An astonishing effort on the part of the leading Klingon scholars of today, telling a story of blood, honour and vengeance in true Klingon tradition. With the English-language version printed on the left and the Klingon on the right, this best-known of Shakespeare's plays, a tour-de-force of Elizabethan theatre, can now be read and understood in the great warrior tongue even by non-Klingon speakers. As General Chang (Christopher Plummer) was heard to remark in the movie Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country: "Shakespeare is better in the original Klingon." Building on the groundwork of linguist Marc Okrand, author of The Klingon Dictionary, who constructed a fully spoken language out of what began as little more than a background prop, the Klingon Language Institute in Flourtown, Pennsylvania, is dedicated to the study and teaching of Klingon as a living tongue. Translating the great works of literature, Hamlet among them, is central to their philosophy of education and discovery.
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Prepared by the Klingon Language Institute, The Klingon Hamlet presents full English and Klingon versions of Shakespeare's play side by side. Only experienced Klingon speakers will be able to fully appreciate the nuances of the Klingon-language version, but for anyone who has dabbled in the language, this is an excellent opportunity to acquire large chunks of authentic text to practise on. Most of the vocabulary used can be found in either The Klingon Dictionary or Klingon for the Galactic Traveler.
For non-Klingon speakers, as well as Shakespeare's original text there is an English-language introduction and detailed end notes, very wittily presented. These put forward the case that Shakespeare himself was a Klingon, and underline the essentially Klingon nature of this famous play, with its themes of honour and revenge. In creating the tragic figure of Hamlet, with his very un-Klingon propensity for brooding and procrastination, Shakespeare is believed to have been commenting on a culture becoming alienated from its traditional war-like virtues, and we are told that most Klingons find it a deeply disturbing play.
All in all, this is a very clever, well-presented interpretation of one of the world's most famous plays. The Klingon translation, in all the glory of its iambic pentameter, has been lovingly constructed, and is well worth the effort of reading at least a few favourite passages aloud. --Elizabeth Sourbut
About the Author
The Klingon Language Institute was founded in 1992, embracing the wilful disbelief necessary to the study of an artifical language originally created as little more than a television prop. The KLI both teaches and studies the warrior Klingon tongue and has composed original fiction in addition to translations of a range of works from Shakespeare to books of the Bible.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
One may wonder why any Terran without the slightest interest in Klingon or Star Trek would search out this book. Gentle reader, I can only recommend you to persevere. 'Khamlet,' by that well-known dramatist Wil'yam Shex'pir, is worth your attention. Forget that the plot is well-known and the Klingon language obtuse, the introduction and appendices are fascinating.
As a somewhat closet Trekkie, I bought this book out of curiousity, unable to resist the appeal of the phrase "You have not experienced Shakespeare, until you have read him in the original Klingon," as in the film Star Trek VI. Yet, I confess that with my first degree in English Literature from the University of Cambridge, I was most intrigued by the literary criticism provided. I enjoy those books that allow new insight into classics. To quote from the Introduction: "In effect, Khamlet, with its fawning courtiers, its insistence on ceremony, its healthy Realpolitik, and its underhand dealing... is nothing less than a nightmare scenario, a chilling portrayal of a malaise and decay so pervasive that it infects the hero himself."
Brief as the notes maybe in comparison to the length of the play, I feel this is what should attract the mainstream audience. All those who are interested in Shakespeare as a living playwright should consider reading this book. It is its audacity that attracts.
I can best compare this book with another reinterpretation of Star Trek, namely 'Leadership Lessons from Star Trek the Next Generation, Make it So' by Wess Roberts and Bill Ross. In this book episodes were analysed for management theories relating to leadership. This was less earnest than 'Khamlet' but no less learned.
Unusual this version of Shakespeare maybe, but I can guarantee it will be a talking point. After all, have you ever tried to say "taH pagh taH'be'!" instead of "To be or not to be"?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unable to review: consistently locks the Kindle up. Pagination is random.
