Lucky Translation: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Translators need a lot of creativity to pull off the [[Woolseyism
Very, very occasionally, though, a Woolseyism isn't needed, since a [[Conveniently Precise Translation]] is already at hand.
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* 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'.
** Earlier in the same scene, Tomo asks, "who's always banging up cars?" The answer is "the dentist", because the Japanese word for "dentist" is phonetically the same as the word for a scrapped car ("haisha"). But in English, "DENTist" works just as well. The anime could get this across through Osaka's diction; the manga didn't have this option, but also didn't have [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=kXb0hNMI_B0 pictures] to worry about, so they just replaced it with another joke.
* The ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' series is filled with [[Punny Name
** 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.
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* 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.)
* 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>
* 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.
** Another [[Discworld]] example: in dutch, 'seamstress' is translated as 'naaister'. 'naaien' does not only mean 'sewing', but 'fucking' as well.
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== Mythology / Religion ==
* 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
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*** Not to mention Dan (although there's a slight difference in pronounciation).
** There are female names that work like Johji/George too: Mei/May, Karin/Karen...
** Emma is a common name in Japanese and
*** 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).
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