It's fascinating how much English is saturated with all sorts of idiomatic and quirky phrases ... we're always hearing on the weather forecast that temperatures will be academic, and there will be something in the way of spits and spots of the white stuff in our neck of the woods, and in the sports section we get told that Hamilton Academicals are off the radar, or their promotion prospects are up the creek, down the pan, that their defence is a basket case and totally down the Swannee.
Quite what listeners for whom English is not their first language make of it all I've no idea.
So ... I was wondering what translators do when faced with the strange phrases and quirky idioms we use in English . I decided to find out .. of course I did.
So ... I picked the first book I could find which I had in English and Spanish ... it turned out to be Catch 22 ... they call it Trampa 22.
Anyway, I just mooched around, flipping the pages to find some nice peculair bits of English/American, and then had a look at how the translator had dealt with it ... so here's some of what I found, pretty randomly ..
" Smashed to bits. I guess their numbers were all up" ( there's been an accident)
"Destrozado. Como todas "
" That dirty goddam midget-assed, apple-cheeked, goggle-eyed, undersized, buck-toothed, grinnig, crazy sonofabitchin bastard!
"¡Eso hijo de puta!- chilló. ¡ Esa rata, ese cretino con dientes de caballo ! ¡ Será gilipollas! "
"That's two to the fighting eighth power" Yossarian pointed out.
" Del escuadrón de combate 256."
..who had been shanghaied ruthlessly into the Medical Corps .
.. a quien había desterrado cruelmente a los servicios sanitarios" ...
..." I'm a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger ."
..."Soy una verdadera maravilla, un portento, un prodigo de bondad. Un superhombre."
"I upped my kickback fee with those two drugstores."
" Subrí la comisíon que les cobraba a los farmecéuticos."
" She was built like a dream"
" Teniá un cuerpo de ensueño"
" He called me a wise-guy "
" Me dijo que me creia muy listo."
" A country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling,brainless, conceited , uncouth hayseed.
" Un cateto, un zafio, torpe, descerebrado y vulgar.
Already, with a small selection like that, you can see some of the things that translators do. Some words are translated literally, some change the wording completely, and some write a sort of Spanish equivalent where one is available.
Actually, I was a bit disappointed with the Spanish version ...as you can see , the content has often been reduced and softened in this Spanish version. The slangy, vernacular tone of the original is simply not there much of the time.
[ It's time to go out at LSi88Y towers ... I'll sort out the visuals and the music later ... I'd be interested to hear what you out there might think of those translations ... comments welcome.]
OK ... it's "later" and here's a fine words video for Zahara's " El Frio" ..and I'll stick it on that post where I've collected lots of her words videos all in one place ...
zahara-words-videos-collection.html
..and here, rather creepily, is a link to some more translated bits of Catch 22/Trampa 22 in the future !! ¡ Horripilante !
338-lost-in-translation-trampa-22-2.html