Sinda, his face black, his eyes red

[asakiyume]

Prompted by being on the Darmok panel at this year's Readercon, I rewatched the Darmok episode of TNG, paying close attention to all the phrases the Tamarians use, and then just this weekend we rewatched it yet again, this time to show it to the healing angel's significant other, who had never seen it.

I wanted to see how much of the conversation between the Tamarians that flabbergasted the Enterprise crew at the beginning of the episode would seem comprehensible once you've seen the whole episode. Some things are pretty figure-out-able. The viewer can probably guess at least as quickly as Picard that "Shaka, when the walls fell" means "doesn't work/no good/failure/frustration/defeat" and that "Temba, his arms wide" means to offer something/to give something. And it's pretty easy to guess what "Kiteo, his eyes closed" and "Sokath, his eyes uncovered" mean. (Side note: from the language we hear, we might conclude the Tamarians have only one sex ... I feel compelled now to imagine all the figures referenced who aren't given a pronoun as female)


Sokath, his eyes uncovered!



Several other phrases get used more than once, though. For example, "Mirab, his sails unfurled." The Tamarian first officer says this when he's arguing with Dathon, the Tamarian captain, and then again at the end of the episode. I'd like to propose it means "Let's set off/let's go/time to go"

They go back and forth, Dathon saying "Darmok" and his first officer arguing back "Mirab," until the captain says "Temarc, the river Temarc." At that, the first officer immediately stands down. Earlier Dathon says it when the crew is laughing over the inability of the Enterprise crew to communicate, and everyone stops laughing, so it seems to be an assertion of authority, something to call people into line and remind them who's boss. Picard uses it at the end when he contacts the Tamarian ship when it's on the verge of destroying them--his assertion of authority. Then he tells the story of what happened on the planet, Tamarian style.

Another phrase that gets used twice is "Sinda, his face black, his eyes red." Dathon cries this when he's in deep pain from his wounds, and his first officer shouts it as an expression of anger when Picard hails them at the end--so it's clearly a "Curses/Damn it/Damn this--and you"-type thing.

One that's only used once but seems pretty immediately intelligible, along the lines of "Sokath, his eyes uncovered," is "Kiazi's children, their faces wet."

I was thinking just as I typed this how I would love to know the story of Kiazi's children, and then I was thinking, what if we told that story the way Picard told the story of what happened on the planet? The could be very cool: a Tamarian-style origin story for the phrase, the way Picard's story is an origin story for "Picard and Dathon at El-Adrel."

Of course, in writing one, if you're using nothing but phrases like this, you've opened up an infinitely nesting opportunity for more such stories.

... I may have to try this. GET READY, AO3!

PS, if you should happen to be wanting the transcript of the Darmok episode, you can read it here.

Comments

[sovay]

... I may have to try this. GET READY, AO3!

I look forward!

[asakiyume]

I've been musing about whether to attempt it using references people actually know (as in the episode, where they reference Juliet on her balcony), or to make them up entirely, as in the episode. The former could produce something like the effect of actually being Tamarian--but the references would be haphazard and all over the place, and would have so many significances that I couldn't guarantee that people would pick up on what I wanted them to pick up on--whereas the latter would make for much easier storytelling, but without the emotional resonance.

[sovay]

--whereas the latter would make for much easier storytelling, but without the emotional resonance.

You would have to build in the emotional resonance, as the episode does: as any secondary worldbuilding does. I would be really interested to see what that looked like.

[asakiyume]

I think that's the way I'm going to go--it's what appealed in the episode itself: the use of language.

[sartorias]

Jump into the fic world! It's marvelously freeing!

[asakiyume]

Hahahaha, well, we'll see.