Post

In college, the only course in the Creative Writing program I could take as a Freshman was called Poetry in Translation It was a fascinating experience -- some students attempts at translating were literal; others used totally different words to capture the spirt of the poem - great discussions!

One of my favprite examples of this was someone saying that "forgive me father, I have sinned" and "sorry daddy, I've been naughty" mean the same thing technically, but have wildly different connotations.

As a commercial translator of 20 years who now mostly proofreads, I'll say I'll vehemently disagree with "anyone can know what is being said".

How funny. I already knew both of those things. (Multilingual person with an education degree)

Yes, about translation. I translate Italian books to English, and people are surprised I don't rattle away in spoken Italian like Damiano David, but the reason I'm a good translator is that *I write English well*. I understand Italian and write in English.

Translation is an art form. I tend to watch/read media in its original language but I always appreciate a really good German translation. Most impressive translation I've seen in recent years was the German version of Hamilton. Not only translating the text but also matching it to music is a feat.

The difference between “An obstacle is present” and “Get lost!” for “Jama da” is key

And I just learned something new today. Neat! Also that yes you are good at your job and good localization is vital.

Also with dubs there's the added layer of having to match timing and lip flaps (to a degree) so that adds a further dimension to the demands of localization.

I played a JRPG recently (Metaphor). Part of the plot is "anxiety" being the source of magic. They really should have translated that differently, perhaps as "fear." Whatever the meaning and cultural context of the Japanese word translated as "anxiety", it sounds quite dumb in English.

I am related to someone heavily involved in AI research. I explained this to them recently. They decided maybe literary translation is something that should be left to humans after all. It’s not word for word, or phrase for phrase, but emotional reaction for emotional reaction, with cultural nuance.

I wrote my MA thesis partly on this concept, the translation I analyzed left out so much of the setting, vitally important to the story, it was practically like a whole missing character. It was clear that the translator either did not understand this, or did not care and chose the easy path. 🫠

Even for poetry translation?

I've not, but definitely sounds interesting! Going to check it out now!

as bad as hillbillyish they blubbering shitchatish in a movie.. if u translate scientific books like that u gonna kill with that skill..

You wrote anos instead of años?

That's pretty normal. Translator / Script Adaptor are two different roles.

They are extraordinarily uncommon. That's why people keep using the same like... five examples over the years.