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Subject:Re: Translation Humor - Help From:Trevor Holdsworth <t -dot- holdsworth -at- GILSON -dot- FR> Date:Wed, 4 Nov 1998 09:23:11 +0100
Tom,
Can't help you with the Portugese, Im afraid, only give the following
advice:
Try to get a 'mother tongue' writer (ie Portugese), or at least a mother
tongue person to closely read and check. Its the only way.
Word 'misinerpretations' like this abound. Many words have more than one
possible meaning, example pinch, or pass. If you often translate to the
same language, try to get a technical dictionary, these are very
expensive, but have the technical terms that even big English/Portugese
(or whatever) dictionaries don't have.
Humoristic side:
There's a French book called 'Sky my husband' which is just full of
'literally' interpreted words or sentences (French-English), example:
Cornichon (gherkin to you) is split into two words (phonetically):
corps-nichon,
which, translated into English give body-boob (Sorry folks, but its
true)
Traffic jam would be 'confiture de voitures' which you could hardly
spread on your toast.
Basically, its very easy to misinterpret, often with embarrasing
results. Having a 'mother tongue' person check is vital.
