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== Jokes ==
* A Soviet joke, that goes like this: an Italian movie has been translated into Russian. The very first scene gives us an angry naked woman lying on the bed and an embarassed naked man who is quickly getting dressed.
{{quote|'''The woman:''' Castrato! Impotento!
'''The translator:''' Go away, I don't love you anymore! }}
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* ''[[The Warlord Chronicles]]'' gives us a page quote when the [[Boisterous Bruiser]] Saxon warrior king Aelle faces off with a coalition of Briton princes, generals, and warlords. When called upon to surrender and offered mercy, Aelle responds with [[Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon|an incredibly long-winded and detailed set of threats, tortures and torments]] toward every notable figure on the British side. (Believe it or not, the version on the quote page is ''much'' shorter than the full thing). The translator's version is simply "He says no." The trope also gets lampshaded, as right after Derfel translates Aelle's speech, Meurig responds "[[Translation: "Yes"|Surely he said more than that]]?" The [[Old Soldier]] Sagramor, [[Seen It All|who has been doing this sort of thing for his almost his entire life]], just tells Meurig "[[You Do NOT Want to Know|You don't want to know what he really said]]."
* In ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', when Daenerys negotiates for an army of Unsullied in Astapor one of the merchants insults her repeatedly and uses [[Politically-Incorrect Villain|lewd and sexist comments towards her]], but his slave translates this much more politely. Of course, neither the slave nor the merchant realize at that point that [[Obfuscating Stupidity|Dany actually does]] [[Bilingual Backfire|speak their language]]...
** In an earlier book by the same author, ''Windhaven'', someone is ''executed'' for doing this. She was carrying very rude verbal messages between two places at risk of war, and made them a bit more polite. When her employer found out he had her killed, and though he was removed from his position for insanity shortly thereafter, he was considered within his rights to do so. They take the job of delivering the exact message seriously.
* A large part of Bren Cameron's job in [[C. J. Cherryh]]'s Foreigner-verse, as the ''only'' person authorized by treaty to translate between a human settlement and the government of the other intelligent species on the planet. Even when, as in later books, he's not the only person who can translate, his skill at tact and diplomacy is exceptionally valuable.
* Comes up in the [[X Wing Series]]. Wedge Antilles flies the fake ''Falcon'', ''Millenium Falsehood'' with Chewbacca as copilot, but since he doesn't understand the Wookiee, he brings along a translator droid. Chewbacca knows Basic and takes offense to Squeaky not translating the more colorful elements of his speech.
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** {{spoiler|It later transpires [[Completely Unnecessary Translator|the Red King speaks English perfectly well]] (and that said slave knew this); he was probably smacking her to put Harry off guard.}}
* ''[[Ephraim Kishon]]'' once did this for a fight between one of his Hungarian relatives and a shopkeeper. He did it so well that they made peace. At the end, he thought he should try the same thing with the USA and the [[Soviet Union]].
* The title character in ''[[Mara Daughter of the Nile]]'' tries to do this when the first meeting between the king and the foreign princess he is betrothed to doesn't go so well. Unfortunately for Mara, she forgot that the king also speaks Babylonian.
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[[Category:Language Tropes]]
[[Category:Tactful Translation]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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