Translation: is it a revolution or evolution Thread poster: yolanda Speece
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As you all know, there are some terms that cannot be translated. So we either preserve the term and incorporate it into the target language or we create something new.
My question to you is ... actually there are a couple of questions.
Do you view translation as a revolution or evolution?
Has anyone ever been killed because they translated something that upset someone enough to have them killed?
Thanks for all your input and remember,... See more As you all know, there are some terms that cannot be translated. So we either preserve the term and incorporate it into the target language or we create something new.
My question to you is ... actually there are a couple of questions.
Do you view translation as a revolution or evolution?
Has anyone ever been killed because they translated something that upset someone enough to have them killed?
Thanks for all your input and remember, there is no wrong answer! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Killed after translation | Apr 13, 2006 |
yolanda Speece wrote:
Has anyone ever been killed because they translated something that upset someone enough to have them killed?
Yes, of course.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitoshi_Igarashi
| | | | yolanda Speece 
Local time: 06:34
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | So would you consider the act of translation | Apr 13, 2006 |
revolution or evolution. what about changes within a language by preserving terminology? For example, the word Amen or Hallelujah.
[Edited at 2006-04-13 16:15]
| | | | Magda Dziadosz
Poland
Local time: 13:34
Member (2004)
English to Polish
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| Moving topic... | Apr 13, 2006 |
I'm moving this interesting discussion from *Forum about ProZ.com forums* - I guess you all agree that it doesn't belong there.
Selecting right forum is important since people subscribe specifically to forums which they consider interesting.
And I'm changing the Off-topic mark to ON-topic as well...
Best,
Magda
[Edited at 2006-04-13 16:30]
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yolanda Speece
Local time: 06:34
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | Thanks Magda! | Apr 13, 2006 |
I appreciate it
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Has anyone ever been killed because they translated something that upset someone enough to have them killed?
A couple of times I wanted to kill the translator of texts I had to proofread
| | | | RobinB
United States
Local time: 06:34
German to English
| Plenty of wrong answers in translation... | Apr 13, 2006 |
yolanda Speece wrote:
Has anyone ever been killed because they translated something that upset someone enough to have them killed?
The Japanese translator of "The Satanic Verses", for example. But he wasn't killed because it was a wrong translation, of course, but because somebody didn't like the book, period.
remember, there is no wrong answer!
There are certainly plenty of "wrong answers" in translation, meaning that a wrong translation is a wrong translation.
Perhaps you could define what you mean by "revolution" and "evolution", because as we say in the business, context is everything
Robin
| | | | Ala Rabie
Egypt
Local time: 13:34
Japanese to Arabic
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Jerónimo Fernández wrote:
Has anyone ever been killed because they translated something that upset someone enough to have them killed?
A couple of times I wanted to kill the translator of texts I had to proofread
*sigh*...
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yolanda Speece
Local time: 06:34
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER
You know how sometimes you stumble across words that can't be translated so they are merely incorporated into the other language.
Let's say you have an English word like "software" and you have to translate it to Spanish. Since there was no equivalent, the word software was merely incorporated into the language.
Do you all consider this incorporation a revolution or a form of evolution of the language?
Did this clarify anything?
| | | | | Normal evolution | Apr 13, 2006 |
Do you all consider this incorporation a revolution or a form of evolution of the language?
Languages borrow words from other languages all the time: I don't much difference in the fact that Italian borrowed the word software only recently while the word sport, for example, is an older borrowing.
| | | | Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 05:34
English to Spanish
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In memoriam | It depends on more than just us | Apr 14, 2006 |
The only thing I can say about my languages (English and Spanish) is that they both have vast resources, and more so than people can ever recognize, because they do not know those resources.
But the trendsetters are often those who know less, rather than more, about the aforesaid resources.
So the more we can become involved as trendsetters, the less borrowing we will see. And of course borrowing is not in itself bad, but it should only be done when there is no other al... See more The only thing I can say about my languages (English and Spanish) is that they both have vast resources, and more so than people can ever recognize, because they do not know those resources.
But the trendsetters are often those who know less, rather than more, about the aforesaid resources.
So the more we can become involved as trendsetters, the less borrowing we will see. And of course borrowing is not in itself bad, but it should only be done when there is no other alternative.
Our languages are changing by the day, and I would hope that we, as experts in the field, can be more in charge of that process.
Then we can make it an evolution, and a logical one at that. ▲ Collapse
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enshrine wrote: Jerónimo Fernández wrote: A couple of times I wanted to kill the translator of texts I had to proofread *sigh*...
Presumably the final sigh of a dying translator?
I think evolution is better than revolution, there is less blood and bitterness afterwards. The problem is often getting agreement on when and where to start it without getting caught in the cross fire between the fuddy-duddies and the young upstarts.
*reluctantly puts sawn-off shotgun back on shelf*
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yolanda Speece
Local time: 06:34
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER
I like the shotgun analogy!
| | | | Ala Rabie
Egypt
Local time: 13:34
Japanese to Arabic
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Henry Hinds wrote:
(...)
But the trendsetters are often those who know less, rather than more, about the aforesaid resources.
So the more we can become involved as trendsetters, the less borrowing we will see. And of course borrowing is not in itself bad, but it should only be done when there is no other alternative.
(...)
Actually, Henry, I do not believe that borrowing is such an 'endangerment'. Since the eruption of pop-culture, patronized with modernity--which quickly turned on its face--and then fully advocated by postmodernity, language has stopped acting like an elitist, transcendental entity, and got its feet back on earth.
Language is now defined by its functionality, as you may see. If you are familiar with the text of Ludwig Wittgenstein (one of the godfathers of postmodernism,) you would see my point more clearly.
As life has gotten such consmopolitanized, 'borrowed' words are not 'borrowed anymore; they are but 'legal' signifiers. A computer is a computer--seriously, it would just be a paradoxy of political-correctness if you stood there and declared 'computer' to be "a borrowed word for 'computer'" in Japan or any non-euroamerican scene.
What I see is, instead of (re)placing language back in the elitist domain, we, translators, should get more into society, and, as possible, update our language from the pop-culture server itself
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Trevor Butcher wrote:
Presumably the final sigh of a dying translator?(...)
Not unless I were the one to hear it
I cannot forget that one project where I had to re-translate 8000+ words I was supposed to just proofread them in 12 hours!
Every second I kept on wishing that I could get to "shoot him down.. bang! bang!"
Apparently, mister-translator, or "Bill", was either:
A. Blind.
B. Using a translation software.
C. A member of a "cabal of Jews comprised of Dick Cheney, Magic Johnson and the head of Ayatollah Khomeni" who happens to conspire[-tapping ] on me. Oh! And also control the media!
I collapsed for days afterwards of course
Ah, flashbacks! I should seek therapy!
~Ala
[Edited at 2006-04-15 00:45]
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