R> �You haven�t experienced Shakespeare, until you have read him in the original Klingon.� Chancellor Gorkon, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 1991. r>r>r> We thought we were alone. We aren�t. We thought William Shakespeare was from our own cultural heritage. Well, it could be that he is no The Klingons are a race �whose culture is based on a warrior code honoring strength, combat and ritual�. They live by a certain hierarchical structure of Houses, each House having a particular role in the Empire. A war-liking race, they tend to enjoy hand-to-hand combat with weapons like the bat�tehl. For them, it is very important to die an honorable death. Those include death in battle, preferably hand-to-hand combat, and death due to age. They frown upon mere assassinations, stabbing in the backs, and such practices. Also, tradition is an important element in their way of thgh

A great Klingon dramatist, Wil�yam Shex�pir, wrote one of the Klingon finest plays, entitled Khamlet. It is an astute observation of Klingon character and politics. The Klingon High Council claims that humans (of the Federation) stole this play from them, and adapted it under the title Hamlet. And all the secondary literature that has been written over the ages is also forgeries. The federation wanted it to enter the collective unconscious. They seem to have succeeded better than they had ever expected. The Federation could easily say the same about the Klings.r>
Both stories have incredible similarities. Actually, so much so that it is quite possible to say one is the copy of the other. It is therefore impossible to determine who stole from whom for both versions seem to be transcriptions from one another. r>r> Khamlet is the son of King (emperor) Khamlet Sr., who is killed while his son is abroad studying. Khamlet comes back from Vulcan, a planet inhabited by a race (Vulcans) that believes in logic as the philosophy of life. They therefore seem very unemotional and cold. This is paralleled in Hamlet, where the protagonist comes back from Wittenberg, where he is also studying. That Wittenberg is the birthplace of Protestant belief, a more �logical� way of looking at God, is more than merely a coinciden. r>
Furthermore, all the doubts that Khamlet undergoes might be influenced by the Vulcan teachings. It is quite clear that Khamlet has changed since his studies abroad. A sense of unease is apparent throughout the play. This unease is at its height in Khamlet�s soliloquy in Act III, Scene I with the following: �taH pagh taHbe�. DaH mu�tlheghvam vIqelnIs.� r>r>The fact that Khamlet comes home from Vulcan means that this play takes place somewhere in the 23rd Century, when the Klingons and the Vulcans are on amicable terms. It is a political situation that has not always been like that. A few centuries later the Romulans (aided by the House of Duras) destroyed the Klingon outpost of Khitomer, resulting in a long period of unrest between the two races.r>r> Both heroes come back home and feel like strangers in their own homes. This is not only due to the sad news, which brings them home, but also what happens there. In other words: the marriage of their uncle to their other mother.r>r> This feeling of unease is also due to the uncertainty of Khamlet. He is far from being a stereotypical Klingon, in fact he is quite un-Klingon. Khamlet is sometimes considered a revenge tragedy. If it were the case, the evil character would have been dispatched within the first ten minutes of the play, with great Klingon efficiency. This race believes in the power of the stronger, and a duel would have taken place. Khamlet should have challenged his uncle to a battle. His father�s honor should be purged. Afterall, the sins of the father are transcended onto the son in Klingon civilization. If a father has not met an honorable death (e.g., in battle) it is up to the son to extract revenge. Yet, this is not the case. The way Khamlet should be read is in fact the duality of Khamlet. He is the representation of a feeling of the times. It is a sense that represents itself through letting go of the old values, and embracing a more peace-like and intellectual way. In this light, the play is more �conservative� propaganda, if such terms are applicable in Klingon culture. It focuses on the threat that a softer, gentler approach of politic and thought poses to the management of the Empire. This danger is represented at the end of the play, where most of the characterdi

