German–Spanish correspondence that skips over the English middleman

An English speaker learning German will note many correspondences and cognates between the English and German languages. English is, indeed, a member of the Germanic family of languages.

Likewise, an English speaker learning Spanish will notice many cognates – mostly different ones – between English and Spanish, due mainly to the Latin roots of Spanish and the influence of Latin on English.
 
There are many fewer correspondences between Spanish and German, and very few that skip over English altogether, but here are three that I’ve noticed:

1. German and Spanish use the same word for “heaven” and “sky” (Himmel and cielo, respectively), unlike English.
2. German and Spanish use the same word for “morning” and “tomorrow” (Morgen and mañana, respectively), unlike English.
3. This one is a little more complex to explain. A long-running popular detective show on German TV is called “Tatort,” literally “the place (Ort) of the deeds (Tat),” but the compound word translates to “scene of the crime.”  “El lugar de los hechos,” in Spanish again would literally mean “the place of the deeds/events” but the phrase, like the German compound word, has the connotation of “the scene of the crime.”

Annals of bad literary translation

I’m excited to have another amazing story to add to Life in Translation’s collection of bad literary translations.  At the same time, though, it’s disappointing to see that French readers who thought they were reading classic 1950’s hardboiled detective and noire novels were actually reading distorted and condensed versions of them.

Here is the L’Expresse article: Polars américains: la traduction était trop courte.  [American detective novels: The translation was too short.]

Too short—the article relates how entire paragraphs and even chapters were cut out for the translated versions (sound familiar? but the result will have been even worse in mystery novels, where it means that clues will be lost). In some cases, where the amputations (as the article calls them) left the story incomprehensible, bridging text was invented out of whole cloth. The L’Expresse article includes shocking photos of the vandalized text that the translators were supposed to work from.

Moreover, the translators apparently simply didn’t understand English well enough to produce accurate translations. One example: in a scene in James Crumley’s The Last Good Kiss, the detective goes to a topless bar. In French, the bar is topless too, but “without a roof”; i.e., homeless.

Creating translations that sound like originals: some examples

In the current issue of Panace@, a Spanish language journal of medical translation and interpretation, Juan Manuel Martín Arias has a short article (pdf) illustrating some pitfalls of over-literal translation of certain terms from English to Spanish.

Turning his examples around results in a lesson in obtaining natural-sounding translations from Spanish to English.

 In Spanish, a drug (medicamento, not droga, but that’s another story) is “consumed” or “administered:”  

El consumo de antidepresivos tricíclicos produce efectos secundarios de tipo anticolinérgico.

La administración de antidepresivos tricíclicos produce efectos secundarios anticolinérgicos.

Los antidepresivos tricíclicos producen efectos secundarios anticolinérgicos.

These words (consume, administer) would not be out of place in English versions of these sentences, but as Martín Arias points out, they are the correct translations of  “use” or “utilize” in this context; hence:  

The use of tricyclic antidepressant agents is associated with anticholinergic side effects.

In Spanish, a drug is not initiated, interrupted or suspended; rather it is treatment that is initiated, interrupted or suspended. Thus, if you have the sentences

El tratamiento con amlodipina se suspenderá al menos 3 meses antes del inicio del estudio clínico.

or

Se dejará de administrar la amlodipina como mínimo tres meses antes de iniciar el estudio clínico.

you might be inclined to translate them as

Amlodipine treatment should be suspended within 3 months before trial initiation.

But if you realize that these sentences are proper translations of

Amlodipine should be discontinued within 3 months before trial initiation.

you will get an English version that is more propio del inglés.

Here is Juan Manuel’s other example illustrating this point:

He gives

El tratamiento con antiangiosos se iniciará lo antes posible.

 or

La administración de antianginosos debe empezar tan pronto como sea posible.

as translations of

Antianginal agents should be initiated as soon as possible.

Without taking this into consideration, you might translate these sentences as

Antianginal treatment should be initiated as soon as possible.

or

Administration of antianginal agents should begin as soon as possible.  

A new old translation of the US national anthem into Spanish

In 2006, a new Spanish version of the US national anthem generated some controversy. In particular, the 2006 version included a new, original second verse.

A forgotten 1945 version, translated by a Peruvian immigrant to the US, Clothilde Arias, was recently recovered. Curator Marvette Perez researched the translation for three years, preparing the exhibit for the Smithsonian Institution. The story is printed here and here.

Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor Policy” to secure allies in Latin America during World War II, the State Department initiated exchanges of artists, musicians, poets and writers. As part of that cultural diplomacy, they began a competition with the Music Educators National Conference to create an original translation of the national anthem that could be sung and shared abroad.
“I found it fascinating that different political times demand different political things to happen,” Perez said.
Arias won the competition and a contract paying her $150. It specified the translation must be as close as possible to the English song in rhyme, verse and meter.
“For example, the word we say is ‘flag,’ or ‘bandera.’ But she used ‘pendon,’ which is literally banner,” Perez said. “That’s the exact word in English. In that way, it’s faithful.”

The Washington Post article has an image of the draft of Arias’s version of the anthem, but no printed final version. Perhaps it will be published after it has been performed.

Free EN-ES legal dictionary app

WordMagic is giving away free for a limited time their English<>Spanish legal dictionary app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

First ever direct English translation of Stanisław Lem's “Solaris”

What is it with classic novels and bad translations? (See past posts on bad or faulty translations of Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, The Second Sex reloaded, Levi’s The Periodic Table, and Verne’s Off On a Comet (Hector Servadac).)

Now it turns out that the only available English version of Stanisław Lem’s 1961 Polish science fiction novel Solaris had been relay translated from a poor French version. The Guardian reports that a new direct translation by Bill Johnston has just been published which “remov[es] a raft of unnecessary changes and restor[es] the text much closer to its original state.”

“There are also moments where the meaning has simply become distorted or even inverted,” said Johnston.

When have we seen this before? Every time! The Guardian article also describes some of the reversions to the novel’s original names that will make the effect on the English language reader closer to that of the original on the Polish language reader. As also seen in other accounts of poorly translated classics, the previous translators did not hesitate to cut corners; for instance summarizing dialogue into narrative. The article doesn’t say whether these faults were due to the intermediary French version, or whether they were made in the previous English version.

“All in all, the [original] translation, though it tells the story of Solaris, frequently fails to convey Lem’s style, his humour, his attention to detail. Above all, it is not a careful and accurate translation of the text that he wrote,” said [Johnston]. “The new translation will finally allow English-language readers to experience Lem's extraordinary, prescient, ever-relevant novel in all its fullness.”

The article reports that the novel is first coming out in audio version, and later e-book. If some legal issues can be resolved, the publisher hopes to bring out a print version.

Four Steps to Translation Quality

Luciano Monteiro has a blog post about the four steps to translation quality. I think this is a really good post. Well I would, wouldn’t I, because these are exactly the four steps I use. I could have written his post if I were a better blogger. Please go and read it.

I used to feel inadequate because I had read many times that the translation process should start with reading the entire text (perhaps making terminology notes) before translating, but I could never do it. Once I start reading, I must set down all my ideas on how I will translate it, and it turns into a draft. The function of the read-through is subsumed into the draft, step one in Luciano’s four steps. Recently, I’ve talked with other translators whose work I respect and admire who also don’t do a preliminary read-through. I am glad to have it confirmed that I’m not the only one that plunges straight in to the translation.

This is not to say that I think that skipping the read-through and beginning with the draft is essential or even superior. There is more than one path to quality. The final steps are the most important ones. How many times have I thought a translation was flawless, only to catch errors with a final spellcheck! Every time! This motivates me never to skip that last check.