Translation...what comes to your mind when you think about that?
Today, we were studying at our Translation class at college how to translate (or not ) the puns. That silly little group of words that are mostly ambiguous, which means, you´ll probably have two ways of understanding it.
My point here is, sometimes we cannot translate a word! How do we react when our students come to us and just ask: Teacher, how can you translate SHRUG? (the act of shaking your shoulders). – You may give a definition or even a non-verbal explanation, but how would you translate? (This example was a little stupid, I must confess. Just couldn´t think of a better one!)
I found a really nice ‘article’ about untranslatable words. It worths the click.
Just for the record: I didn´t know that there isn´t a translation for ‘cafuné’. Have you ever thought about that?
http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-awesomely-untranslatable-words-from-around-the-world/
Image source: Google Images
They also mention SAUDADE as something that belongs to our language specifically, though I believe anyone anywhere may know what the feeling is.
ReplyDeleteReally good this idea about untranslatable words, and this comment about Saudade, this feeling that "catch" us, and that is "untranslatable", in many meanings. The comment made me curious about the etymological meaning, then I did a google and found in the wikipedia an interesting definition: " Saudade is one of the words present in the love poetry of the Portuguese language and also in popular music, "saudade", known only in "Galego" and "Portuguese", describes a mixture of feelings of loss, love and distance. The word comes from the Latin "solitas, solitatis" (loneliness), the archaic form of "soedade, and soidade suidade" and under the influence of "saúde " and "saudar."". Now that I know the meaning of the word, the feeling continues to be untranslatable.
ReplyDeleteA.N.BANKSY