Jan. 14th, 2008 10:04 am
Further exercises in translation
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muckefuckI'm going to try to salvage some rags of respectability after that previous post by pointing out that translation challenges like this are something I do all the time, and they're rarely obscene or vulgar. I'll think of a clause or phrase--often a song lyric or title--and then force myself to translate it in my head into every language I think I can. Only after I've done that do I go to my dictionaries and try to look up words I realise I don't know.
For instance, the other night I was thinking of Let the dead bury their dead and tried to do it into various languages. I didn't know at the time that it was a Biblical quote (Luke 9:60), but this gives me a terrific opportunity to check my work. (I'll hide the canonical versions in case anyone else wants to have a go.)
Irish: "Lig na mairbh a mairbh d'adhlacadh." "Leíg do na marbhuibh a mairbh féin daghlacadh." Comments: I believe this is a 17th-century translation. At any rate, it's in Early Modern Literary Irish, which is fairly different from the Irish I'm learning (though not as different as if I were learning Modern Standard Irish). For instance, I learned the dative plural in -(a)ibh, but it's not part of my active usage (or, indeed, that of Munster speakers outside of fixed expressions like ó chianaibh "a while ago") and I didn't think of using it here. Leíg looks like an archaic form of lig and daghlacadh a variant form of d'adhlacadh. So overall not bad.
German: "Lass die Toten ihre Toten begraben." "Laß die Toten ihre Toten begraben." Whew! Woulda felt like a right wanker if I'd whiffed this one.
Catalan: "Deixa els morts interrar els seus morts." "Deixa que els morts enterrin els seus morts." D'OH! Needed a subordinate clause here. This means my other Romance translations are also flawed, so no use listing them. Also the damn variation in the in-/en- prefix drives me to distraction.
Can't do Welsh, since I don't know the word for "bury". And I've been worthless for Chinese since I got back from China. It hurts my poor brain just to think of Chinese words and I'm not sure if 埋 is Standard Chinese or just Cantonese. (I only know it because of the slang expression 埋單 máidān "bury [the] slip", i.e. "pay the check".) I'd venture the Dutch if I didn't have Dutch-speakers reading this journal who are such nice people they should be spared further pain.
"任憑死人埋葬他們的死人." So, yes, 埋 is apparently standard, but I never would've guessed the verb for "let".
For instance, the other night I was thinking of Let the dead bury their dead and tried to do it into various languages. I didn't know at the time that it was a Biblical quote (Luke 9:60), but this gives me a terrific opportunity to check my work. (I'll hide the canonical versions in case anyone else wants to have a go.)
Irish: "Lig na mairbh a mairbh d'adhlacadh." "Leíg do na marbhuibh a mairbh féin daghlacadh." Comments: I believe this is a 17th-century translation. At any rate, it's in Early Modern Literary Irish, which is fairly different from the Irish I'm learning (though not as different as if I were learning Modern Standard Irish). For instance, I learned the dative plural in -(a)ibh, but it's not part of my active usage (or, indeed, that of Munster speakers outside of fixed expressions like ó chianaibh "a while ago") and I didn't think of using it here. Leíg looks like an archaic form of lig and daghlacadh a variant form of d'adhlacadh. So overall not bad.
German: "Lass die Toten ihre Toten begraben." "Laß die Toten ihre Toten begraben." Whew! Woulda felt like a right wanker if I'd whiffed this one.
Catalan: "Deixa els morts interrar els seus morts." "Deixa que els morts enterrin els seus morts." D'OH! Needed a subordinate clause here. This means my other Romance translations are also flawed, so no use listing them. Also the damn variation in the in-/en- prefix drives me to distraction.
Can't do Welsh, since I don't know the word for "bury". And I've been worthless for Chinese since I got back from China. It hurts my poor brain just to think of Chinese words and I'm not sure if 埋 is Standard Chinese or just Cantonese. (I only know it because of the slang expression 埋單 máidān "bury [the] slip", i.e. "pay the check".) I'd venture the Dutch if I didn't have Dutch-speakers reading this journal who are such nice people they should be spared further pain.
"任憑死人埋葬他們的死人." So, yes, 埋 is apparently standard, but I never would've guessed the verb for "let".
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