Fwd: Re: Translating of jokes in programs.

[Pam R]

On Sunday 28 April 2002 1:01 pm, Chris Howells wrote:
> IMHO this should be added to the style guide...
>
> Comments?
>
> ----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
>
> Subject: Re: Translating of jokes in programs.
> Date: Sunday 28 April 2002 8:31 am
> From: Claudiu Costin <claudiuc at kde.org>
> To: kde-i18n-doc at mail.kde.org
>
>[snip]
>  English word games - altough for english speakes these are
> nice and relaxant, looking from i18n and cultural point of view
> are almost untranslatable (pointed past few mails ago).

[snip]

Maybe slightly OT (but not OTT) , but the book 'Le Ton Beau de Marot' by 
Douglas Hofstadter is a brilliant and very clear exposition of the 
difficulties, possibilities and joys of real world translation and I can 
strongly recommend that anyone who is at all involved with writing and 
translation should read it. BTW, despite the title it was written in English.

Turning to the matter at hand, I would say that if an english document 
includes specifically english word play or cultural reference then the 
original should not be changed (which would detract from its appeal) but the 
translator could always fall back to translating the meaning rather than the 
expression.

Thinking of cultural references and preferences and how they might affect 
translation, I have seen a number of english documents where a normal 
computer user is referred to as 'he', while the administrator/superuser is 
'she'. Presumably in some cultures PC would dictate that 'she' be changed to 
'he'. Or should the original document be changed to read 'he' throughout?... 
But no, to make that change would be politically incorrect in some well known 
cultures. Fascinating isn't it?


Pam