English translation: depends on the intended audience
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07:58 May 26, 2009
English to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature / expressing distances
English term or phrase:yards/metres
I'm translating a novel from Italian to English, where reference is made to someone standing 50 metres away. I personally use 'metres' all the time in everyday conversation, but then I've been living in Italy for 20 years...
England still seems to be in the midst of a long transition to metric, with supermarkets working in both pounds and kilos. Although the mile resists, what about the yard?
So, in a novel (precision is not important in the specific context - 50 yards would do fine as a translation), what would sound more natural, 50 yards or 50 metres? The narrator, by the way, is about 40, so not so old that he would necessarily only think in terms of yards.
Explanation: I don't think you really have to get down to the nitty gritty of whether to use 50 meters or 54.68 yards. I think that all you have to do is keep in mind which audience will read your translation. If the audience is intended to be American, use yards. If the audience is European, including Great Britain, use meters. The British may have their own standards of measure, but, they are quite familiar with the metric system, so, you're safe there.
in the end I went for yards. It still seems to come naturally to many Brits of my own age, which is what I wanted to know. It's clearly not a matter of precision in this particular case, so I went with what I thought sounded best. I do also get the feeling (as a Brit) that metres somehow sounds precise, whereas yards is more informal. This may also be because I started school when metric had just been introduced. At school we studied metric, but all the shops used imperial. So maths lessons were metric based; everyday life was imperial. This is probably typical of my generation, but then again, I don't see why I should pretend I'm older or younger than I am when I translate. So yards it is. Maybe ten years down the line we'll all be leaving metres as metres, regardless of the context. But not yet!
hard to swallow, but British will understand...However I cannot see the reason why "yard" should dissapear from the novels if it HAS TO BE in a manual of a handyman which replaces your gardn fence.That what is for the others than Englishmen - "yard" is a balsam. Captain Cook was cooked by savages - (?).
Captain Cook was marooned, not hung from the yard arm! England only went metric in the late 1960s or early 1970s and lots of people still use yards in day-to-day speech. Nothing literary about it. I believe the Americans (USA as opposed to all the rest of the Americas) still use yards.
but personally I prefer "yards". Oh, yeh! It's aroma - is of English classic literature, captain Cook and his end. Helps to literature people know these terms without using them in everyday life.All depends on the audience, Russians would love "yards" in the novel but they will make a face reading it in the manual. I'm sure that "yard", "mile","ounce" and all the likes will drink Champaigne before Apocalypse strikes.
Does the giant have seven league boots or 33.6 kilometer boots? Most adults, never mind children, don't know how long a league is, but would still find the former more evocative. I think it depends largely on context. I've been thinking metric for decades but might still use yards in a context where precision wasn't required, like telling someone that the pub is a couple of hundred yards down the road. Somehow it sounds friendlier. If making a statement about an accident, I'd use metres.
Thanks for your thoughts. The novel is aimed at a UK readership, and being a spy story has a pretty wide target readership in terms of age. The period is the present day
I think it would be better if you use metres/meters since it is the basic unit of length adopted by International System of Units. I'm sure most of the reader would understand metres better than yards. Just my 2 cents ^^
It may also depend a bit on the period of the story itself?
My own feeling (as an oldie) is that 'yards' sounds more cosy and familiar (you still see 'yds' on street signs in the UK) — and what about any potential US readership?
But if this novel were particualrly aimed at a younger generation readership, then maybe 'yards' might sound dated and quaint — though I feel sure even younger people would still understand (at least hazily) what it means.
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Answers
11 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +2
metres
Explanation: Personally, I would go with metres, especially in case the target audience is -mainly- below appr. 40 years old; I never quite understood the British system anyway (e.g. I just gained a number of kilos, how much is that in "stones" ??).
Laurens Landkroon Local time: 08:41 Native speaker of: Dutch, English
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
