Tactful Translation: Difference between revisions

== Anime and Manga ==

* This happens in [[Axis Powers Hetalia]] when America visits Japan in order to [[Baka|make friends with whales]].

'''Interpreter:''' It's nice that you have such interesting pursuits, but please pursue them at your own residence. }}

** A meta example: in [http://www.geocities.jp/himaruya/omochi.html one of his mochi strips] (titled "Beautiful Rice Cake"), the [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|"king of rice cake"]] drops tonnes of [[Cluster F-Bomb]] in English, but the translations provided uses polite language. For example:

'''translation:''' I'm glad you like it. }}

* An episode of ''[[Full Metal Panic]]? Fumoffu'' features a 'negotiation' session between Sousuke, an ex-mujaheddin [[Child Soldier]] who tends to speak in [[Spock Speak]], and a [[Delinquent]] representing a gang who's kidnapped one of his friends. Sousuke is unable to understand the thug's street jargon and extremely heavy accent, prompting the [[Student Council President]] to step in and calmly translate it into [[Spock Speak]]. The show then goes on to invert the trope when Sousuke's equally formal reply flies right over the thug's head -- so the [[Student Council President]] ''translates it into a series of crude threats completely deadpan, using the exact same tone of voice he used when doing the formal translation''.

'''[[Student Council President]]:''' Oh, it's nothing, only what I've gleamed in books. I'm... Not certain he'll understand my translation, though... }}

* ''[[Black Lagoon]]'''s Rock tries to do this to the Japanese with whom Balalaika is trying to speak, until she catches on and insists he take fewer creative liberties.

== Fan Fiction ==

* In the [[Katawa Shoujo]] fanfic, [[Weekend at Hisao's|Weekend At Hisaos]], Hisao ends up doing this for his deaf girlfriend Shizune in a meeting with his old friends when the conversation turns to their respective Student Councils. Statements in brackets are in sign language.

'''Hisao''': "Oh. Um. Shizune's saying that our student council was much smaller. It was a lot of hard work." }}

 

== Film ==

* Referenced in ''[[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]]'' when [[The Remnant|the Germanic tribes]] answer the offer of Maximus' messenger by sending his headless body back to the Romans tied to his horse, while the leader of the tribe appears on a hill, shouting at the Romans and tossing the head of the messenger to the ground.

* In the 2003 film version of ''[[Peter Pan]]'', Hook captures Tigerlily and asks her, (with Smee translating) if she's seen Peter Pan. Tigerlily responds with visible anger and disgust, complete with spitting at Hook. Smee translates this as "She says 'sorry, but no.'"

* Used by Charlie Chaplin in ''[[The Great Dictator]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4UhJpviVYg here].

* ''[[Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels]]'' amusingly plays with this trope while combining it with [[Fun with Subtitles]]. When one gangster is informing another about infamous [[The Yardies|Yardie]] kingpin Rory Breaker his lines (which are in a a deep slang and would be all but incomprehensible in North America) get subtitled. As the character narrates about [[Too Dumb to Live|some poor dumb bastard]] confronting Rory at a bar, changing the channel Rory was watching and saying "Now fuck off and watch it somewhere else" the subtitles show up with "Please remove yourself from this bar". Just a few seconds later, however, the trope is gleefully inverted, as the narrator tells about how Rory "Walks straight past the jam rolls who are ready for action" and the subtitles translate this as "He walks straight past the arseholes". A couple of seconds after ''that'' there is more bickering between Rory and the other guy that involves cursing at each other and it gets translated far more politely than how it was actually said. Enjoy it for yourself [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRDOpknHLLo here].

* Early in the 1992 ''[[The Last of the Mohicans|Last of the Mohicans]]'' film, there's a bit where Magua, (who is still pretending to be an English ally at the time, but is leading them into an ambush) and Major Heyward get into an argument.

