Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
214,655
edits
Lucky Translation: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (→Theatre: added a crosslink) |
No edit summary Tag: Disambiguation links |
||
Line 7:
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'', Osaka makes a pun on the word ''kaidan'', which means either 'horror story' or 'staircase' depending on context. This pun translated easily into English, because of the double meaning of the English word 'stor(e)y'.
Line 64 ⟶ 63:
* A French poem in ''[[House of Leaves]]'' gains a completely different rhyme scheme when translated into English. (One is ABAB and the other is AABB.)
* Non-language example: In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'', Douglas Adams makes a joke about the movement of 'small green pieces of paper', meaning the British pound note. The joke made perfect sense to Americans, on account of the color of their money. Now the joke only works for Americans, because Britain doesn't use pound notes anymore.<ref>[[Offer Void in Nebraska|Except for readers in Scotland]]</ref> and the other notes aren't green.
** It works for [[Canada|Canadians]] as well, at least as long as the $20 bill remains green.
* One of the dwarfs in the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld/The Truth|The Truth]]'' is named Goodmountain, a literal translation of the German surname of [[Dichter and Denker|Johannes Gutenberg]], the inventor of the movable types in Europe. In the German translation, said dwarf's name is Gutenhügel ("good hill"). This not only solves the problem of salvaging the name's [[Meaningful Name|subtle reference]], but also adds an additional layer of humor by alluding to the name bearer's height.▼
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** Another [[Discworld]] example: in dutch, 'seamstress' is translated as 'naaister'. 'naaien' does not only mean 'sewing', but 'fucking' as well.▼
▲** One of the dwarfs in
** Another [[Discworld]] example, this time from the Hebrew language. The Luggage is said to be made (originally) from "Sapient Pearwood". In the Hebrew version of the books, the Luggage is said to be made from "עץ הדעת" ("Etz Ha'Da'at"), which means "Tree of Sentience/Knowing/''Knowledge''". Yes, that [[The Bible|Tree of Knowledge]]. Makes the Luggage all that much more awesome.▼
▲**
* The Hebrew version of [[Animal Farm]] is considered by some actually a bit better than the original for a single reason: the word "שווה" ("Sha-ve") in Hebrew means both "equal" and "worthy/deserving". This gives the animals' motto an entirely new pun-tastic layer: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal/''deserve more'' than others."▼
▲**
▲* The Hebrew version of ''[[Animal Farm]]'' is considered by some actually a bit better than the original for a single reason: the word "שווה" ("Sha-ve") in Hebrew means both "equal" and "worthy/deserving". This gives the animals' motto an entirely new pun-tastic layer: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal/''deserve more'' than others."
* In Scots, the word "heehaw", as well as being onomatopoeia for a donkey's bray, is also a slang term for "nothing". So in James Robertson's Scots translation of ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'', the line "Eeyore still said nothing at all" becomes "Heehaw wis still sayin heehaw".
* [[Lewis
* In ''[[Xanth]]'', [[A Worldwide Punomenon|pineapples are highly explosive.]] But if you change it to pome'''granate''' the pun still works in many other languages. In others, pineapple grenades are called lemons.
* The name "Once-ler" from ''[[The Lorax]]'' is translated as "Einstler" in the German version, which, apart from being an equivalent, is also reminiscent of "Einsiedler" ("hermit"), which is what the Once-ler became.
== Multiple Media ==
* The [[Japanese Pronouns|Japanese Pronoun]] 'wareware' means 'we', but can also be used as an excessively formal way of saying 'I'. This is similar to the English-language [[Royal We]]. (See The King Of All Cosmos from ''[[Katamari Damacy]]'' for a well-[[Woolseyism|Woolseyed]] version.)
** If an alien in ''[[Ultraman]]'' says this, you know he wants to rule the world.
Line 80 ⟶ 81:
** This one works particularly well in ''[[Darker than Black]]'' with [[Clueless Detective]] Gai Kurusawa, as his (fake) name calls to mind the parody hard-boiled detective "Guy Noir" of ''[[A Prairie Home Companion]] ''
== [[Oral Tradition]]. [[Folklore]], [[Myth and Legend]] ==
* In the Welsh myth cycle ''[[Mabinogion]]'', one rhyme relies on the fact that "blawd" can mean either as "flour" or "to blossom". Luckily, the pun works just as well in English, since "flour" and "flower" are homophones.
* In [[The Bible]], the English words man and woman just happen to be very similar (as in the original Hebrew), making God's line on the Creation of Eve—calling her Woman because she comes from Man—make sense. Some other languages are not so lucky; in German, for instance, the meaning of that line is completely lost.
Line 115 ⟶ 116:
* The Polish dub of ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' slipped in a joke about American Maid's vocation being "preserving peace", based on the word used to translate "maid" meaning more specifically "room maid" and "room" and "peace" being homonyms in Polish.
==
* A [[Real Life]] example: the Russian RPG series of weapons. In Russian, the Latin alphabet transliteration of the weapons' designation comes out as ''Ruchnoy Protivotankovyy Granatomyot'': "Handheld Anti-Tank Grenade Launcher". This provides a perfect acronym match-up with the English designation of this weapon type: Rocket-Propelled Grenade.
* The Japanese expression "ai shiteiru" （愛している）and the English phrase "I love you" have the same amount of syllables and consistent mouthflaps if the 'shi' and the second "i" sounds aren't stressed.
Line 148 ⟶ 149:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Translation Tropes]]
[[Category:Language Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Lucky Translation]]
| |||