'ay' Soch - qun yIvoq (Trust History)

(5/3/2022) Being haunted is surprisingly similar to having a cat. Weird scratching and wailing noises keep you up at night, you come home to find various items of value damaged, and your apartment feels suffused with a sense of impatience and ingratitude. Yes, you've got a lot of energy to burn, but I need to finish writing this exam! You may not think much of my job, but it's how I pay for all these cans of fancy feast and Premiere Pro subscriptions, jay'! 

Ahem. Anyway, after I posted that my ghost had seemed to have disappeared and then I didn't post for another five months, you may have thought that the ghost was indeed gone. But no, if anything I would say the haunting has increased. I've just been busy.

But with no more delay, let's get to today's song, qun yIvoq, a song about a surveyor turned historian turned governor, with a thing or two to say about the past. If you don't know the word for history, you will after this song. qun yIvoq (trust history), qun yIchoq (preserve history), qun yI'Ij (listen to history), qun yIQorgh (care for history), qun yIqaD (challenege history), etc, etc. The song is based on the words of jIy qumwI' (Governor Jiy), who founded the research outpost on this planet we've been exploring because she felt that the companies she worked for were not being sufficiently cautious with the remains of an ancient alien race that used to live on the planet. "not yoqpu'vam wIqIHlaH, vabDot bong pu'jIn nutey'pu' chaH," she says. (We will never be able to meet these humanoids, yet they have accidentally confided a map to us).

Her condemnation of the ruling class is quite clear in lines like "qun qon charghwI'pu', qatlh qun qar qonbe'?" (History is written by the victors, why do they not write an accurate history?). But it is mixed with her own regret for having taken some artifacts from the planet and sold them when she was first working there: qunwIj tlhIn boqelDI' Do'Ha' jItuH (When you consider my own history, unfortunately I am ashamed). Ultimately this guilt became the determination that led her to run for governor and change the way operations on the planet were completed. 

Now, I know what you're thinking: "What does this have to do with the cliffhanger from the Suchtuv QonoS back in December??" Ponder no longer, for the answers are below. And just to try something new, I recorded myself reading today's story: 'ay' Soch, so check that out if you want.