'''Magua:''' Magua said... I understand English, very well. }}

* In ''[[My Big Fat Greek Wedding]]'', Gus is unimpressed with Ian's attempt to wish him a happy Easter ("Cheestro Nasty!"), and mutters in Greek, "My people were writing philosophy when your people were still swinging in trees." At Ian's confused look, Toula says, "He likes you."

* ''[[The Last Samurai]]''. Simon Graham is a westerner who has lived as a translator in Japan for quite some time. He briefly describes being let go from the British trade mission because he told the truth instead of lying politely. As he describes it, what he now does instead is "Very accurately translate other people's lies."

* A more serious use of this trope occurs in ''[[The Beast of War]]'' (1988), set during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The Soviet tank commander orders a villager to be placed in front of his tank-track to encourage him to talk. His wife comes running up and is grabbed by the Afghan translator. I can't remember the exact words but it goes something like this:

'''Translator''' (in [[Translation Convention|English (Russian)]]): "Sir, this woman respectfully requests you release her husband."<br />

'''Tank Commander''': "Ask him where the rebels are."<br />

The tank commander isn't fooled, and drives over the villager. }}

* ''[[Black Rain]]''. Nick's partner Charlies does this as a [[Running Gag]] (e.g. '''Nick:''' "I like to be kissed before I'm fucked!" '''Charlie:''' "Foreplay") starting with this scene.

'''[[Da Chief|High Ranking Police Boss]]''': "WHAT did you say?"<br />

'''Charlie''': "He means 'a tough motherfucker'."<br />

* Happens at the climax of [[The Russians Are Coming]]. One of the sub's officers understands both English and Russian, and so is the de facto translator. When the police chief tells the submarine captain that he is under arrest, and the officer translates, the captain laughs, then starts swearing in Russian. The officer translates this as, "He is very angry...he thinks you're an idiot."

* Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]''. While Aladdin and Princess Jasmine are together in his hideout, Abu is annoyed when Aladdin gives Jasmine his apple.

'''Aladdin:''' Yeah, of course. }}

* Averted in ''[[Patton]]''; when at the joint celebration with the Russians, Patton is offered a drink. His response? "I won't drink with that Russian son of a bitch." The translator, obviously, states that he cannot say such a thing, but Patton tells him to say it, "word for word." After doing so, the Russian general responds back, "I also think YOU are a son of a bitch." ''That'' is something Patton will drink to, [[Actually Pretty Funny|one son of a bitch to another]].

* Much like the Patton example, C3P0 tries to smooth things while working for Jabba the Hutt in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', yet Jabba is impressed and becomes more agreeable when the bounty hunter theatens him with a thermal detonator.

* In ''[[Apollo 13]]'':

'''Fred Haise:''' [calmly] Roger that, Houston. }}

* ''[[Strictly Ballroom]]:''

'''Fran:''' Grandma wants to teach us. }}

 

== 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.

'''The translator:''' Go away, I don't love you anymore! }}

 

* ''[[The Devil's Dictionary]]'' defines an interpreter as "one who enables two persons of different languages to understand each other by repeating to each what it would have been to the interpreter's advantage for the other to have said".

* The non-fiction book ''Smokescreen'' by Robert Sabbag (about the dope smuggling trade) relates an incident where a Cuban hitman was sent with the protagonist Alan Long to discuss the matter of 2000 pounds of pot that drug boss Jimmy Alvarez believed had been ripped off by Long's friend Lee Carlyle. Carlyle turns up for the meeting drunk and immediately starts jabbing his finger in the hitman's face and screaming insults. Fortunately the hitman does not speak English.

'''Long''': "''Bueno!''" }}

* ''[[Space Cadet (novel)|Space Cadet]]'' by [[Robert A. Heinlein]]. One of the Patrolmen is getting annoyed over the amount of time the Venusians are taking to free their rocketship from the mud. Their matriach replies "Tell your daughter (all intelligent Venusians are female, so assume the same of humans) to catch her fish and I shall catch mine". When the Patrolman replies, "All right, keep your shirt on" his companion translates this as "My daughter thanks thee for your advice."

