The Klingon Hamlet

Front Cover
Simon and Schuster, 2001 M05 19 - 240 pages
For too long, readers throughout the Federation have been exposed to The Tragedy of Khamlet, Son of the Emperor of Qo'nos, that classic work of Klingon™ literature, only through inadequate and misleading English translations. Now at last, thanks to the tireless efforts of the Klingon Language Institute, this powerful drama by the legendary Klingon playwright, Wil'yam Shex'pir, can be appreciated in the elegance and glory of its original tongue.
This invaluable volume contains the complete text of the play, along with an English translation for easy consultation and comparison. In addition, an incisive introduction explains the play's crucial importance in Klingon culture, while copious notes illustrate how the debased English version diverges from the original, often distorting and even reversing the actual meaning of the verses.
Khamlet, the Restored Klingon Version, is a work that belongs in the library of every human who hopes truly to understand what it means to be Klingon.

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Contents

ACT I
2
ACT II
44
ACT III
76
ACT IV
118
ACT V
152
APPENDICES
189
Copyright

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Page 176 - tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes?
Page 64 - I have of late — but wherefore I know not — lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises ; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory ; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, — why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
Page 80 - That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?
Page 82 - Get thee to a nunnery ; why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners ? I am myself indifferent honest ; but yet I could accuse me of such things, that it were better my mother had not borne me ; I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious ; with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in.
Page 36 - Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange and unnatural. HAMLET. Haste me to know 't, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge.
Page 34 - I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres...
Page 32 - Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin's fee; And for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself?
Page 164 - I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers Could not with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum.
Page 170 - Why, man, they did make love to this employment; They are not near my conscience; their defeat Does by their own insinuation grow: Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes Between the pass and fell incensed points Of mighty opposites.

About the author (2001)

The Klingon Language Institute is a nonprofit organization with the mission of providing a forum for individuals interested in Klingon linguistics to learn and exchange ideas.

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