Karim Diané

            On Tuesday morning I revised my translation of the fourth verse of “Ballade de la chnoufe” (Ballad of the Snuff) by Boris Vian. 

            In my Christian’s Translations blog I published “Fishing for Millionaires”, my translation of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg and posted the lyrics on Facebook. The next unfinished translation on my Gainsbourg list is “Chaussures noires et pompes funèbres” (Black Shoes and Funeral Parlours). I don’t see the song on YouTube but it might be part of the Zizi Jeanmaire concert at Casino de Paris that I’ve downloaded. It’s also the name of an unfinished screenplay by Gainsbourg that I found the transcript for. I’ll look a little closer tomorrow. 

            I weighed 88.15 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Martin acoustic during song practice and it only stayed in tune for one song near the end. 

            Around midday I did some touch-ups on the bathroom walls with the pinkish purple paint. I covered the blue overlaps where the shelves meet the walls. I also evened out the places where the wall meets the trim that divides the wall from the wall tiles below and where the doorframe touches the wall. It’s still a bit uneven and so I’ll try again tomorrow to straighten it out. 

            I weighed 88.55 kilos before lunch.

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown. The heat is on in the apartment and so it was nice to be out in the cool air. I stopped at Freshco to buy seven bags of red grapes and price matched them with the Real Canadian Superstore’s price of $3.95 a kilo. 

            I weighed 88.55 kilos at 18:30. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 20:10. 

            I tried again to digitize the cassette tape of me reciting two poems that has come out wrong for the last two days of trying. It either came out distorted or with extreme fluctuations of volume. This time it seemed relatively clear and I was able to control some of the volume changes with my hand constantly on the gain knob. Afterwards though I decided to try to even out the volume in Effects but the result was distorted and so I undid all the amplifications and decreases but afterwards the distortion seemed to still be there. Next time I’ll avoid effecting amplifications and see if that helps. 

            I made a new batch of gravy with pork rib drippings and had some with a potato and three ribs while watching episode 4 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. 

            The cadets are on their first space trip on the Starship Athena as part of their Academy Studies. The Doctor creates a debating competition and Caleb turns out to be a natural debater while Kraag freezes because of his fear of public speaking. Then Kraag is called to Captain Nahla’s office where he is informed that there has been a crash of a Klingon ship carrying most of the members of the eight houses and his parents may have also been killed. Kraag does not react and says he said his goodbyes to his parents a long time ago. But now he suddenly wants to debate and asks that the subject be a Klingon diaspora. He will take the position against the Federation providing assistance to the Klingons while Caleb will argue for it. 

            In a flashback Kraag remembers his life as a refugee on Krios Prime. His brother Thar is a traditional Klingon warrior and hunter but Thar sees in Kraag that he has a different path as a healer and encourages him to contact the Federation to help him realize that goal. Thar dies because his father refuses to seek the medical help of the Federation. Kraag’s father takes him hunting and urges him to kill his first bird of prey but Kraag refuses. He believes that bravely pursuing non-violence is also a warrior’s path. His father aims his bow and arrow but misses the bird and appears angry. Shortly after that Kraag’s parents leave Krios and abandon him there. Kraag contacts Starfleet and we return to the present. 

            Starfleet finds an uninhabited planet that is very similar to the lost Klingon homeworld of Kronos but the problem is that the Klingons would not accept it as a gift from the Federation. 

            Kraag argues there is no protection from loss. It is an existential right for Klingons to define themselves. Caleb says Kaarg stabbed his family in the back. They begin to get personal and so they are both disqualified from the debate. 

            Thok comes to talk with Kraag. She is Klingon on her mother’s side and Jem Hadar on her father’s. He tells her the story of his father missing the bird after Kraag refused to shoot it. She says a Klingon’s aim becomes sharper when angry and so his father deliberately missed in order to secretly honour Kraag’s chosen path of peace and to let him go. 

            Kraag asks to be allowed to return to the debate. He argues that the Federation loses its identity if it insists on Klingons losing theirs. The Klingon problem requires a Klingon solution. 

            With the Athena at the front, Starfleet pretends that they are challenging the Klingons for possession of the planet Faan Alpha. A battle for the planet takes place with Starfleet holding back when they could easily win against the weakened Klingon forces. Starfleet surrenders and the Klingons take the planet as their new homeworld. 

            Kraag is now a warrior because of his victory and he can now eat the spicy warrior stew. 

            Kraag is played by Karim Diané, who was born in LA but descended from the Mandingo tribe of West Africa. He competed in the X Factor USA singing competition. He developed a following on YouTube by posting videos of himself singing in the shower. He co-starred in the series One of Us is Lying. As Kraag on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy he is the first gay Klingon.