There is an interesting book on the challenges of translation by Dave Brunn. He is, or was, working on a translation of the Bible into Lamogai. In doing so, he faces cultural complications in addition to the usual issues of mere language differences. He is obviously writing from the perspective of someone who sees the Bible from a traditional view of authenticity, but he makes a number of useful observations about the mechanics of translation. I wonder if others have read the book.
I was also interested, elsewhere, to read that early English translations did not sell particularly well, and printers often had to find ways to recoup their financial losses. The repeated statement was that there was little demand among the broad population for a translation that the could actually understand. Part of this may be that many could not read anyway, even their own language, but part of it may be related to the same trend among some Catholics who still want the mass to be read in Latin (even when they don’t understand Latin).
For those who just want to spend 30 minutes listening to Dave Brunn talk about the topic, here is a video:
The video is quite engaging. Early on, he makes some interesting observations about the challenges of translation for commercial purposes. Coco-Cola tried a transliteration into Chinese and ended up with something that literally meant “bite the wax tadpole,” which presumably resulted in very few sales. Pepsi translated its catch-phrase of “come alive with the Pepsi generation,” but ended up with something that suggested “Pepsi will raise your ancestors from the dead.”
JAS said
I was also interested, elsewhere, to read that early English translations did not sell particularly well, and printers often had to find ways to recoup their financial losses. The repeated statement was that there was little demand among the broad population for a translation that the could actually understand. Part of this may be that many could not read anyway, even their own language, but part of it may be related to the same trend among some Catholics who still want the mass to be read in Latin (even when they don’t understand Latin).
An interesting point. It reveals that the communicant is after something other than the explicatory content of the ritual. To put it in a snide Protestant context, maybe the “smells & bells” is precisely the point. They don’t want a lecture about holiness. They want to feel holiness.
Coco-Cola tried a transliteration into Chinese…
I have a couple friends who teach Chinese literature and who are themselves ethnic Chinese and they inform me that the history of translation both from and into Chinese is fraught and hilarious. It’s great to watch English movies with Chinese subtitles and Chinese movies with English subtitles with them and be told how often the translations are completely wrong!
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