Page 1 of 1
Translation help!
Posted: 02 Oct 2022 04:20
by mandokotir
I'm trying to translate just a small phrase, "may death never stop you." It comes from My Chemical Romance which is my favourite band, and I think it sounds like something a mando would say so I've been trying to see if I can get it in mando'a. The best I can get is nuur kyr'am draar ???? gar, which would be a literal translation and I'm not even sure the words and grammar of that would make sense (plus I cannot find a word that would be similar to stop). Any help would be greatly appreciated (:
Re: Translation help!
Posted: 02 Oct 2022 15:08
by Tra'nau
The first thing I think of would be “Ke’nu’duumi kyr’am gevir gar”. To break this down:
Ke’nu’duumi
Imperative (command) prefix + negative prefix + “allow” (conjugated)
May + don’t + allow
(Note- to imply a less harsh tone (I don’t know much about how the band uses the phrase), you could replace this chunk with ‘vercopa’ and replace ‘gevir’ with ‘nu’gevi’)
Kyr’am
Death (side note- literally means ‘end-change’)
Gevir (infinitive)
Verb meaning ‘to stop’- derived from ‘gev!’, a command meaning ‘stop’ or ‘pack it in’. Could be gevar or with another vowel replacing the ‘i’- that was the first thing that occurred to me.
Gar
Pronoun for ‘you’- it looks like you knew that already
Overall, my rough translation comes back as, structured as a command, “Do not allow death to stop you.” (The option with vercopa is something like “I hope death will never stop you- you can see how the tone is different)
I hope this helps! If there’s any part of this that you disagree with/feel doesn’t fit/don’t like overall, let me know, and I’d be happy to change it up or help you do so on your own!
Re: Translation help!
Posted: 02 Oct 2022 17:31
by mandokotir
Tra'nau wrote: ↑02 Oct 2022 15:08
The first thing I think of would be “Ke’nu’duumi kyr’am gevir gar”. To break this down:
Ke’nu’duumi
Imperative (command) prefix + negative prefix + “allow” (conjugated)
May + don’t + allow
(Note- to imply a less harsh tone (I don’t know much about how the band uses the phrase), you could replace this chunk with ‘vercopa’ and replace ‘gevir’ with ‘nu’gevi’)
Kyr’am
Death (side note- literally means ‘end-change’)
Gevir (infinitive)
Verb meaning ‘to stop’- derived from ‘gev!’, a command meaning ‘stop’ or ‘pack it in’. Could be gevar or with another vowel replacing the ‘i’- that was the first thing that occurred to me.
Gar
Pronoun for ‘you’- it looks like you knew that already
Overall, my rough translation comes back as, structured as a command, “Do not allow death to stop you.” (The option with vercopa is something like “I hope death will never stop you- you can see how the tone is different)
I hope this helps! If there’s any part of this that you disagree with/feel doesn’t fit/don’t like overall, let me know, and I’d be happy to change it up or help you do so on your own!
This makes so much sense, thank you! I was feeling like it needed to be reworded into something different instead of word for word, but I could not think of how to do that. May feels more formal to me and not super mando, more of a jedi thing. I think it being structured as a command makes perfect sense and really fits into the vibe of canon mando'a. Thank you so much again, and thank you for the breakdown of it all!
edit: may death never stop you is the name of a compilation album, so it's meaning and use can be taken however you like. i dont think theyve ever actually said it anywhere else (that I know of--the album was released after they broke up). Maybe my character would choose to say it differently based on who he's talking to, with ke’nu’duumi as a demand during a serious situation, and vercopa as more of a gentle encouragement with friends or family
Re: Translation help!
Posted: 02 Oct 2022 19:50
by Tra'nau
Happy to help!
Thanks for the explanation of the phrase. I agree with the usage for each variation that you described- almost brings to mind k’oyacyi.