This pattern appears in the Babylon 5 season 3 episode ‘Walkabout’:
(It appears on the side of Kosh’s ship.)
Does anyone know what it means/what it says, and whether it is in Vorlon?
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6According to the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 page for this episode (midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/062.html) JMS himself had this to say: Q:: Will we ever find out what was written on the side of Kosh's ship? A:: What, do I look like someone who can speak Vorlon? Oh, sure, a few words, mainly "Where is the bathroom" and "What's that smell?" but to translate something like that...pfsh, please. A:: (Answer: probably not.) Q:: What did the ship say? A:: "Welcome to Hawaii." – JohnWinkelman Jan 26 '15 at 14:18
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Hmmm looking into the vorlon letters it appears to say John .E?KA less than amazing – MrDobilina Jan 26 '15 at 14:21
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So at least we know it's vorlon - that should answer part of the question! – Einer Jan 26 '15 at 14:33
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@MrDobilina: I think Thunderforge was suggesting that the body of your question suffers from being mainly made up of spoiler tags, not that @alexwlchan’s title included spoilers (which it really doesn’t). – Paul D. Waite Jan 26 '15 at 16:00
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During the show's run, J. Michael Straczynski answered this question on IRC in a facetious manner:
What was the message?
"Welcome to Hawaii."
There was apparently a hideous malfunction...they never talked about it thereafter....
jms
According to the Lurker's Guide page for Walkabout, he gave another response as well, but I haven't been able to find it on JMS' official IRC archive:
Will we ever find out what was written on the side of Kosh's ship?
What, do I look like someone who can speak Vorlon? Oh, sure, a few words, mainly "Where is the bathroom" and "What's that smell?" but to translate something like that...pfsh, please.
(Answer: probably not.)
This second quote does clearly state that the message is in Vorlon, which answers one of your questions. Given JMS' evasion of what it means and the second quote having him specifically say that we will probably not ever get an answer, it seems clear that if there was a translation that we were never intended to know what it was. One more mystery in the wide universe that we will never know.
answered Jan 26 '15 at 14:47
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The writing on the Vorlon ship reads "John Teska". John Teska was the senior computer animator at the time. sourced from imdb
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As previously stated @pete, it cannot translate to that given the knowledge we already have of vorlon letters. pre15.deviantart.net/318d/th/pre/i/2007/113/0/c/… Meaning it translates to John .E?KA – MrDobilina Jul 2 '15 at 8:32
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4I don't think that IMDB or a Deviant Art are reliable sources for an answer like this. – Thunderforge Aug 25 '15 at 13:28
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Considering how Kosh1 spoke to Sheridan, I'm guessing the message on the side of the ship reads either:
- "You are the one"
- "I have always been here"
- "If you go to ZaHaDum, you will die"
- "so it begins"
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7Hi and welcome to SciFi Stack Exchange! It's great that you were eager to answer, but we strive for answers that are sourced and only base our answers off of speculation if there is nothing to go off of. For Babylon 5, there is a wealth of information from JMS, especially through IRC in the show's initial run, and there happens to be an official answer that is different from yours. Hopefully this doesn't discourage you; we'd love to see you include more researched answers in the future! – Thunderforge Jan 26 '15 at 14:54
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Pure heart He is the chosen one
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3This may be true, but it would be a stronger answer if it gave some reason or basis on which we could check. E.g. a Vorlon-English translation dictionary or similar. – Brythan Nov 23 '17 at 2:39