* Melinda from ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]'' tends to carefully reinterpret what the dead are really saying.

* In the ''[[Crusade]]'' episode ''The Needs Of Earth'', an alien leader's translator explains to Captain Gideon that their leaders deliberately avoid learning other languages in order to avoid compromises to their moral and intellectual purity. The following exchange ensues:

'''Translator:''' All the time. It's politics....and [[Shoot the Messenger|self preservation]]. }}

* [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Magnificently]] [[Averted Trope|averted]] in [[Boardwalk Empire]], where a Jewish criminal with a bad gunshot wound is brought to interrogation in [[Open-Heart Dentistry|a dentist's office]]. He insults the federal agent interrogating him in Yiddish - both the mother of the dentist's patient and the agent's deputy speak it, and provide a comically tactless translation.

'''Agent Sebso:''' ''Little'' faggot penis. }}

* [[The West Wing]] averts this regarding the deaf pollster Joey Lucas, whose translators always say exactly what she signs. Her (well, her translator's) first line involved calling Josh an "unmitigated jackass". It also lead to a few funny moments.

'''Josh''': Kenny, that really better have been her talking. }}

 

* This was the original purpose of Honey Huan in ''[[Doonesbury]]''. When Duke Harris was the American ambassador to China, she was assigned as his translator and "softened" most of his speeches into something more diplomatic. She sometimes did this while translating Chinese officials to him as well.

** Best example is during the first Duke's speech to a Chinese audience. Part of the translation is:

* In one ''[[Bloom County]]'' strip, Steve Dallas dictates a letter to a deadbeat (and evidently quite violent) client who has yet to pay his legal fees. Opus, who's taking the dictation, changes it from a profanity-laced tirade to a gentle reminder.

'''Opus (writing):''' PS: Give Mary Lou a hug for me! }}

* Inverted in ''Corporal Kev'', which ran only in the U.S. military's newspaper ''Stars and Stripes'' in the early 1980s, when Kev is picked to translate for a joint exercise between American and French tank troops.

As the two officers growl at each other, nose to nose, Kev thinks, "I'm gonna ''enjoy'' this!" }}

 

* The deaf/mute Shizune from ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'' naturally needs everything translated for her, using either her best friend Misha or the protagonist Hisao. Both generally translate accurately except in the case of Shizune's [[Arch Enemy]] Lilly, where Hisao is frequently guilty of trying to avert a fight between the two women by giving hilariously inaccurate translations (which fool neither of them).

** Lilly, however, ''is'' fooled once in Shizune's route, when Hisao translates one of Shizune's sarcastic comments into something completely different. He questions how ethical it is to do that, but they get through the fishing trip without fighting, which pleases him.

'''Shizune''': ''(signing)'' [How [[Sarcasm Mode|magnanimous]] of you, Lilly.]<br />

'''Hisao''': Shizune says you should at least try. It might turn out to be fun.<br />

== Webcomics ==

* ''[[Corner Alley 13]]'' has it [[Played for Laughs]] when calm and unconcerned Cole proceeds with translating every phrase in an obviously much more polite (and [http://corneralley.comicgenesis.com/d/20070822.html comically] [http://corneralley.comicgenesis.com/d/20070812.html eloquent]) form while, [http://corneralley.comicgenesis.com/d/20070829.html well]...

'''Cole''': She encourages you to devour steel. }}

 

** It works like that in text, as well. For tact or not, a good translator sometimes attains a better text than the original.

** Tactful translations are downright ''vital'' when translating between low context cultures (the U.S.) where language is more literal and high context cultures (for example, Japan) where language is much more nuanced based on situation, [[Shaped Like Itself|context]], and social standing. A simple question or request, without further elaboration, might be seen as unspeakably blunt or insultingly evasive. For example, here's how one of these might go:

'''Translator''': No can do, but there's pizza and ice cream (or, perhaps, a bonus) in it for you if you do the job. }}

* There's also a joke floating around that inverts this trope: