Lucky Translation: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Very, very occasionally, though, a Woolseyism isn't needed, since a [[Conveniently Precise Translation]] is already at hand.

 

{{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'.

** In ''[[Pokémon 3]]: Spell of the Unown'', Molly Hale, wanting to see her parents again, takes some Unown tiles and uses them to spell out "Mama" "Papa" and "Me" together in a Scrabble-like fashion. She's actually spelling out her own name here (ミー, "Mi", in the Japanese version), but spelling it M-E lets them get away with it without having to change the letters.

** Dawn had a nickname that was based on her past and was constantly known as Dee Dee from Kenny (or in Japan, Pikari). We learn that it was because she hugged a Plusle and Minun a bit too much and thus did an electric attack on her and made her hair stand on end thus gaining the nickname Pikari (with 'Pika' the Japanese onomatopoeia for sparks). The dub went for Dee Dee (which can be read DD) and the nickname became Diamond Dandruff.

* In the original ''[[Lucky Star]]'', Konata Izumi's favourite anime icon is ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'', and many of the jokes are dependent on the fact that the two are voiced by the same person ([[Aya Hirano]]). The jokes were left in the English dub because luckily, the same English voice actress ([[Wendee Lee]]) ''also'' had enough range to play both Haruhi and Konata. The same goes for [[Minoru Shiraishi]] in regards to Taniguchi ([[Sam Riegel]] plays both in the dub).

* ''[[Ichigo Mashimaro]]'': Nobue's name sounds close enough to "no boobies" that Miu was able to spin an insult out of it.

* In episode 11 of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]: Brotherhood'', there's a scene where Ed's trying to talk about a baby that's about to be born, but he can't get the word out. All he can get out is "uma...", and as seen in a thought bubble, Winry thinks he's talking about a horse. By pure luck, "bay" is also an English word for a certain-coloured horse, and happens to be pronounced the same as the first syllable of "baby", thus making the pun work in the subtitles as well.

** Another Greed one. Ed calls the second Greed "Greedling" because he possesses the body of a guy named Ling. However, ling as a suffix in English means little (e.g. fingerling potatoes), which works quite well in two respects. It makes sense that the second version would sort of be "little Greed", and it's completely in character for [[The Napoleon|Ed]] to call someone else little, which makes the nickname funnier in English.

* The title of ''[[Bakemonogatari]]'' is a [[Portmanteau]] of the Japanese words "bakemono" (ghost or monster) and "monogatari" (story) making ''Ghostory'' or ''Monstory'' an obvious translation. One of the sequel novels, ''Nisemonogatari'', also has this going for it ("Impostory").

** Also in Russian ''Bakemonogatari'' is wonderfully translated as Монстрассказы (Monstrasskazy)

* Sebastian's catchphrase in ''[[Black Butler]]'' is a pun on ''akumade'', meaning "to the end," and ''akuma'', meaning "demon." The English translation used by both the [[Fan Sub]] and Funimation's official subtitles, "one hell of a butler," just happens to convey both meanings as well.

* At one point in the [[Lady Land|Amazon Lily]] arc of ''[[One Piece]]'', Luffy is being stared at completely naked by a group of amazons who don't know anything about men. When one of them asks what's in the 'bag' attached between his legs, Luffy replies with 'kintama', which is a Japanese slang term for testicles that also means 'balls of gold', so of course the amazons think he's saying that he has actual balls of gold between his legs. The English translation uses 'family jewels', which fits the joke perfectly.

* A nice bonus in polish translation of [[GetBackers]] is Mugenjou as "Nieskończony Zamek" which can mean "Endless/Infinite Castle" as well as "Unfinished/Incomplete Castle"

* In Bleach, there's a scene where Yumichika refers to himself as "beautiful" and Ganju pretends to mishear it as "pathetic", or something along that line. This works well in English where Yumichika refers to himself as "pretty" and Ganju agrees by saying, "Yeah, you're quite a pity."

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** In ''Asterix and the Banquet'', the characters tour Gaul, picking up regional specialties. In Cambrai, they pick up peppermint sweets called "Bêtise de Cambrai", meaning "mistake" or "nonsense". Most of that section was plays on "bêtise". If the sweets had just been "peppermints" in English, the translators would have had to fill it with unrelated puns. Conveniently, however, they're similar to the stripy mints that are called "humbugs" in the UK, so they played on the meanings of that word instead.

* Flintheart Glomgold. Initially he got the German name "Steinerz Goldunger", but later he was renamed "Mac Moneysac", a [[Meaningful Name]] that's even understandable for kids who only know few English words.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Despicable Me]]'': the scene with the cookie robots, which actually are ''boogie'' robots, is rendered very well in the Italian dubbing of the film. They have been renamed "Bisco robots", where "bisco" is short for "biscotto" (cookie), and then revealed as ''Disco'' robots, a joke that works as well, if not better, as the original English language pun.

* The title of the movie ''[[Species]]'' was translated into Hebrew as "''Min Mesukan''", literally "Dangerous Species". However, "min" also means "sex", making the translation mean "Dangerous Sex", which could also serve as an appropriate title for the film.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In Japanese poetry, it's common to use the pine tree (''matsu'') as a symbol of longing, because ''matsu'' also means "to wait". It's easy to remember, because English has an almost identical double-meaning for the word "pine".

* 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.)

* 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".

* 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.

 

* 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.

* The Japanese "Gai" is pronounced exactly the same as the common western name "Guy".

** As long as we're talking about the English name "Guy" and not the French variant, which is pronounced like "gee" (with a hard "g", as in "go" or "guilt".)

 

* 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.

 

== [[Theatre]] ==

* Works in the title of ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest]]'' for several European languages, as the word cognate to or that translates as "earnest" is often used as a proper name.

 

== Tropes ==

* [[Not That Kind of Doctor]]: works in Western nations and also sinoxenic (i.e. China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, etc.). M.D.s are ''the'' doctors but so are other highly educated people.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]]'', the sprite for the Gambler Trainer Class is a man wearing a brown longcoat and fedora hat, making them look a lot like a stereotypical detective. The English translators took note of this and changed the class to P.I., as in Private Investigator, but the fact that they're still flipping a coin and their dialogue was left completely unaltered (they talk a lot about chance and luck) still makes the translation fairly obvious.

* [[Dragon Quest VIII]] features a pun by Yangus, a guy with a habit of picking his nose. In one scene, he says that he noticed something while "Picking me nose...erm, picking me some ''flowers''. Lucky as that in Japanese the word for "Nose" is also a pun for "Flower" and in English, you can "Pick" flowers or "Pick" your nose, so the pun worked in both languages, if through different words.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In [[South Park]], Mr. Garrisson once refers to Mr. Slave as his Teacher's Assistant, or Teacher's Ass for short. In Hungarian, Tanársegéd and Tanársegg mean exactly the same.

* The Brazilian translation of ''[[Wacky Races]]'' saw the Slag Brothers being translated as "Irmãos Rocha". Irmãos = Brothers, and Rocha, which happens to be a common surname in Portuguese, means Rock. The net result is their name being more 'plausible' in Portuguese than in English.

 

* 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.

** The Japanese word "suki" （好き） is often used in romance anime and manga to create love confusion because "suki" can be interpreted as either platonic or romantic love, causing people to wonder if the person who said that meant "I view you as a good friend" or "I love you". In other words, it has almost the exact same connotations that the English phrase "I like you" does.

*** On that note, "daisuki" （大好き）can be used to intensify the sentiment (''dai'' = "big" or "much.") Thus, a distinction between the two might be rendered, "Likes her, or ''likes'' likes her?"

* Similarly, ''chotto matte'' is conveniently similar to "just a minute", right down to the lip movements.

* "R. I. P." on tombstones doesn't actually stand for "Rest in peace", but for the Latin "Requiesca(n)t in pace", which means (almost) the same thing. (To be precise, it expresses the hope that "may he / she / it / (they) rest in peace". [[The Undead|One wonders why this particular phrasing was deemed necessary]].)

* The Japanese name Johji sounds very similar to the English name "George". Actor [[Joji Nakata|Nakata Johji]] and manga artist Manabe Johji have both been known to occasionally sign their names in romaji as George. Taking it to its logical conclusion, baseball player Kenji Johjima occasionally refers to himself as George Mackenzie.

** Ken is a legitimate name in Japanese, just as it is in English.

** There are female names that work like Johji/George too: Mei/May, Karin/Karen...

*** Naomi: a Hebrew-derived name meaning "pleasant", and a Japanese name meaning "straight beauty". Even the ''meaning'' overlaps somewhat!

** There's also "Jun/June" (although in Japanese, "Jun" can also be a boy's name).

** "Mimi" is also a Japanese/English name.

** And Guy/Gai.

* There is an example of a language joke that works in both English and Chinese:

** Wife: Do you think I'm pretty or ugly? Husband: Pretty ugly, in my opinion.

** 妻子: 你觉得我'''好看'''还是'''难看'''? (Do you think I'm '''pretty''' or '''ugly'''?) 丈夫: 我觉得你'''好难看'''。 (I think you're '''really ugly'''.)

** And also in German!

* An example of a lucky ''mis''translation: "tax haven" in French should be translated as "refuge fiscal". Instead it was translated as "paradis fiscal", which is the translation of "tax h'''ea'''ven". But the erroneous translation is actually just as appropriate as the correct one, if not more.

* Not really a translation, per se, but anyone who has analyzed British and American English can find some interesting parallels between different words with similar meanings. In British, they use the term "bent" to describe someone being corrupt, very similar to the American use of "crooked." Similarly, the British term "Wanker," originally meaning someone who masturbates has since generalized into any moron or otherwise annoying person, with something similar happening to the related terms "jerkoff" and "jackoff" in American English, as in "Some jackoff stole my car."

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Translation Tropes]]

[[Category:Language Tropes]]