Quotation of the Day

Entries in Translation (2)

"Keep off the grass:" A tip on translating text

If you are involved in publishing something that includes text in more than one language, be sure to have people who are native speakers of those languages double-check the text. Otherwise, you may end up with something like this:

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(Click to view full size image) This is a page in a quilting book that I found in a area fabric store; I took the photo with my cell phone. (My wife was looking for something to make some valances, and I was along to offer opinions.) I believe the book was published in Japan; most of the text didn’t use the Latin alphabet. I’m pretty sure that the authors of the text meant to call the designs on these pages “Stained Glass,” and not “Stained Grass,” because they were reminiscent of the decorative stained glass windows one finds in Victorian-era houses. I have no idea if there’s any such thing as “stained grass.” I can’t recall hearing or reading the phrase before, much less in the context of quilt designs.

I’m not really sure, though. Maybe “stained grass” is a phrase that’s meaningful in Japan. However, it doesn’t mean much to me. If that’s what they really meant, then maybe it should have been translated into something more culturally relevant in English-speaking countries.

In either case, if a native English speaker had proofread this text before the book was published, he or she could have raised the issue and gotten things clarified.  As it is, well, I got a good chuckle from it.

(It reminds me of some of the scenes in the movie Lost in Translation, with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. Murray’s character, Bob Harris, continually has trouble understanding what people are saying to him because they keep getting the L and R sounds mixed up.)

Related: “Don’t get lost in translation.” 

Posted on Friday, January 25, 2008 at 07:02AM by Registered CommenterRoy Jacobsen in , | CommentsPost a Comment

And more humor: "Diaper-headed?"

Most of you know that one word can have multiple meanings. And when you try to translate one of those words, that fact can turn around and rip off your kneecaps if you’re not careful.

And that’s exactly what happened when someone in Sweden tried to translate the potty-mouthed Don Imus’s “nappy-headed hos.” It was rendered in Swedish as blöjhövdade horor, or “diaper-headed whores.”

Hat tip to Nancy Friedman. 

Posted on Thursday, May 10, 2007 at 07:06AM by Registered CommenterRoy Jacobsen in , | CommentsPost a Comment