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Lucky Translation: Difference between revisions
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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
* 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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[[Category:Language Tropes]]
[[Category:Lucky Translation]]
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