Untranslatability 

is a property of a text, or of any utterance, in one language, for

which no equivalent text or utterance can be found in another language.
Terms are, however, neither exclusively translatable nor exclusively
untranslatable; rather, the degree of difficulty of translation depends on their
nature, as well as on the translator's abilities.
Quite often, a text or utterance that is considered to be "untranslatable" is actually
a lacuna, or lexical gap. That is, there is no one-to-one equivalence between the
word, expression or turn of phrase in the source language and another word,
expression or turn of phrase in the target language. A translator can, however,
resort to a number of translation procedures to compensate for this.
Contents
 [hide]
1 Translation procedures
o 1.1 Adaptation
o 1.2 Borrowing
o 1.3 Calque
o 1.4 Compensation
o 1.5 Paraphrase
o 1.6 Translator's note
2 Examples
o 2.1 Register
o 2.2 Grammar
2.2.1 Possession
2.2.2 Verb forms
o 2.3 Vocabulary
2.3.1 Family
2.3.1.1 Siblings
2.3.1.2 Grandparents
2.3.1.3 Aunts and Uncles
2.3.1.4 Nephews, Nieces, and
Cousins
2.3.1.5 Relations by marriage
2.3.2 Foreign objects
o 2.4 Poetry, puns and wordplay
o 2.5 Iconicity
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
[edit]Translation procedures
N.B.: The majority of examples and illustrations given below will involve
translating to or from the English language.
The translation procedures that are available in cases of lacunae, or lexical gaps,
include the following:
Adaptation
An adaptation, also known as a free translation, is a translation procedure
whereby the translator replaces a social, or cultural, reality in the source text with a
corresponding reality in the target text; this new reality would be more usual to the
audience of the target text.
For example, in the Belgian comic book The Adventures of Tintin, Tintin's trusty
canine sidekick Milou is translated as Snowy in English, likewise the
detectives Dupont and Dupond become Thomson and Thompson in
English, Jansen and Janssen in
Dutch, Jonson and Ronson in Bengali, Schultze and Schulze in
German, Hernández and Fernández inSpanish, 杜 本  and 杜 朋  (Dùběn and Dùpén
g) in Chinese, and Fomichoff and Fomichoff in Russian.
The French novel 99 Francs was relocalized when translated. The English version
took place in London, instead of Paris.
Adaptation is often used when translating poetry, works of theatre, and advertising.
Borrowing
See also: Loanword
Borrowing is a translation procedure whereby the translator uses a word or
expression from the source text in the target text unmodified. In English text,
borrowings not sufficiently anglicised are normally in italics.
Calque
Calque entails taking an expression, breaking it down to individual elements and
translating each element into the target language word for word. For example, the
German word "Alleinvertretungsanspruch" can be calqued to "single-
representation-claim", but a proper translation would result in "Exclusive
Mandate". Word-by-word translations usually have comic value, but can be a
means to save as much of the original style as possible, especially when the source
text is ambiguous or undecipherable to the translator.
[edit]Compensation
Compensation is a translation procedure whereby the translator solves the
problem of aspects of the source text that cannot take the same form in the target
language by replacing these aspects with other elements or forms in the source
text.
For example, many languages have two forms of the second person pronoun,
namely an informal form and a formal form. This is known as T-V distinction,
found in French (tu vs. vous), Spanish (tú vs. usted), Russian (ты vs. вы), Dutch
(jij vs. u) and German (du vs. Sie), for example, but not contemporary English.
Hence, to translate a text from one of these languages to English, the translator
may have to compensate by using a first name or nickname, or by
using syntactic phrasing that are viewed as informal in English (I'm, you're, gonna,
dontcha, etc.), or by using English words of the formal and informal registers, to
preserve the level of formality.
Paraphrase
Paraphrase, sometimes called periphrasis, is a translation procedure whereby the
translator replaces a word in the source text by a group of words or an expression
in the target text. For example, the Portuguese word saudade is often translated
into English as "the feeling of missing a person who is gone". Yet another
example, similar to the Portuguese "saudade", is "dor" in Romanian, translated into
English as "missing someone or something that's gone and/or not available at the
time".
An example of untranslatability is seen in the Dutch language through the
word gezelligheid, which does not have an English equivalent, though the German
equivalent Gemütlichkeit is sometimes used. Literally, it means cozy, quaint, or
nice atmosphere, but can also connote time spent with loved ones, the fact of
seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness. Such gaps often lead
to word borrowing, and have done so historically.
