I posted to a light-hearted blog called Fucked Translation over on Blogger from 2007 to 2016, when I was often in Barcelona. Its original subtitle was “What happens when Spanish institutions and businesses give translation contracts to relatives or to some guy in a bar who once went to London and only charges 0.05€/word.” I never actually did much Spanish-English translation (most of my work is from Dutch, French and German) but I was intrigued and amused by the hubristic Spanish belief, then common, that nepotism and quality went hand in hand, and by the nemeses that inevitably followed.
Maybe it’s me, but my impression is that the quality of official EU translation has deteriorated quite sharply in the past few years. But I think we all know, in article 60 of the IORPs Directive, which the Commission is trying to smuggle past national parliaments without discussion or publicity on this busy summer weekend,…
Of the twenty-four equal hours into which they divide the day and the night, the Utopians devote only six to work. They work three hours before noon, when they go to lunch. After lunch, they rest for two hours, then go to work for another three hours. Then they have supper, and about eight o’clock…
Politico: The Schuman Trophy has been a fixture on the Commission’s calendar for 20 years, with teams from each department playing each other and raising money for children’s charities. But this year’s event — held on May 21 and sponsored by the likes of Volvo and Belgian financial services firm Easyvest — ended in chaos…
I fear a British employment tribunal is about to give undue weight to an exceptionally everyday Portuguese curse. But José “translator” Mourinho should be able to wriggle his way out of that, and if he can’t then he can probably afford it.
In Spanish etc., campsite > camping, carpark > parking, etc., but then in German happy ending > happy End. Who cares? End is a genital euphemism in English, so a happy ending in a London massage parlour loses nothing in translation. The Happy End of Georg Anton Benda’s version of Romeo and Juliet is more…
The local branch of the Canute Society is campaigning against the (incorrect and correct) use of English in advertising: The RAE “no es una startup.” Confirmation in this video. ¡Numancia romana! Buenos días. pic.twitter.com/gIJ3hr1TqN — Maestro Ciruela (@Master_Plum) May 19, 2016 Tralala.
To the extent that she is not merely chucking us clickbait, Elena Horrillo’s piece on supposedly untranslatable Spanish expressions suggests she hasn’t read the English Wikipedia article, some of which has been translated into Spanish. Translating difficult expressions, sayings and proverbs like those cited was already a minor industry in the late Middle Ages (anyone…
Man who can’t write English got a piece of paper from Harvard Business School. No problem: been there, seen that, finishing school for the N American ruling caste. But same man has got 307K followers on Twitter – even more than the Singing Organ Grinder – many of whom attach symbolic, patriotic importance to his…
