The Children of Tama. I've heard rumours about them for years.
Indeed. Are they truly incomprehensible? In my experience, communication is a matter of patience, imagination. I would like to believe these are qualities we have in sufficient measure.
All S1
S1 E15Unfinished Business
Rai and Jiri at Lungha. Ri of Luwani. Luwani under two moons. Jiri of Ubaya. Ubaya of crossed roads at Lungha. Lungha, her sky grey. [greeting]
TLTamarian lst Officer
Kadir beneath Mo Moteh. [cluelessness, possibly unwillingness to understand]
The river Temarc. In winter. [Stop, cease]
Shaka. When the walls fell. [Failure]
TLTamarian lst Officer
Mirab. His sails unfurled. [travel or departure]
[repeated line]
Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra. [Two strangers uniting against a common adversary]
Temba. His arms wide. [A gift, or to give]
Uzani. His army with fist open.
A strategy? With fist open? With fist open...
His army with fist closed.
With fist closed? An army with fist open... to lure the enemy. With fist closed... To attack? That's how you communicate, isn't it? By citing example. By metaphor! Uzani's army with... with fist open.
Sokath! His eyes uncovered! [understanding, revealing truth]
Darmok on the ocean. [Alone, isolated]
Kiazi's children. Their faces wet. [death, mourning]
Zinda! His face black. His eyes red. [war, violence] Callimas at Bahar.
[paraphrasing The Epic of Gilgamesh] Gilgamesh, a king. Gilgamesh, a king at Uruk. [metaphor about ancient Babylonian legends from Earth] He tormented his subjects. He made them angry. They cried out aloud: "Send us a companion for our king! Spare us from his madness!" Enkidu, a wild man from the forest, entered the city. They fought in the temple. They fought in the streets. Gilgamesh defeated Enkidu. They became great friends. Gilgamesh and Enkidu at Uruk.
At Uruk.
The... the new friends went out into the desert together, where the Great Bull of Heaven was killing men by the hundreds. Enkidu caught the bull by the tail, Gilgamesh struck him with his sword.
Gilgamesh.
They were victorious. But... Enkidu fell to the ground, struck down by the gods; and Gilgamesh wept bitter tears, saying, "He who was my companion through adventure and hardship, [as Dathon dies] is gone forever."
Yes, Ensign Laren, please sit down -
Ensign Ro, sir.
(nonplussed) I beg your pardon?
The Bajoran custom has the family name first, the individual's name second. I am properly addressed as 'Ensign Ro'.
I'm sorry, I didn't know.
(shrugging) No, there's no reason you should. It's an old custom; most Bajora these days accept the distortion of their names in order to assimilate. (brief pause before she sits) I do not.
KKeeve
I cannot condone violence against people who are not our enemy.
Then I don't understand why you're unwilling [to help us].
KKeeve
Because... you're innocent bystanders. You were innocent bystanders for decades as the Cardassians took our homes. As they violated and tortured our people in the most hideous ways imaginable. As we were forced to flee.
We were saddened by those events, but they occurred within the borders of the Cardassian Empire.
KKeeve
And the Federation is pledged not to interfere with the internal affairs of others. How convenient that must be for you. To turn a deaf ear to those who suffer behind a line on a map.
Well, I'm not here to debate Federation policy with you, but I can offer you assistance.
KKeeve
Simply because of one terrorist attack? Well, perhaps I should have known, we should have attacked the Federation long ago.
KKeeve
We live in different universes, you and I. Yours is about diplomacy, politics, strategy. Mine is about blankets! If we were to exchange places for one night, you might better understand.
Mr. Data, see that the replicators provide a blanket for every man, woman, and child before nightfall.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Star Trek: The Next Generation pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.