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Powwow Report for Italy - Milano (Jun 3 2012)

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Plans for my trip to Italy, besides sightseeing, involved meeting colleagues in order to exchange experiences and plan future cooperation, and that is why I chose end of May and June – numerous meetings were organized in the vicinity, so I thought maybe I could attend some of them as well. What I did not know was that “force majeure” (a term we certified translators so often use in out translations) would hit us from all possible angles: earthquakes, pope's visit, and various strikes) and that there will be so many anniversaries during that period in Turin and Milano. Besides, one would think it would be easy for freelances to agree upon the date.
It turned out that everything previously mentioned prevented a large number of interested participants to attend the powwow in Milano and finally there were only three of us - Chen Bo, a Chinese colleague was refused at the entrance of “Milano” as he was not in formal dress!
Nevertheless, the present ones exchanged various opinions regarding freelancers’ current position in Italy and abroad, had a nice time relaxing around good food and vine, and a productive meeting, as we formed a team translating to/from Italian, but in other language pairs as well.
MrSasha and me also managed to organize a powwow in Torino with a colleague from Saluzzo, Giuseppe Bellone, very informative and entertaining, as you will see from his report, for which I attach the Menu photos.

Report from Giuseppe Bellone

With Ljiljana and Sasha I spent a great Sunday in Turin. Among other things, we talked about several problems connected with the translation from several languages to Italian. One of the obstacles (or let’s call them “language tricks”, which is what they really are!) translators often encounter are not only the infamous “false friends” but also our Italian words that are very similar to each other (e.g. one word is masculine while the other feminine, with a slight difference in the final letter or one word has a single letter while the other has double letters). Ljiljana quoted a translation of a recipe she found, which contained several ingredients and “basil” among them.
The poor fellow who did the Italian translation wrote: ... aggiungere un po’ di “basilicA” (add some basilica) instead of “... aggiungere un po’ di basilicO (add some “basilico)! More artistic indeed, but a bit difficult to swallow and even more difficult to digest!
After a long walk around the town centre, we decided to sit and have an ice cream – and it turned out we chose the appropriate bar for it – for “linguistic” reasons! A kind waitress brought us a Menu to choose the ice cream from - and here comes one of the best English lines I’ve ever read... not even the wit of Oscar Wilde or George Bernard Shaw could have had such great linguistic imagination! Unfortunately, only those of you who know both Italian and English can really appreciate the great effort put into the creation of such a masterpiece, and those who speak only English can split their sides with laughter.
Here are some pearls, copied directly from that delicious menu (if you cannot read the photos included in Ljiljana’s report!):

Biscotti assortiti > ABSORBED BISCUIT
Caffè espresso > EXPRESS COFFEE
Caffè corretto > CORRECT COFFE
Caffè shakerato > COFFE SHOOK
Taglio al whisky > CUT TO THE WHISKY
Birra alla spina piccola > BEER STRAINS SMALL THORN
Birra alla spina media > BEER STRAINS MEDIUM THORN
Manzo affumicato > MANZO FILLED WITH SMOKE
We wondered why they did not pay with money or ice cream to have the menu checked by someone with less imagination but a bit wider knowledge of the language! Or perhaps this is a new marketing strategy to attract foreign customers!
Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a nice Sunday did not end the same way as it had begun! After the good laughter at the menu, the delicious ice cream and the long chat together, we strolled towards the place where I had parked my car... and here comes another surprise! Not a very pleasant one this time. One of the tyres was flat and I had to put on the spare wheel. No problem at all... apart from the fact that even the spare wheel was flat too and I had to take the train home!
Let’s hope all that is an omen for future success! After all, all’s well that ends well. But we keep our fingers crossed, just in case!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading and laughed at the creative translation of the menu, as much as all of us did while admiring the hills around Turin and enjoying famous Italian “gelato”.

Giuseppe Bellone

Photos from Ljiljana Krstic