What is pissing you off this time?

[glatt]

Years ago, in college, I tried my hand at translating a poem from German.

It was actually kind of fun. I translated it directly into English, and completely ruined the flow and feeling of the poem. This beautiful poem became awkward and forced. So I decided to rework the poem to keep the imagery and overall meaning but chose words that flowed better and fit the structure of the poem. Basically, I translated it twice. Once from German to English, and once from English into pretty English.

I gained huge respect for good translations after that exercise.

Reminds me of another story.

We had a patent case go to trial, and the original documents were in Japanese so both parties had translators in the court room. We were trying to show that the inventors made this amazing discovery, and the other team was trying to say the discovery was nothing special. The original Japanese documents described the discovery with a Japanese word that meant "better than" or "superior" or something like that. The judge stopped the witness testimony at one point when he realized the importance of the translation of this one word and he asked each translator to explain the meaning of the word. They were throwing different English words out and the lawyers on each side were kind of coaching them to come up with meanings that helped their side. Our translator explained that the Japanese word is a word of motion and that it evokes jumping or leaping and so she offered up "leaps and bounds better" as a translation. The other teams' translator got so excited about this translation, because it captured the feeling of the word, that she readily agreed that this was the correct meaning before looking to her team's attorneys for their approval. They were not pleased. "leaps and bounds better" is not a phrase you want to have recognized by the court as the correct translation when you are trying to downplay the importance of a discovery.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by anonymous

Why buy a dog and bark yourself?
Why engage a skilled linguist to edit the (already good) translation of your powerful and moving text if you're going to tinker with the results to ensure that it reads like a translation, and has far less impact as a result.
Why on earth would a professional linguist and native speaker of a language have a better understanding of the implications and nuances of the words and phrases they suggest than any dictionary or simplistic word search on the Internet or assumption based on the word in the original language which resembles the translator's suggestion but is a linguistic "false friend"?

I know the thing you talk exact.

"I've got a nephew who is really into photography and just got a new camera, let's have him to do the photos."
"My girlfriend was very artsy in high school, she can design the brochure."

The thing I find it hard to wrap my mind around and even harder to accept is the truth that people only want 70% and if you give them 80% they will think it is 100% because that is all they are capable of seeing/appreciating/understanding.

That, and every asshole with a hammer thinks he's a carpenter.

[nowhereman]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

I know the thing you talk exact.

"I've got a nephew who is really into photography and just got a new camera, let's have him to do the photos."
"My girlfriend was very artsy in high school, she can design the brochure."

The thing I find it hard to wrap my mind around and even harder to accept is the truth that people only want 70% and if you give them 80% they will think it is 100% because that is all they are capable of seeing/appreciating/understanding.

That, and every asshole with a hammer thinks he's a carpenter.

The thing that bothers me most about all of this is that there is no respect/appreciation for a craft that one (foot3, myself and others) have taken a lifetime to become proficient at. It has become too easy to churn out mediocre work that most will accept as good.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by nowhereman

The thing that bothers me most about all of this is that there is no respect/appreciation for a craft that one (foot3, myself and others) have taken a lifetime to become proficient at. It has become too easy to churn out mediocre work that most will accept as good.

AMEN.

Soon enough Apple will come out with an app that makes you think you are tasting honey, so...

[nowhereman]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

AMEN.

Soon enough Apple will come out with an app that makes you think you are tasting honey, so...

Too late...
https://www.beefreehonee.com/
"Saving bees one apple at a time"
It's "honey" made from apples. Of course they don't factor in the need for bees to pollinate the apples...............

[Pico and ME]

Glatt, what was the poem? Was it Der Erlkonig?

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Pico and ME

Glatt, what was the poem? Was it Der Erlkonig?

Yeah. Exactly!

I think I posted it on the internet somewhere.

[Gravdigr]

Pico!!!!!

[Pico and ME]

Hi Grav!

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hey Pico.

[Pico and ME]

Hi Bruce

[fargon]

Hi Pico.

[Pico and ME]

Fargon

[DanaC]

Pico!!!!

[Pico and ME]

Hi Dana!