Category: translation

subtitles and subtexts

There’s been plenty of talk about the latest Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law. Downey himself caused some of the controversy with his comments on The Letterman Show in December. (Currently on YouTube: part 1 and part 2.)

The discussion (half way through part 2) touched on the relationship between Holmes and Watson. After a brief bantering exchange, Downey says: “Why don’t we observe the clip and let the audience decide if he just happens to be a very butch homosexual. Which there are many. And I’m proud to know certain of them.”
Continue reading “subtitles and subtexts”

translation fail

I’m translating a piece on Las Fallas – Valencia’s wonderful firework fiestas – and, as usual, I started off running the text through the Google translator to see if it would save me time.

Sadly, Google opts for an altogether different meaning for falla. This means that the phrase:

En la oficina de turismo podrás encontrar información sobre las diferentes rutas para contemplar las fallas más espectaculares.

becomes:

In the tourist office you can find information about different routes to see the most spectacular failures.

Perhaps human translators will be needed for a while yet.

poet and pretender

Last week, someone sent me a text that included this translated quotation from Pessoa:

El poeta es un fingidor.
Finge tan completamente
Que hasta finge que es dolor
El dolor que de veras siente.

No attribution was given to the translator, but it seems to be faithful enough to the original Portuguese that perhaps that isn’t necessary:

O poeta é um fingidor.
Finge tão completamente
Que chega a fingir que é dor
A dor que deveras sente.

Now, though, I’m wondering how on earth I’d say that in English.
Continue reading “poet and pretender”

military vices

We were talking about repairing a wooden trunk that we could use as a side table if it didn’t keep falling apart when it’s moved. I reckoned a dab of cola blanca around the dowels would do the trick when we put it back together again.

At which point my partner announced, “Creo que hay un sargento entre las herramientas en el invernadero.”

carpenter's bench vice & other tools
The tools are in the greenhouse

OK. We’ll gloss over the fact that we keep tools in the greenhouse – although this explains the slightly greenish tint to the photo – and focus on the “sargento”.

What was a sergeant doing with the tools, and what was his relevance to the simple repair we were about to undertake?
Continue reading “military vices”

all the rage

I haven’t been following the X-factor/Rage Against the Machine story, but it’s one of those things that filter through even if you aren’t the least bit interested in it, and the headlines this morning make it unmissable.

Even so, the only real interest I have in the story is that it’s triggered a memory of being asked by a Swedish friend’s son, back in the early Nineties, what Rage Against the Machine meant.
Continue reading “all the rage”