Klingon Rick Roll

#t=68

Putting a Klingon translation together is no easy task. Klingon grammar is tough to master. Take, for example, what’s involved for a sentence as simple as “Never gonna give you up.” You don’t just look up the translation for each word and stick it in the English slots. You have to use the complicated system of prefixes and suffixes. The translation is “jIHyIntaHvIS not qajegh,” which breaks down as:

jIH-yIn-taH-vIS not qa-jegh
I-live-continuous-while never I/you-surrender
“As long as I live, I’ll never surrender you.”

And that’s not the only challenge the translators have to deal with. The Klingon vocabulary is adapted to what you might call the Klingon worldview. So a lot of concepts that show up in love songs just aren’t, y’know, relevant. The translators have to get the gist across with what they’ve got. Here’s how they make the first verse work:

Apparent love is not alien to us.
(We’re no strangers to love)
You know the laws, and I do too.
(You know the rules and so do I.)
I am certainly considering a blood oath with you.
(A full commitment’s what I’m thinking of.)
Many other males wouldn’t give you these things.
(You wouldn’t get this from any other guy.)


Read the full text here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/53236/now-you-can-rickroll-your-friends-or-enemies-klingon