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translation geekery
Nov. 21st, 2004 01:39 pmWarning: this will probably make no sense whatsoever to anybody who hasn't read the children's book I'm translating, but you've been warned, so there.
Cultural equivalents are a pain in the neck to translate. Given a sentence like "Eat your greasy bloaters" in English, first you have to figure out what the hell it's talking about, and then find something in French that will work. I know a bloater is a fish, so I went about proving that first. In proving that, I discovered that not only is it a fish, it's a fish found (among other places) in Lake Michigan, and it actually has a French name. Talk about making my life easier...so now I can use "confit de cisco de fumage" instead of "greasy bloaters" if I want to. A French-speaking audience probably still wouldn't know what it was, but they can look it up if they want, and as long as it sounds fairly revolting, it'll do. (And it does sound fairly revolting; I don't think you can make a confit of fish.)
Names are another problem; how do you take a name that makes no sense in translation, but represents the culture it comes from, and find an acceptable equivalent? (The case in point here is Aunt Fidget Wonkham-Strong, which is decidedly English and doesn't translate at all.) I have to find something that's silly and stereotypically French at the same time. It's easier when the name itself is supposed to mean something, because then you can translate the meaning. Astérix in translation does that all over the place.
I think this entire translation would make an interesting paper to present at the next ATSA meeting in 2006. I wonder if I can keep that idea in the back of my brain for that long?
Cultural equivalents are a pain in the neck to translate. Given a sentence like "Eat your greasy bloaters" in English, first you have to figure out what the hell it's talking about, and then find something in French that will work. I know a bloater is a fish, so I went about proving that first. In proving that, I discovered that not only is it a fish, it's a fish found (among other places) in Lake Michigan, and it actually has a French name. Talk about making my life easier...so now I can use "confit de cisco de fumage" instead of "greasy bloaters" if I want to. A French-speaking audience probably still wouldn't know what it was, but they can look it up if they want, and as long as it sounds fairly revolting, it'll do. (And it does sound fairly revolting; I don't think you can make a confit of fish.)
Names are another problem; how do you take a name that makes no sense in translation, but represents the culture it comes from, and find an acceptable equivalent? (The case in point here is Aunt Fidget Wonkham-Strong, which is decidedly English and doesn't translate at all.) I have to find something that's silly and stereotypically French at the same time. It's easier when the name itself is supposed to mean something, because then you can translate the meaning. Astérix in translation does that all over the place.
I think this entire translation would make an interesting paper to present at the next ATSA meeting in 2006. I wonder if I can keep that idea in the back of my brain for that long?
