Register Log In Wordsmith Talk Forums General Topics Miscellany Traduttori, traditori Search Advanced Forum Search Forums Calendar Active Threads

Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Traduttori, traditori #107706 07/16/2003 6:02 PM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 6,511 lower upstate New York AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel AnnaStrophic Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 6,511 lower upstate New York NPR ran a fascinating (well, to us wordy types here) piece last night on the ongoing struggle of the foreign press to translate Bush's down-home expressions. Most have all but given up on the baseball metaphors, but the latest phrase, "darned good intelligence," couldn't be left out of a news story. How'd they do? http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1337949.html The above is a link to the audio file; transcripts cost money. Despite the old maxim, the Italians did the best on the translation, as I think y'all'll agree. Another phrase which Dubya has used from time to time is "Bring it on!" Guy from Al-Jazeera said there were plenty of expressions to translate it, but they varied from country to country. I guess Egypt's "We will crush the infidels!" might well be Morocco's "Your mother wears army boots!" Since the agency serves the entire Arabic-speaking world, they pretty much have to stick to classical Arabic, he said. [/not a politics post] Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Share Post on Reddit Re: Traduttori, traditori #107707 07/17/2003 1:14 AM Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky Jackie Carpal Tunnel Jackie Carpal Tunnel Joined: Mar 2000 Posts: 11,613 Louisville, Kentucky "darned good" French: excellent Arabic: very good Japanese: good Spanish: really very good Italian: damned good (I think) "Bring 'em on": Japanese: come on, if you're courageous enough, attack us. Arabic: paraphrase--no direct quote Italian: let them bring the attack against us on Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Share Post on Reddit Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. (have been... ------  Words from medicine  Beheading words  Meta-words  Words from classical mythology  Animal Safari  Words with unusual etymologies  Eponyms or words derived from p...  Loanwords from German  English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode Show Likes Link Copied to Clipboard View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary Forum Statistics Forums16 Topics13,916 Posts230,481 Members9,211 Most Online17,319 Apr 8th, 2026 Newest Members Boo boo kitty fu, peterreineck, Peripatetic Toad, JerryC, blvd 9,211 Registered Users Top Posters(30 Days) wofahulicodoc 28 A C Bowden 10 Top Posters wwh 13,858 Faldage 13,803 Jackie 11,613 wofahulicodoc 11,285 tsuwm 10,542 LukeJavan8 9,974 Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210 AnnaStrophic 6,511 Wordwind 6,296 of troy 5,400

Default Style BlackNTan Drab eBay GooG v2 infopop new dark new light original dark original stock rounded corners Slate snow sunny dropshadow theblues Touch Of Grey UBB.threads UBB.threads - Dark UBB.threads - Light UBBCentral UBBCentral - Crimson UBBCentral - Lime UBBCentral - Marshmallow UBBCentral - Mocha UBBCentral - Zen UBBT77 UBBT77 - Dark ubbthreads ubbthreads-dark Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith Talk