translating Brennu-Njáls saga ("Njal the burnt's saga") directly from medieval Icelandic (around 14th century*, albeit with a modern Latin transliteration, and I believe with some degree of reconstruction) to Klingon, with the aid of a modern Icelandic version.
It was quite a few years ago, so take this with a pinch of salt, but if my recollection serves me I could get the gist of most paragraphs in the medieval Icelandic version (albeit with some struggle) and could understand most of the details in the modern Icelandic version, albeit with a fair amount of dictionary lookups (about one in 100 words; more at the beginning but fewer towards the end). It should be noted, however, that I'd read the book in Swedish a few years prior, which no doubt helped quite a bit.

[*Edit: Checked it out in the library, and it appears that it was a reprint of a 19th century version of an 18th century transcript of a 14th century text, so I can't make any promises about how "Old" this Icelandic was. It seems to roughly match this version, but with some u:s changed to v:s and all of the words written out (so maðr instead of m̃, for example).
So, take this with three pinches of salt instead of just one.]

In any event, it's my understanding that, as you say, a native Icelandic speaker could read the medieval text without much difficulty.
I don't have access to the books I used back then, but going by these two online sources (1, 2), here is a comparison of the first line:

14th century Icelandic: Morðr het maðr er kallaðr uar gigia
Modern Icelandic: Mörður hét maður er kallaður var gígja.
Swedish: Mård hette en man som var kallad* giga**.
English: Mord was the name of a man who was called** fiddle.
Klingon: loD ghaH merDur'e' 'ej HurDagh ponglu'.

*While "called" is an accurate translation of "kallaður", it would perhaps be more correct in this context to translate it as "surnamed".
**It should be noted that the word giga is somewhat archaic in Swedish, and a more modern word is fela, cognate with the English fiddle. As in Icelandic (I believe), the word is mostly used in reference to ye olden days.

This particular line is a bit misrepresentative, as it was one of the easier ones to read, but I think it still gets the point across.

Of course, this is completely different from the relationship between English and Old English; I can't even begin to read Beowulf, even though it only predates Brennu-njáls saga by about a hundred years. "Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon!"
Perhaps that is because, in the immortal words of James Nicoll:
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a [BLEEP]. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary."

As you say, we don't know enough of Klingon history to say if modern tlhIngan Hol is more like Icelandic or like English. I believe I prefer to think of the dialogue in Looking for par'Mach... as being "Molorian" for several different reasons:

1. It allows me to regard both said dialogue and the no' Hol portions of paq'batlh as being equally valid and roughly contemporary.

2. It increases Klingon linguistic diversity.

3. There is some dramatic value to having one of the greatest love stories in Klingon history told in the language of the Empire's perhaps most infamous leader.

 

I've heard that quote before but never knew who said it. Thanks for the reference.

All fine points.

Njal the Burnt's Saga sounds pretty interesting. I'll have to look into that further. Thanks again!

It's funny. One of the influences Star Trek has had on my life is making me interested in a broader ranger of real life subjects. My fascination with language began as an interest in the Klingon language. Little exposures to Klingon opera have led into an interest in actual Earth opera.

Great stuff.

--Alex

 

I firmly recommend it; it's spectacular how it can shift from being incredibly dry in one moment ("who was the son of so-and-so, who owned a boat and enjoyed soup. Then he died.") and almost surrealy over-the-top the next.
It's also considered to be "the peak of the saga tradition", at least according to Wikipedia's source, so it's a good introduction to Norse literature.

I've always imagined that Klingons would enjoy Icelandic sagas. Lots of blood feuds, duels and incredibly obtuse rituals and legal proceedings.

 

Evidently they like Shakespeare, so why not?

--Alex

 

I have enjoyed going through this thread!
Too often SciFi shows/movies depict an alien race as having only one language and only one appearance, it is great to see a diversity in the Klingon language.

I always thought Klingon Opera was a very natural combination- screaming about your angst and battles, just add some music.

 

Who composed the Klingon music we hear on Trek, the opera, and the battle songs we heat the crews sing aboard ships? I have to admit the battle song tunes are rather catchy.

 

It HAS to be said, it's so obvious... What about Klingon Explorer and Firefox!? [enter laughter]

 

I tried to make the Victory Song from TNG's "Birthright". I think it's alright.

 

I've said before in another thread I felt like Klingon's could be thought of as the equivalent of Vikings in Trek's fictional universe. Sto'vo'kor being something like Valhalla and all that. In that other thread, someone replied that they thought Klingon's reminded them more of a biker gang.

 

That was me. I called Klingons the bikers of the galaxy

Couldn't you just see the show Sons of Anarchy done with Klingon characters?

 

I've never watched Sons of Anarchy, so I can't offer up an opinion. I try not to get interested in too many of the newer shows. I watch of a couple of the crime procedurals (NCIS, Bones) and I watch the different Treks on Netflix. Lately I've gotten interested in Timeless, Bull, the new MacGyver and The Librarians.

Do you consider Klingons like biker gangs because you see them as thugs? Who prey on and conquer the weak. This may be an unpopular opinion, but sometimes that's what I think of them. Just like sometimes I don't think Vulcans act very logical, I don't always think Klingons are portrayed very honorably.

Actually I think Worf was more honorable. At least by what I would say human concepts of honor. He spared the Duras heir Toral because it wasn't his way to take revenge on someone who hadn't harmed him. Although that didn't do him any favors later on down the line.

 

I think it has more to do with their appearance and their raucous behavior when together in large groups.

And, yes, Vulcans are often not logical, especially in Enterprise and it's easy to see why humans and Andorians were so often exasperated with them.