20 July 2011
By RMW
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This title starts off reasonably well, but after about twenty pages in (not what the navigation system calls "page 20"), page-turns become slower and slower, eventually locking the device up. No other title on my Kindle navigates anything other than flawlessly.
After following Support's advice about a corrupted download, I redownloaded the title several times, to no avail.
When page-turns do work (at least a minute), the amount moved is not a whole page: several lines from the previous page appear at the top of the "next" one, and text disappears off the bottom. No amount of changing text font/size/style or line spacing works consistently. The concept of a page is arbitrary.
The text changes from Klingon to English and back again with no pattern (I expected a grown-up split-screen approach, or at least "Klingon on one page, English on the other"). Sometimes, you get one line of English at the top of a "page" followed by a few pages of Klingon, whereupon it changes abruptly back to English at a non-obvious point in the text with no warning.
It is impossible to read this title with any fluidity. Quite apart from the locks-up and glacial page-turns, you have to be prepared to switch languages in your mind with no notice, (or, if you are just following one language, to skip forward a few pages, having to resync your eyes to wherever the text restarts on whatever page you've now landed on).
This title is a waste of time.
After following Support's advice about a corrupted download, I redownloaded the title several times, to no avail.
When page-turns do work (at least a minute), the amount moved is not a whole page: several lines from the previous page appear at the top of the "next" one, and text disappears off the bottom. No amount of changing text font/size/style or line spacing works consistently. The concept of a page is arbitrary.
The text changes from Klingon to English and back again with no pattern (I expected a grown-up split-screen approach, or at least "Klingon on one page, English on the other"). Sometimes, you get one line of English at the top of a "page" followed by a few pages of Klingon, whereupon it changes abruptly back to English at a non-obvious point in the text with no warning.
It is impossible to read this title with any fluidity. Quite apart from the locks-up and glacial page-turns, you have to be prepared to switch languages in your mind with no notice, (or, if you are just following one language, to skip forward a few pages, having to resync your eyes to wherever the text restarts on whatever page you've now landed on).
This title is a waste of time.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars
14 reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect in its own way, and thought-provoking
4 Oct 2003
By F. P. Barbieri
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
What a mad, hilarious enterprise this is. If anyone thinks this is merely a discharge of nerdishness, let them try and translate a whole Shakespeare play in ANY language - let alone one in which expressions and ways of thought have to be invented along with metre and rhyme. And as a matter of fact, this is not merely a well-made piece of whimsy: the emphasis of its "critical" parts on the warrior identity of "Khamlet" and the meaning of his sense of disgrace provide a useful, thought-provoking contrast to much of the "terran" critical tradition, which tends to neglect that Hamlet is a prince, a swordsman, a potential military leader, and that the warrior Fortinbras thought that "He was likely, had he been put on/ To have proved most royal".
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
At last, the original Hamlet!
19 Mar 2000
By "rocketmorton"
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Finally, the general public can read Shakespeare as he should be read--in the warrior's tongue. This book, formerly only available to humans in a small run in hardback, is now out in paperback, far more accessible to students of Klingon culture. Hamlet is an insightful tale of an earlier time and a royal house fallen into such indecision and intrigue that even revenge is hesitant--a truly disturbing work.
To step back from the conceit of Wil'yam Shax'pir as Klingon dramatist and keen observer of the Klingon culture, the study and development of tlhInganHol is an amazing work, at least equaling Tolkien's linguistic inventions, and the translation of Hamlet is a true labor of lo--er, honor. I would buy a video/DVD of a performance of Hamlet in Klingon (with English subtitles) in a heartbeat, and I hope that otther works of Shakespeare are "restored."
12 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Read
3 Oct 2004
By Josh
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
For all those wondering whether this is worth the read, let me say the Kang was right when he said you can't appreciate hamlet unless you've read it in Klingon. Ejoy!
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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