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.
…leaving Rajoy looking like a pillock. Those translators certainly earn their 10K tax-free/month. Q: Why would anyone want to stay in, particularly with Juncker in charge?
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…
There’s a clever name for phonetic language parodies which I have forgotten because it’s hot and I have been undergoing ye notorious Spanish wine torture: Shades of Maria Luisa Puche, the undisputed champion. My favourite one actually makes more sense than the poésie concrète I wrote for a political campaign some years ago and is…
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