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.
La Voz de Galicia, the oldest Google source for the story, says that the council of Puentes de García Rodríguez posted the work of Google Translate on its website, but I can’t find a screengrab. As if all those mistranslated greens weren’t bad enough, the town’s illiterate English Wikipedia entry tells us that: The town…
Four mentions, four spellings in Crónica Global’s piece about a British tub in the Pujol clan’s money laundry. This dyslexia appears sourced from Antonio Fernández’s new book, Pujol & Puig, which mixes the forms “Brantridge” and “Brandtridge”. CG follows the Spanish practice of assuming that foreigners also have two surnames, and refers to “Herbert Arthur…
Cock/Kok: family name. Also kok: cook, coccus. Re David Cameron’s #piggate laddishness, British Labour MP Emily Thornberry has posted a pack of pickled smoked cut beef (not pork) marketed under a brand of Darwin Award-worthy stupidity, Cock’s Fresh. De Cock is the family name and the products are preserved, not fresh. If you tell a…
Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Dumas Club, tr. Sonia Soto (London: Vintage Books, 2003): “I know what you mean. It’s Julian the Apostate crying, ‘You have defeated me, Galileo.'” Galilean.
Caca Marron: Solid Henna: Turn brown into amburn with a shine like fresh conkers: Vegan: Some of you will probably get off on Polkadot Lily smearing Lush brown shit into her hair: They also do Black Shit, known in the trade as the Guinness look. H/t Manolo A.
Two versions: El País: the instructor says, “No jump, it’s important. No jump,” and the girl understands, “Now jump.” De Telegraaf, among others, citing words which no longer appear on El Diario Montañés: the instructor says, “[When it’s time to jump], don’t worry, just jump.”
Wrust is a Spanish speciality and a Botswanan all-black metal band: Did they intend to call themselves sausage? How strong is the residual regional influence of German South-West Africa, not to mention boerewors camp? More namby-pamby posturing from Gaborone: A very shy black friend once became the lead singer of a moderately good all-white Leeds…