Translator's note
A translator's note is a note (usually a footnote or an endnote) added by the
translator to the target text to provide additional information pertaining to the
limits of the translation, the cultural background, or any other explanations.
Some translation exams allow or demand such notes. Some translators regard
resorting to notes as a failure, although this view is not shared by most
professionals.

Register
Although Thai has words that can be used as equivalent to English "I", "you", or
"he/she/it", they are relatively formal terms (or markedly informal). In most cases,
Thai people use words which express the relation between speaker and listener
according to their respective roles. For instance, for a mother to say to her child
"I'll tell you a story", she would say "แมจ่ ะบอกลูกนิ ทาน" (mae ja bawk luuk nitaan),
or "Mother will tell child a story". Similarly, older and younger friends will often
use sibling terminology, so that an older friend telling a younger friend "You're my
friend" would be "น้องเพื่อนพี่" (nawng peuan pii), would translate directly as
"Younger sibling is older sibling’s friend". To be translated into English correctly,
it is proper to use "I" and "you" for these example statements, but normal Thai
perceptions of relation are lost in the process.
Grammar
Possession
In the case of translating the English
word have to Arabic, Bengali, Finnish, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Irish, Japanese, 
Turkish, Urdu, or Welsh, some difficulty may be found. There is no specific verb
with this meaning in these languages. Instead, for "I have X" these languages use a
combination of words that mean X is to me, or (in Finnish:) With me is X; (in
Turkish) my X exists; or (in Hebrew:) there(-is) (to-)me( or mine ) X. In the case of
Irish, this phrasing has passed over into Hiberno-English.
A similar construction occurs in Russian, where "I have" translates literally into at
(or by) me there is. Russian does have a word that means "to have": иметь (imet')
— but it is very rarely used by Russian speakers in the same way English speakers
use the word have; in fact, in some cases, it may be misinterpreted as vulgar slang
for the subject rudely using the object for sexual gratification, for example, in an
inept translation of "do you have a wife?".
In Japanese, the English word "to have" is most often translated into the verbs iru
(いる or 居る) and aru (ある or 有る). The former verb is used to indicate the
presence of a person, animal, or other living creature (excluding plant life) while
the latter verb is closer to the English "to have" and is used for inanimate objects.
To indicate the English "have" in the sense of possession, the Japanese language
uses the verb motsu (持つ), which literally means "to carry".
Verb forms
English is entirely lacking some grammatical categories.
There is no simple way in English to contrast Finnish kirjoittaa (continuing,
corresponding to English to write) and kirjoitella (a regularfrequentative, "to
occasionally write short passages at a time", or "to jot down now and then").
Also, hypätä (to jump once) and hyppiä (to continuously jump; to be jumping from
point A to B) are another example.
Irish allows the prohibitive mood to be used in the passive voice. The effect is used
to prohibit something while expressing society's disapproval for that action at the
same time. For example, contrast Ná caithigí tobac (meaning "Don't smoke" when
said to multiple people), which uses the second person plural in the imperative
meaning "Do not smoke", with Ná caitear tobac, which is best translated as
"Smoking just isn't done here", uses the autonomous imperative meaning "One
does not smoke".
As in Latin, Italian has two distinct declined past tenses, where io fui (passato
remoto) and io sono stato (passato prossimo) both mean I was, the former
indicating a concluded action in the (remote) past, and the latter an action that
holds some connection to the present. The "passato remoto" is often used for
narrative history (for example, novels). The difference is nowadays also partly
geographic. In the north of Italy (and standard Italian) the "passato remoto" is
 rarely used in spoken language, whereas in the south it often takes the place of the
"passato prossimo".
Likewise, English lacks a productive grammatical means to show indirection but
must instead rely on periphrasis, that is the use of multiple words to explain an
idea. Finnish grammar, on the contrary, allows the regular production of a series of
verbal derivatives, each of which involves a greater degree of indirection. For
example, on the basis of the verb vetää (to pull), it is possible to produce:
 vetää (pull),
 vedättää (cause something/someone to pull/to wind-up (lie)),
 vedätyttää (cause something/someone to cause something/someone to pull),
 vedätätyttää (cause something/someone to cause something/someone to
cause something/someone to pull).
