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from the mister-translation-wants-equal-time dept.
Mark Polizzotti, author of "Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto" writes an Opinion column in The New York Times entitled Why Mistranslation Matters:
Translation is the silent waiter of linguistic performance: It often gets noticed only when it knocks over the serving cart. Sometimes these are relatively minor errors — a ham-handed rendering of an author's prose, the sort of thing a book reviewer might skewer with an acid pen.
But history is littered with more consequential mistranslations — erroneous, intentional or simply misunderstood. For a job that often involves endless hours poring over books or laptop screens, translation can prove surprisingly hazardous.
Nikita Khrushchev's infamous statement in 1956 — "We will bury you" — ushered in one of the Cold War's most dangerous phases, one rife with paranoia and conviction that both sides were out to destroy the other. But it turns out that's not what he said, not in Russian, anyway. Khrushchev's actual declaration was "We will outlast you" — prematurely boastful, perhaps, but not quite the declaration of hostilities most Americans heard, thanks to his interpreter's mistake.
The response of Kantaro Suzuki, prime minister of Japan, to an Allied ultimatum in July 1945 — just days before Hiroshima — was conveyed to Harry Truman as "silent contempt" ("mokusatsu"), when it was actually intended as "No comment. We need more time." Japan was not given any.
[...] Lately, the perils of mistranslation have taken on renewed currency. How to convey Donald Trump's free-form declarations to a global audience? The president's capricious employ of his native idiom, his fractured syntax and streaming non sequiturs are challenging enough for Anglophones, so imagine the difficulties they pose to foreigners: How, exactly, do you translate "braggadocious"?
The speed and frequency of Mr. Trump's tweets have spawned an explosion of equally fast, equally viral amateur renditions, with little thought as to how they might be interpreted worldwide. The incendiary nature of many of his statements about other political leaders only exacerbates the problem.
When words collide?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Saturday August 04 2018, @12:24PM (8 children)
Then letters are the casualties of war!
(Score: 4, Funny) by theluggage on Saturday August 04 2018, @02:04PM (3 children)
The penis mightier than the sword!
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Saturday August 04 2018, @03:47PM
Lubricated with bloody whitespace.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Magic Oddball on Saturday August 04 2018, @07:56PM
Or at least, that's what John Bobbit used to believe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @08:40PM
Why menstruation matters.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday August 04 2018, @02:05PM (3 children)
↑ That's free verse poetry; doesn't rhyme and makes no sense.
it's sorta like words collision.
ᵍʳᶦⁿ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @03:13PM (1 child)
↑ That's sad, and it makes my monkey cry.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 04 2018, @05:27PM
Stop slapping the damned monkey and he may stop crying.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday August 04 2018, @09:50PM
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex