| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Now translators' work is being analysed by the BBC Thread poster: Gillian Searl
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Thomas Pfann 
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:20
Member (2006)
English to German
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| About 'spin' in general | Mar 30, 2007 |
Viktoria Gimbe wrote:
What I would like to know is why do the translations differ to that extent. Is it really because the translators were rushing/incompetent, or could it rather be that their translations were edited by people who are not necessarily translators but who could be political advisors, for instance? This latter possibility is a very plausible one...
Well, I don't think that the translations differ to the extent of mistranslation, so I wouldn't see it as a sign of the translators' incompetence but if anything rather of their competence.
Your guess that the translations might have been edited by political advisers (or even the respective governments) is a very plausible indeed. And in my opinion there is nothing wrong with this. After all, we Europeans may be united in eternal friendship and love for each other (...or are we not? ), but (zu unserem Glück!) there are still great cultural differences and differences in the way we express ourselves etc. (What might be "absolutely smashing" in one language is maybe just "not so bad" in another.)
A document like this one, which has little more than symbolic character and which is aimed to speak to the people, does of course need to be culturally adapted rather then just translated word by word. It still needs to speak to the people in all the other countries, too (whether it really does is a different matter). The meaning has to come across and at the same time people mustn't be scared off by a phrasing which they don't like, which they may find ridiculous or which will put them off in some other way.
To sum it up: In a declaration like this a little spin isn't all that bad. But at least, it needs a little adaptation.
| | | | Pernille Chapman
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:20
Member (2004)
English to Danish
+ ...
| Just a few words from the Danish corner... | Mar 30, 2007 |
...the Danish version is equivalent to "for our common good/benefit". Which I - without going into politics, possible editing etc. - feel is very appropriate here. So Mats, you're absolutely right: it seems that the BBC love to have a good laugh about all these mistakes that translators - and the EU - are often accused of, but they would have been better off checking their sources before rushing to publish this. It's a very interesting issue for all sorts of reasons, so it would indeed be more f... See more ...the Danish version is equivalent to "for our common good/benefit". Which I - without going into politics, possible editing etc. - feel is very appropriate here. So Mats, you're absolutely right: it seems that the BBC love to have a good laugh about all these mistakes that translators - and the EU - are often accused of, but they would have been better off checking their sources before rushing to publish this. It's a very interesting issue for all sorts of reasons, so it would indeed be more fruitful to appreciate our differences rather than treat them as "wrong". ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Ask the client… | Apr 3, 2007 |
This is one of the cases where you should “ask the client…”.
And I mean it seriously. Somebody should ask Angela Merkel what she meant to say. I think this is a truly difficult translation problem. I tend to agree with Heinrich as “zum Glück” is not necessarily the same as “zu unserem Glück” but then, it could be.
| | | | Thomas Pfann
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:20
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
| Yeah, right... | Apr 3, 2007 |
MV LegalTrans wrote:
This is one of the cases where you should “ask the client…”.
And I mean it seriously. Somebody should ask Angela Merkel what she meant to say. I think this is a truly difficult translation problem. I tend to agree with Heinrich as “zum Glück” is not necessarily the same as “zu unserem Glück” but then, it could be.
Just chuckling at the idea of asking a politician to clarify what they actually meant to say...
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nevipaul
Local time: 16:20
Greek to English
| What does 'happy' mean? | Apr 3, 2007 |
I suspect it's just that someone at the Beeb was using a dictionary in which the word 'happy' is used in the now outdated sense of 'fortunate' ('We happy few', etc)...
| | | | Richard Benham
France
Local time: 15:20
German to English
+ ...
In memoriam | And what does <i>zu</i> mean? | Apr 4, 2007 |
MV LegalTrans wrote:
This is one of the cases where you should “ask the client…”.
...to which Thomas Pfann replied:
Yeah, right....
Both of you have a good point. Looking back at the relatively few posts by native German speakers, I note that opinion is divided on how to interpret zu unserem Glück. So what is the poor Anglopohone translator to do? Frau Merkel is unlikely to be available for comment. In these cases, the best you can do is to try to work out the tone from the rest of the text, and translate as seems best. In fact all decisions made in such cases are political: the best we can do is to try to make our choices based on the political intentions of the author rather than on our own beliefs.
In this case, I would hesitate between say “are lucky enough to be united” and “are united for our happiness”. Note that it is not only the interpretation of Glück that is at stake here: zu can denote either purpose or result, requiring very different translations. (Theoretically, there are two other possibilities, but I think we can discount them.) Either way, if you translate something like this for public consumption, you know you are going to be accused of being political. And the accusation would be correct in either case. In this case, there is no neutral choice.
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