In Her Shoes
Another example of a movie title as unaptly translated as possible: "In den Schuhen meiner Schwester", originally 'In Her Shoes'. What's THAT supposed to say?
The original meaning reads "sich in jmds. Lage versetzen". And I'd have to add that this makes perfect sense to me with regard to the plot. Translators could have come up with something at least remotely related to the idea of someone putting themselves into s.o. else's - well - shoes. We have expressions in German that would have - in my view - captured that idea nicely. How about "in jemandes Haut stecken" or "nicht aus seiner Haut können". Even the idea of dressing in someone else's clothes would have been closer to the original idea.
Aaaaarrrghh! I'm afraid, translation looked up the dictionary and - again - simply chose a literal conversion without keeping the story in mind. OK, I have to admit it on the other hand: It's not too well paid a job, so they may have wanted to take things as easy as possible.
posted by renovatio06 @ 11:08 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Translating is not very well paid so these mistakes happen. Apart fromt hat I sometimes wonder if translators just do their job wihtout thinking about the bigger picture (book, film, you name it).
I don't know which TV show I saw but it was something that has to do with medicine - anyway - the dialogue was like this: "Ich wußte nicht daß wir ein Flugzeug haben." - "Haben wir nicht, wir dürfen es nur einmal in einem blauen Mond nutzen."
Why, the he**, was it translated literally? The idiomatic translation would be "alle Jubeljahre". But I suppose it was translated as it was due to being lip synchronously.
I sometimes wonder if translators just do their job wihtout thinking about the bigger picture (book, film, you name it).
EXACTLY!
The idiomatic translation would be "alle Jubeljahre". But I suppose it was translated as it was due to being lip synchronously.
Maybe, but then it would have still been a half-assed job, for there are movies or TV-series with excellent synchronization and lip-synched as well, don't you think?
Oh, and on a second note: What's getting me here is that not only do translators fail to give the foreign language its dues, but also foster deterioration of our own. And that's a real drag...
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