Please note that the poems and essays on this site are copyright and may not be reproduced without the author's permission.


Sunday 7 February 2010

Klaatu's Message


.

File:Gort.jpg




Klaatu the sympatico space ambassador
indicated in his cryptic message
to the discombobulated earthling girl

what should be said to Gort
the interstellar good-guy robocop
in the event anything bad happened to him
(this being Earth, something was bound to)

"Gort, Klaatu alive is not"
"Gort, [stop] Klaatu being dead"
[nikto barada == not alive]

Other suggested translations:
"Shut your eyes block the insanity"
"Don't blink or you'll miss the truth"




File:Klaatu.JPG




Klaatu himself later helpfully appeared on the internet
to explain that he had been speaking Sumerian:
KLAATU BARADA NIKTO
Kal-la-Tu Bar-AD-DA NI-TU ==
Barren-desert outside-shout-with self-to be Empty-desert Thing-interference-to be-to interfere
"Gort, interfere with making the outside a desert"
"Gort, prevent further proliferation of nuclear weapons"
"Gort, stop humans from emitting CO2 before it's too late"
"Gort, back up the ship and leave the motor running, intervention was never going to work"






File:KlaatuandGortdepart.jpg






Gort: screenshot from The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951 (20th Century Fox)
Klaatu: screenshot from The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951 (20th Century Fox)
Gort and Klaatu depart: screenshot from The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951 (20th Century Fox)

4 comments:

Elmo St. Rose said...

The Day the Earth Stood Still
is a paranoid conception.....
but just because you're
paranoid doesn't mean they're
not out to get you

Anonymous said...

Miscommunication may lead to disaster.

TC said...

Indeed paranoia and miscommunication seem endemic on this planet of ours.

But as it doesn't appear we'll ever have a better one to go home to, I suppose all we can do is make the best of things as they are and just go on misunderstanding one another and taking everything the wrong way, right?

Poor Klaatu, though. He certainly could have used a better roadmap.

(Only kidding... actually I am quite sure Klaatu and Gort, had they traveled the entire universe, could not have landed on a planet populated by beings more pleasantly sentient than Lucy and Elmo.)

Julia said...

I love all those new translations! The best is the one thast says "leave the motor running..."! :-)