Off topic: blame the translator.... (bad language alert)
Jenny Forbes United Kingdom Local time: 02:57 Member (2006) French to English + ...
La Malinche
Nov 8, 2009
I've always been interested in the story of Marina, the interpreter and concubine of "stout" Cortez, since my father, a scholar of Mexican history, planned to write a book about her. Unfortunately, he died before the work was completed.
There is a well-known song about her with a beautiful tune called "La Llorona" - the weeping woman. You can find it by Googling.
Jenny
P.S. Re the interpreter/translator having to take the blame, wasn't there a recent incident when Hillary Clinton made some kind of gaffe in Africa which was attributed to a mistranslation?
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Gerard de Noord France Local time: 03:57 Member (2003) German to Dutch + ...
Mexican proverbs at Wikiquote
Nov 8, 2009
Maybe the translator experienced a Google blooper.
This is what the Wikiquote page looked like on 31 Oct 2009 01:43:53 GMT
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Anjo Sterringa Spain Local time: 03:57 Member (2003) English to Dutch + ...
Wiki blooper
Nov 8, 2009
Haha, that is the only explanation really! How would you manage to confuse 'la corriente' and 'la chingada' otherwise?
I will add the reference you found!
How would you manage to confuse 'la corriente' and 'la chingada' otherwise?
I was myself thinking about a Freudian slip on the part of the person who translated the speech (maybe he was angry about something, and he just projected himself on his translation).
This said, I do not think it is that difficult to confuse both "endings".
Yes, the saying is very clear and well know as "camarón que se duerme se lo lleva la corriente".
But there is also this very clear and well known expression: "se lo llevó la chingada"; usually in past tense, but it can also be in future: "Se lo va a llevar la chingada" or in present continuous: "Se lo está llevando la chingada". Sometimes the verb "llevar" is replaced by the verb "cargar", with the same meaning: "Se lo cargó la chingada".
There was also a tv program character which, in his ignorance and to appear more "cultured" used to mix half of one saying, with half of another, and that also came to my mind when I read the note.
But my main question still is how come NO ONE noticed the slip? How many people go through those documents? I think the prince speeches are in need of more QA.
Or was it a joke?
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All this inspired me to make a little visual tableau of it: with the following caption:
National Dutch news (NOS Journaal): "Prince Willem Alexander became a vicitim of a somewhat painful translation mistake. In a speech about renewable energy he said that the world had to act upon this diligently. The prince used the word 'chingada' for 'tide'. And that would have been in the whole of Latin America the correct translation, but by chance not so in Mexico.
(no correction of this statement has been posted on the Dutch national news website yet!
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The translation workplace 
