tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post2836148686046958227..comments2024-03-28T02:54:46.537-04:00Comments on The TOF Spot: On the Exigencies of TranslationTheOFloinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756711106266484327noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-10587063703768292172013-04-08T15:01:49.726-04:002013-04-08T15:01:49.726-04:00I was told in Costa Rica that a "fresca"...I was told in Costa Rica that a "fresca" was a lemon-lime drink, but my client once got in trouble when he ordered a fresca in a bar in Guatemala or Honduras (I've forgotten) only to learn that in that part of Central America a "fresca" is a male prostitute. TheOFloinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14756711106266484327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-26902504962906919412013-04-08T11:22:33.678-04:002013-04-08T11:22:33.678-04:00I think you're right. In Castellano, that is, ...I think you're right. In Castellano, that is, Iberian Spanish, 'antigua' could mean 'longstanding'. Also, 'anciano' can imply something old, wise, and longstanding. Obviously the word sounds similar to 'ansia'. But the way the pun is worded would likely fly over the heads of a native Chilean or Mexican or Venezuelan, et cetera. I have a couple Portuguese friends who tell me how crude and vulgar Brazilian puns and idioms are to them, while Brazilians find those of the Portuguese to be long-winded and prudish. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-59917710256539502252013-04-08T10:35:37.543-04:002013-04-08T10:35:37.543-04:00As a native Spanish speaker, I can tell you that t...As a native Spanish speaker, I can tell you that the translator completely messed up the pun. Which makes me glad I read the English version. The way it was translated doesn't make much sense - the pronunciations of "ansias" and "antiguas" are not similar, so the translator cannot possibly have attempted a pun there.<br /><br />My impression is that the translator may have interpreted "long" as a duration, not a length... And so translated thinking the longings came from "long ago", therefore "antiguas". But how on Earth (or on space) can you possibly tell the duration of a man's longing by looking at his erection, I cannot imagine!<br /><br />I can't see how to translate the original into Spanish and preserve the intended pun (which does not mean it is impossible, of course). A translation that does not keep the pun but at least makes sense would be something like this:<br /><br />Bajo la camiseta de Grubb podía apreciar los contornos de su afecto, y por tanto sabía no sólo de sus ansias sino también cuán grandes eran.Tresfortinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-35043071715811432252013-04-08T07:47:03.698-04:002013-04-08T07:47:03.698-04:00Excellent comments. I agree that no one would typ...Excellent comments. I agree that no one would typically use "long" in English, neither would its use be rejected in context. Its appearance in company with "longing" was strictly for the pun. Verlangen, as I understand it, does not actually derive from lang, but from -ling-. If grosses Verlangen is an idiom, as you say, the translator made an heroic effort to preserve the pun-ishment of the original. Wordplay is a difficult thing to translate.TheOFloinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14756711106266484327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-19279356491393738262013-04-08T06:42:24.278-04:002013-04-08T06:42:24.278-04:00Although "Verlangen" seemingly indeed sh...Although "Verlangen" seemingly indeed shares a root with "lange", as a German native speaker, I would never associate the two, so the proposed "Verlangen ... lang" strikes me as profoundly odd. "Grosses Verlangen" is a standing chliché in German, so the translation is actually spot-on, even though there seems to be no way to preserve the original pun. <br />I was wondering how "longing ... long" works for English natives - it certainly does for me, although it probably shouldn't, for the same reasons the proposed German version would not.<br /><br />Also note that while the male genital can successfully be described as both "lang" and "groß" (encompassing both longitudinal extension and girth), a German erection can only ever be "groß", possibly owing to the fact that the size increase encompasses more than one dimension for the average German. Admittedly, I have not encountered an English "long erection" to date, neither figuratively nor in the flesh.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16608004637699530359noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-35292894652646686492013-04-08T06:34:44.742-04:002013-04-08T06:34:44.742-04:00It seems plausible to me that the Spanish translat...It seems plausible to me that the Spanish translation was trying to preserve the first-syllable pun. My Spanish is very rusty, but 'ansia' seems to me to be a good translation, having as its primary meaning something like 'restlessness'; an 'ansia de aventuras' is a Wanderlust, for instance. But unless the 'antigua' is some sort of bawdy idiom (there are a lot of them in Spanish), perhaps it was just a plain misreading of 'long' as if it were suggesting a long time? As if the original pun had been 'not only his longing, but how <i>longstanding</i> it was'. That's the only thing I can think of.Brandonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06698839146562734910noreply@blogger.com