n Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Chancellor Gorkon surprises the crew of the Enterprise by announcing, "You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon." For anyone hankering for just such an experience, the Klingon Language Institute has made it possible with their "restored" Klingon version of Hamlet, a paperback reprint of their 1996 limited-edition hardback.
The Klingon Hamlet resembles a fairly standard edition of one of Shakespeare's plays, complete with explanatory endnotes and an appendix on the scansion of Klingon iambic pentameter. There are some unique differences, however, between this version of Hamlet and any that have preceded it. The introduction, rather than defending Shakespeare's authorship of his own plays, or providing us with an overview of Renaissance England, details instead the importance to Klingon culture of Wil'yam Shex'pir, 23rd century Klingon playwright.
It turns out that during the years of conflict between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, the Federation propaganda machine, eager to discredit Klingon culture, forged and backdated volumes of "Shakespearean" criticism and analysis, thereby claiming the Empire's most famed playwright for itself. This information is conveyed by the Bureau of External Relations on Kronos, and there is a Federation rejoinder to these charges in Appendix III. Ultimately, it's up to readers to decide on the veracity of the Klingon claims. But as Shakespeare (er, Shex'pir) himself wrote, "The play's the thing," and most of the volume is devoted simply to the text of Hamlet, English on the left, Klingon on the right. So readers can enjoy the drama without needing to attend to any of the complicated debates about authorship.
"taH pagh taHbe'!"
(It either continues or it doesn't continue.)
The Klingon Hamlet will be best suited to readers already familiar with publications by the KLI. Those not proficient in Klingon may find themselves hopping around a bit, searching out their favorite lines from Hamlet in English to see how they sound in the Warrior's Language. After checking out the transformation of character names into Klingon--Horatio becomes Horey'So, Rosencrantz becomes RoSenQalth--most readers will want to skip to Appendix I, which is by far the most interesting portion of the book.
This section, which has literal translations of hundreds of lines, is where the translators' real creativity shines through, because they have transformed the sense of the play to conform with Klingon culture. Seeing famous lines like "What a piece of work is man" rendered as "A Klingon is an impressive specimen," or "I must be cruel, only to be kind" as "I threaten you, only to help you," can be laugh-out-loud funny. Ultimately, though, these stellar twenty pages may not be worth the price of admission for everyone.
The Klingon Shakespeare Restoration Project, the team at the KLI responsible for The Klingon Hamlet, is already in the process of translating Macbeth and Much Ado about Nothing (literally translated, The Confusion Is Great Because of Nothing). Whether these projects will be of interest only to a handful of Klingon fans and specialists, or popular with the wider public, may depend on The Klingon Hamlet's ability to convert readers to the joys of the original Shex'pir. "DaH tamchoH Hoch (The rest is silence)."
