Showing posts with label translation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label translation. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

A Case of Legitimate Incredulity

There's been an awful lot of digit ink spilled over the comments of some random old politician I'd never heard of before. I had no intention of spilling any more. But.

There's a Japanese world news program that my wife and I like to watch in the mornings. She likes it because it's a very good program. I like it because the man announcer's head is shaped exactly like an egg and that amuses me.

The story started off with video of the old politician dude making his crazy comments, with subtitled translation. Then it cut to woman announcer who said:

What the f*ck!? Holy living f*ck did that stupid old f*ck just say what I f*cking think he said? Is there some kind of bad f*cking translation issue, here? Seriously: what the f*ck?

That's a very loose translation, but what her lips weren't saying of that, the rest of her face definitely was. When the time came to move on to the next story she had to pause, take a deep breath, and say, "next..."

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Victoria Jackson's head looks exactly like a thumb in a wig with a face painted on it. Don't believe me?

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Found in Translation

It's commonly said that things get lost in translation. I think that the opposite is also true, that new meanings emerge.

Cocker - I - I heard there's your problem with the sauce in a hospital that got unplugged from the growth of hair in the ears.
I Bless you Mr. Shin
Yan dying old man - I like that (laughs).

Is this how it feels to be an anthropologist? To find meaning in a jumble of words in the dead language of a dead culture? Teasing out real ideas from what looks to be lunacy? There was probably a coherent train of thought in the original. What was it? Is it possible to know from what we have?

There's a problem with the sauce, indeed.