Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 April 16

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April 16

Translation question in Asterix and the Griffin

In the Finnish translation of the newest Asterix album Asterix and the Griffin, on page 22 Getafix the druid says: "Sanoin sipuleita, en sopuleita" ("I said onions, not lemmings"), and on page 24 he says "Ei silavaa, vaan silakkaa" ("Not pork fat, herring") and on page 31 a Sarmatian man says "Toin sekä atulat että satulat" ("I brought both the prongs and the saddles").

What are the corresponding quotes in the original French language comic, and in the English translation? JIP | Talk 15:46, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

In French the druid says "pas des marmottes, des carottes” and "pas du lard, du homard”, and the Sarmatian man says "une pince et deux selles". In English the druid says "not marmots, carrots" (same as in French), "not bacon lard, rainbow chard" (French = not lard, lobster), and the Sarmatian says the same as the French, "tongs and two saddles". But in the English version the Sarmatian also adds "...or was it the tongues of two adders?", which is not in the French version. Adam Bishop (talk) 19:00, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

So atulat että satulat is a pun that's not found in the French original? That's interesting. (Or is "une pince et deux selles" one of these French homonymous puns?) 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 19:11, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

It's une pincée de sel ("a pinch of salt"). --Wrongfilter (talk) 19:25, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

Ahhh, I figured it would have been something like that... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 19:37, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

In my teens, I read several Asterix books in both English and French while learning the latter. Quite frequently the original French text uses puns and colloquial expressions that do not work or exist in English, and the English translators had to create new ones that do. The same phenomenon famously occurs in works by Stanislaw Lem translated from Polish to English. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.101.71 (talk) 22:04, 17 April 2022 (UTC)

Indeed, in The Futurological Congress, translator Michael Kandel extended some word-play on masło ("butter") and zgasło ("went out") to give something like "The candle sputtered and guttered in the butter". --ColinFine (talk) 14:32, 18 April 2022 (UTC)

Minor correction: "sekä atulat että satulat". "Sekä... että" is Finnish for "both... and". "Toin" means "I brought". Finnish verbs do not necessarily need explicit subject words in the first and second persons as this is evident from the verb's conjugation form. JIP | Talk 01:51, 18 April 2022 (UTC)