Stupid translator fucked up
Dec. 27th, 2009 05:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
linndechirI finally continued reading Les Bienveillantes (I didn't have any time to read in the weeks before Christmas), and I came to a sentence that made me squee so much I almost fainted. Eichmann describes Heydrich as "un homme qui souffrait dans son coeur", literally "a man who suffered in his heart". So, Linny freaks out and wants to cuddle and hug Littel for knowing what he's writing about and not writing some crap about Heydrich being an emotionless machine. I do what I usually do when I have a fit of fangirling, I call assassin-nariel, who read the book in German. Curious, I ask her how they translated this. She looks it up and tells me that the German version says: "ein Mann mit großem Einfühlungsvermögen", which basically means "a man with great empathy" (Einfühlungsvermögen and empathy aren't exactly the same thing, but close enough).
WHAT THE FUCK????
Now, I'm sorry, but the translation doesn't have ANYTHING to do with the original. The original sentence could have been translated literally into German and would have been perfect. Or, if the translator didn't want that, it could have been rephrased in a way that's still close to the original meaning. But what's up with this so-called translation that doesn't even come close to the French version, no matter how you interpret it? I am so angry. We're talking about a professional translator here, shouldn't he, I don't know, at least understand French and not butcher the meaning? I'm tempted to write that guy a letter and ask what the hell he was thinking. Seriously, I could have done a better job than that and I'm NOT a professional who gets paid for it. I can't even imagine any justification for this shit. I just hope the rest of the translation is better.
On a lighter note, this passage kills me. In a good way. It's so simple, and clear, and true, and beautiful:
"En travaillant, je pensais : au fond, le problème collectif des Allemands, c'était le même que le mien ; eux aussi, ils peinaient à s'extraire d'un passé douloureux, à en faire table rase pour pouvoir commencer des choses neuves. C'est ainsi qu'ils en étaient venus à la solution radicale entre toutes, le meurtre, l'horreur pénible du meurtre. Mais le meurtre était-il une solution ? Je pensais aux nombreuses conversations que j'avais eues à ce sujet : en Allemagne, je n'étais pas le seule à douter. Et si le meurtre n'était pas une solution définitive, et si au contraire ce nouveau fait, encore moins réparable que les précédents, ouvrait à son tour de nouveaux abîmes ? Alors, que restait-il comme issue ?"
(Rough translation, it's 5am and I'm too tired to think about details, but it's probably still better than the crap this [insert vulgar insults] wrote: "While I was working I was thinking: deep down, the Germans' collective problem was the same as my own ; they too had trouble finding their way out of a painful past, making a clean sweep to be able to start something new. That's how they had arrived at the most radical solution, murder, the painful horror of murder. But was murder a solution? I thought of all the conversations I had had about this subject : I wasn't the only one to doubt, in Germany. What if murder wasn't a conclusive solution, what if, on the contrary, this new fact, even more irreparable than the previous ones, opened a new abyss? What other way out could there be, then?"
Again, this doesn't do the original any justice; if anyone has the original English translation (which is hopefully good), please tell me. Also, tell me if this doesn't make any sense. I'm too annoyed to concentrate and ponder about tiny little nuances between almost synonymous words. Seriously, translating "pénible" into English is tricky, too tricky to deal with it now.)
Hope you guys all had a nice Christmas or whatever else you're celebrating, undisturbed by stupid translators. :)
WHAT THE FUCK????
Now, I'm sorry, but the translation doesn't have ANYTHING to do with the original. The original sentence could have been translated literally into German and would have been perfect. Or, if the translator didn't want that, it could have been rephrased in a way that's still close to the original meaning. But what's up with this so-called translation that doesn't even come close to the French version, no matter how you interpret it? I am so angry. We're talking about a professional translator here, shouldn't he, I don't know, at least understand French and not butcher the meaning? I'm tempted to write that guy a letter and ask what the hell he was thinking. Seriously, I could have done a better job than that and I'm NOT a professional who gets paid for it. I can't even imagine any justification for this shit. I just hope the rest of the translation is better.
On a lighter note, this passage kills me. In a good way. It's so simple, and clear, and true, and beautiful:
"En travaillant, je pensais : au fond, le problème collectif des Allemands, c'était le même que le mien ; eux aussi, ils peinaient à s'extraire d'un passé douloureux, à en faire table rase pour pouvoir commencer des choses neuves. C'est ainsi qu'ils en étaient venus à la solution radicale entre toutes, le meurtre, l'horreur pénible du meurtre. Mais le meurtre était-il une solution ? Je pensais aux nombreuses conversations que j'avais eues à ce sujet : en Allemagne, je n'étais pas le seule à douter. Et si le meurtre n'était pas une solution définitive, et si au contraire ce nouveau fait, encore moins réparable que les précédents, ouvrait à son tour de nouveaux abîmes ? Alors, que restait-il comme issue ?"
(Rough translation, it's 5am and I'm too tired to think about details, but it's probably still better than the crap this [insert vulgar insults] wrote: "While I was working I was thinking: deep down, the Germans' collective problem was the same as my own ; they too had trouble finding their way out of a painful past, making a clean sweep to be able to start something new. That's how they had arrived at the most radical solution, murder, the painful horror of murder. But was murder a solution? I thought of all the conversations I had had about this subject : I wasn't the only one to doubt, in Germany. What if murder wasn't a conclusive solution, what if, on the contrary, this new fact, even more irreparable than the previous ones, opened a new abyss? What other way out could there be, then?"
Again, this doesn't do the original any justice; if anyone has the original English translation (which is hopefully good), please tell me. Also, tell me if this doesn't make any sense. I'm too annoyed to concentrate and ponder about tiny little nuances between almost synonymous words. Seriously, translating "pénible" into English is tricky, too tricky to deal with it now.)
Hope you guys all had a nice Christmas or whatever else you're celebrating, undisturbed by stupid translators. :)
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Date: 2010-01-04 12:35 am (UTC)Btw, what about that sequel? ;)