But not only Khamlet is quite un-Klingon. Tlhaw�DIyus (Claudius) is also quite atypical. When in Act IV, Scene v, layerteS (Laertes) storms in and insults the King, he responds with flattery instead of simply slaying his blasphemous kinsman, which would have been the traditional Klingon response When in Act III, Scene iii, Khamlet enters his uncle�s chambers, and overhears him praying, he doesn�t kill him. Humans interpreted this as the main character having doubts and applying theological laws, which limit him. The Klingon, on the other hand, consider Khamlet to finally returning to his roots, and embracing Klingon traditions of honor. After all, Klingons abiding the code of honor are not allowed to kill someone by stabbing him or her in the back. It is considered highly dishonoring, and an unworthy death for the Klingon who dies. And it would have meant dishonor for Khamlet and his Hou. r>
In that sense, the perspective that most humans have, considering Hamlet mad, is virtually unknown in Klingon culture. They simply see him as coming to his senses, and abiding to Klingon traditions. Even the scene where Khamlet maliciously rejects Ophelia (in Klingon: �ovelya), the Klingons do not see this as a sign of madness but a clear sign of sanity. It must be said that Klingon mating rituals are very different from ours. Inflicting pain, broadly speaking, is one of the signs that the ritual has been initiated For the alien culture, the play focuses on the return of traditional values more than revenge, or even madness. This point is even more obvious when the final scene is taken into consideration. The fact that almost everybody dies is a clear sign of this. Leartes� (layerteS) death is nearly mandatory for the return to �normalcy�, for he was the one who, from the old way of thinking, was corrupted by the King into the new ways. The Klingons considered this as a mortal �sin�. The newer ways have also another effect on him. As he and Khamlet play in Act V, Scene II, he fails to acknowledge the fact that his adversary was able to hit him, making complete his fall from �grace�, or in this case the old fashion values. A true Klingon would take pride in the fact that his blood flows in glorious battle. The queen Gertrude (gertlhuD) also had to die, according to the unwritten rules, because she did not respect the old ways or the old King Khalmet Sr.. She did die in an honorific way though, by sacrificing herself for her son, something any mother would have done. In doing so, she gains access to the Klingon equivalent of paradise. The main aim of any Klingon is dying an honorable death. r>r> Now, King Claudius� (tlhaw�DIyus) death is something that is mandatory. After all, he disturbed the old ways, by killing Khamlet Sr., and in doing so, set off the entire chain of events. Actually, assassinating his brother, the head of the House (and the Empire), is something really despicable in his culture. That is why it is only normal that he meets his maker. Even near death, after being stabbed with the poisonous blade, he feigns innocence. That is truly despicable and extremely un-Kling. r>
Khamlet�s death serves a double purpose. First, his death is mandatory for he was wounded by the poisonous blade, and in doing so, serves the aim of being tragic. He dies because of events that are from the beginning on out of his control. The second motivation is more moralizing. He serves as example for the Klingon audience that liberal, intellectual way that he incarnates is bad for him as a Klingon, and more importantly for the Empire. Through his death, the old order is established once more by returning to the essence of Klingon-hood, honor. The return of Fortinbras Jr. clearly demonstrates the old ways prevail over the newer, weaker one As in the other plays studied in class, there is a generational gap present in Hamlet (or its Klingon equivalent). On side one can find Hamlet Sr. (or Khamlet Sr.) along side with Fortinbras Sr. (vortIbraS) and his son. On the other side there are all the other characters. Why such a distinction? Well, because of each character�s way of thought. The first three represent �classical� Klingon thought, and the lifestyle according to it. That means honor, battle, and ritual. These characters do not shun battle, nor do they fear it. Their words are not shrouded in metaphors nor do they use rhetoric. The latter group of characters are all diverging from that idealized thought pattern. These patterns manifest themselves through their actions and their words. Selfishness, thirst for power, frailty, self-doubt, self-pity are signs of that. Normally, the Klingon thirst for power is expressed in glorious battle and not plotting in the shadows, as does Polonius (polonyuS). Their speech is not straight forward as a normal Klingon�s. They hide behind theiwos.

A character that has until now hardly been mentioned is Ophelia (�ovelya). It is because she poses a riddle even for the Klingons. Her extreme sensitivity is uncommon in that culture. Even the most backward Klingon is never subjected to such temper tantrums as she is. The way she throws herself to Khamlet�s feet is highly honorless. If Klingons brand one character within the play as mad, it is beyond the shadow of a doubt Ophelia. As previously stated the Klingon mating rituals are more brutal than our own cultural conventions. After all, we do not hit and hurt our potential mate. And Khamlet, in his rejection of her, does what any Klingon would have done. The pun of �Get thee to a nunnery� would have been in Klingon harsher thath.

This modern-day rewriting of the classic play, or the assimilation of it by another culture, can be seen as the success of the play and its author. The themes are not only personal, not held back by the bounds of this planet, but in fact, universal. They are equally, albeit differently, appreciated by two totally different cultures, on other sides of the galaxy. Where one culture focuses more on the issue of madness, the other explores the socio-economic side of the play, by reflecting their reality in the play. Whatever the truth behind the play and its origins, one cannot ignore the sheer mastery of its author, and openness of the play. It is so open that centuries later, people still discuss it, and try to honor it in the best way they can imagine. And maybe that is the real truth: honor the play by not forgetting it, not now, not ever. r>r>r> Bibliographyr> Schuster, H., Rathbone, W., Trek: The Unauthorized A-Z, Voyager, 1996.r> The Klingon Language Institution, The Klingon Hamlet, Pocket Books, 1996.r> Maynard Hutchins, R. (Editor-in-Chief), Greatest Books of the Western World, Vol. 27, Shakespeare: II, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1997.r> R>R>R>