Years ago I translated Frère Jacques into Klingon for a linguistic party.

My translation seems to have got lost (unless one of my readers would happen to have kept a copy), so I thought I’d better redo it:

yIvem yaS yaq! yIvem yaS yaq!

bIQong’a'? bIQong’a'?

pengmey DaQoybe”a’? pengmey DaQoybe”a’?

bum! bum! bum! bum! bum! bum!

Literally, this means: Wake up, officer Yaq! Are you sleeping? Don’t you hear the torpedoes all over the place? Boom! Boom! Boom!

I think most of it should be correct Klingon, but I’m only guessing that ‘boom’ would be bum. If anybody reading this speaks Klingon more fluently than me, I’d be happy to correct any errors.

Update: Here’s the lyrics in IPA for those who are not aware of the conventions of the Klingon transliteration scheme: /jɪˈvɛm jɑʂ jɑqʰ – mbɪˌqχoʊŋˈʔɑʔ – ˈpʰɛŋmɛɪ ɳɖɑˌqχɔɪmbɛʔˈʔɑʔ – mbuːm mbuːm mbuːm/.

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