Lost in Translation II - totally lost

[Kassiopeia]

We will always prevail

[Spiffor]

That was really, really amazing. Both poems changed completely their meaning twice in the process. The last translation actually reintroduced words that had been lost beofre ("Earth" in the first poem, A love relationship in the second poem instead of an owner-ownee one )

Besides, there's the "parasite", which graced the first poem during most of the process (the poet was talking about his love ). Until I mangled the thing up, the "parasite" was the best preserved word in it all

[Winston]

I really wish this forum irregularity would come to an end soon, I want to comment on the extensive track of translations we have, but I simply can't navigate properly with these horrible graphics.

[Az]

Man, I was worried I was the only one having this.

[Robert]

I wonder what the result would be if everybody would only translate languages (s)he speaks fluently....

That way we can really make fun of each other

[Adagio]

Originally posted by CyberShy
I wonder what the result would be if everybody would only translate languages (s)he speaks fluently....

That way we can really make fun of each other

Well, we could start a Lost in Translation III

Actually it would be #4, not #3. Last time we did this we played the game twice, but only of the games finished IIRC

[molly bloom]

Absolutely brilliant tongue-tied thread.


Congratulations all round to the wonderful translators

Babel-icious.

[Atahualpa]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
We will always prevail

The original says: "I find myself a bore", then it changes to "I take myself for a fool" and suddenly the next english translation was "I will always prevail"

I really wish this forum irregularity would come to an end soon, I want to comment on the extensive track of translations we have, but I simply can't navigate properly with these horrible graphics.

I think it's fixed now.


molly bloom, thx again for the poem

[Atahualpa]

Originally posted by CyberShy
I wonder what the result would be if everybody would only translate languages (s)he speaks fluently....

That way we can really make fun of each other

I think it's more fun when guessing is involved. Ofc, if we'd only translate from fluent languages, it would be required that everyone would write as good and subtle as possible. Introduce some special phrases whenever they seem appropriate, don't use everyday words and in general everyone would be required to make a wonderful poem out of it!
I think this could be as interesting, but would be quite a bit more work for everyone involved.

[Meticulous Man]

Cheers to Kassi for not translating word for word all the inanities I produced

Maybe we should have two translation teams next time around. Then a jury would rate the translations they produced J/K, that sounds like too much work

[Krill]

Next time we need to find some one to translate from latin. get another language in the mix...

[Donegeal]

Excellent work polytubbies!

[Flandrien]

my 2 ¢ of suggestions for next round :

- Always make sure to translate into a language you are fluent in. This is to make sure the translated text retains some subtlety.
- Allow the use of any kind of dictionary. Needing a dictionary in the first place is already a hint of what is to come.



(btw. I am glad I found out now where this parasite came from)

[Winston]

I tend to agree with Flandrien, at least to the extent of dropping the 'for fun'-category, except for cases where it is really borderline 'non-fluently'.

That's one impression I got from reading through the translations - on a personal level. I stated that I'd be able to translate from French, Italian, Spanish and Icelandic 'for fun', but I have to admit after seeing the poems in two of those, that I wouldn't have had a snowball's chance in Hell of getting more than 20% of it right in any of those languages, tops.

Maybe I'm the only one to have over-estimated my own ability, or maybe I'm misinterpreting the meaning of 'for fun', but if I were to have translated from e.g. Spanish it would've been a total disaster, not even fun anymore. Luckily, Ata was wise enough to not have me do it.

[Winston]

And I'd like to give credit also for choosing some fine material for us to work with. to molly bloom and Atahualpa for this.

And of course I have to correct myself from earlier. The first one is beautiful, the second 'interesting', but both are excellently suited for this purpose.

And neither one was too long, too technical or too obscure to handle. Those were my initial concerns for the text we'd see, before it was decided to dive into the poetry realm. I think sticking to poems like these for any subsequent games we might have would be an excellent choice.