Sometimes translation is straightforward. Sometimes, especially in the arts and entertainment sector, translators make significant modifications to their source material. Compare the English and German versions of these titles of popular films from the eighties and nineties (back translations in italics). The funniest German film titles are those that take a simple English title and… Continue reading The Unbelievable Ride in a Crazy Airplane (and other films)
Month: February 2017
Metaphors that make you go WTF?
With regard to Goethe’s play Götz von Berlichingen, “Lessing, who had just held up his own newly published Emilia Galotti as a model of how a stage-play should be constructed, was bitter; he exclaimed angrily that Goethe had filled sausage skins with sand and sold them as rope.”
No, little August, Grandma will not buy you Mortal Kombat
“Buy such an infamous instrument of murder – that I wouldn’t do at any price! If I were in authority the makers would have been put in the pillory and the machines themselves I would have had publicly burned by the hangman – What! Let the children play with such a horrible thing – put… Continue reading No, little August, Grandma will not buy you Mortal Kombat
Trump: translation and back-translation
Reading this interview with Trump’s French translator got me thinking about how Trump’s German translators are dealing with…um, yeah…all the things Trump’s translators have to deal with. They may be enjoying it – someone definitely had fun writing the headline: Trump erklärt im Bild-Interview, warum er weiter Twitter verwendet: “Ich kann bing, bing, bing machen.” (Trump… Continue reading Trump: translation and back-translation
Noble beings
“It suffices to say that among all the old and long since fleshless heads my eye caught sight of two new ones hoisted high on poles – the heads of the Prince and of Braquemart. From the iron pike-heads with their curving hooks they looked down upon the glow of the fires which were flaking… Continue reading Noble beings