Further exercises in translation

[muckefuck]

I'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".

Comments

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

I can't remember the Welsh for "bury" either; I think if I had to say "let the dead bury their dead" impromptu, I'd probably say "...put the dead in their graves", or something like that.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Turns out it's claddu, but even knowing that I think I'd still have trouble with the imperative.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

Guessing wildly at "claddwch" seems to be correct anyway. :)

(My brain appears to be mixing up cleddyf and claddu now, thinking now of phrases like "she buried her sword into him to the hilt". It does that sort of thing a lot.)

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

(More seriously, I wonder whether lladd and claddu are related.)

[ptownnyc.livejournal.com]

"Claddu" yw "bury" yn Gymraeg.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Ac y cymal cyfan?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Looks doubtful. Lladd must go back to PCel. *slad- (cf. Ir. slaidh- "slay"--probably not related to English slay because this represents PGmc. *slak-), whereas claddu would be from *klad=o- "dig" (cf. Ir. claidh from *klad=je-). Porkorny traces this back to PIE *klād-, an extended form of *kel- "cover, conceal" and it's difficult to see how to relate this to a root *slād-. The most I can say is that perhaps they both have the same extension, i.e. *-ād-, but even that's merely a guess.

[ptownnyc.livejournal.com]

Dw i ddim yn hollol siwr os mae hyn yn idiomateg, ond ...

Gadewch y meirwon gladdu'r meirwon.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

Mae beibl cymraeg yn fy mag i, fel:

Mathew 8:22
Ond meddai Iesu wrtho, "Canlyn fi, a gad i'r meirw gladdu eu meirw eu hunain."

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Dim yn ddrwg, eithr ag ond un ddyn mae Iesu'n siarad. "Gad i'r meirw gladdu eu meirw." (Beibl Morgan)

[ptownnyc.livejournal.com]

Sylweddolais i ddim bod hynny yn dod o'r Beibl, LOL!

(Dw i'n anghofio fy Nghristnogaeth)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Beibl Cymraeg Newydd? Yn y Beibl Morgan darllenir "A'r Iesu a ddyweddodd wrtho, Canlyn fi; a gâd i'r meirw gladdu eu meirw."

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Finnau hefyd!

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

ydy; dydy'r Beibl Morgan ddim gen i :(