Translation/Paraphrase of
Finnish English
boldface verb
Hevonen vetää. A horse pulls. pulls
A driver commands the
Ajomiesvedättää. causes something to pull
horse to pull.
A subcontractor directs the
causes someone to cause
Urakoitsijavedätyttää. driver to command the
something to pull
horse to pull.
The corporation assigns the
causes someone to cause
subcontractor to have the
Yhtiövedätätyttää. someone to cause something
drivercommand the horse to
to pull
pull.
Most Turkic languages (Turkish, Azeri, Kazakh, etc.) contain the grammatical verb
suffix "miş" (or "mis" in other dialects), which indicates that the speaker did not
witness the act personally but surmises or has discovered that the act has occurred
or was told of it by another. Examples:"Gitmiş!" (Turkish) which can be expressed
in English as "it is reported that he/she has gone" or, most concisely, as "I guess he
has gone". This grammatical form is also usually used when telling jokes and
narrating stories. As well, nearly every Quechua sentence is marked by an
evidential clitic, indicating the source of the speaker's knowledge (and how certain
s/he is about the statement). The enclitic =mi expresses personal knowledge (Tayta
Wayllaqawaqa chufirmi, "Mr. Huayllacahua is a driver - I know it for a
fact"); =si expresses hearsay knowledge (Tayta Wayllaqawaqa chufirsi, "Mr.
Huayllacahua is a driver, or so I've heard"); =chá expresses high probability
(Tayta Wayllaqawaqa chufirchá, "Mr. Huayllacahua is a driver, most likely").
Colloquially, the latter is also used when the speaker has dreamed the event told in
the sentence or experienced it under alcohol intoxication.
Languages that are extremely different from each other, like English and Chinese,
need their translations to be more like adaptations. Chinese has no tenses per se,
only three aspects. The English verb to be does not have a direct equivalent in
Chinese. In an English sentence where to be leads to an adjective ("It is blue"),
there is no to be in Chinese. (There are no adjectives in Chinese, instead there
are stative verbs that don't need an extra verb.) If it states a location, the
verb "zài" (在) is used, as in "We are in the house". And in most other cases, the
verb "shì" (是) is used, as in "I am the leader." Any sentence that requires a play on
those different meanings will not work in Chinese.
[edit]Vocabulary
German, as well as Dutch, has a wealth of modal particles that are particularly
difficult to translate as they convey sense or tone more rather than strictly
grammatical information. The most infamous example perhaps
is doch (Dutch: toch), which roughly means "don't you realize that...?", or "in fact
it is so, though someone is denying it". What makes translating such words
difficult is their different meanings depending on intonation or the context.
A common use of the word doch can be found in the German sentence der Krieg
war doch noch nicht verloren, which translates to the war wasn't lost yet, after all:
Several other grammatical constructs in English may be employed to translate
these words for each of their occurrences. The same der Kriegwar doch noch nicht
verloren with slightly changed pronunciation can also mean excuse in defense to a
question: ...but the war was not lost yet(... so we fought on).
A use which relies heavily on intonation and context could produce yet another
meaning: "so the war was really not over yet (as you have been trying to convince
me all along)".
Another change of intonation makes the sentence a question. Der Krieg
war doch noch nicht verloren? would translate into "(You mean) the war
was not yet lost (back then)?".
Another well known example comes from the Portuguese or Spanish
verbs ser and estar, both translatable as to be (see Romance copula).
However, ser is used only with essence or nature, while estar is used with states or
conditions. Sometimes this information is not very relevant for the meaning of the
whole sentence and the translator will ignore it, whereas at other times it can be
retrieved from the context.
When none of these apply, the translator will usually use a paraphrase or simply
add words that can convey that meaning. The following example comes from
Portuguese:
"Não estou bonito, eu sou bonito."
Literal translation: "I am not (apparently) handsome; I am (essentially) handsome."
Adding words: "I am not handsome today; I am always handsome."
Paraphrase: "I don't just look handsome; I am handsome."
There is a South Slavic phrase consisting entirely of words that have no English
counterparts - "Doček izuvenog limara". Doček is a gathering organized at
someone's arrival (the closest translation would be greeting or welcome; however,
a 'doček' does not necessarily have to be positive). Izuven means with shoes taken
off. Limar is a sheet metal worker. Therefore, doček izuvenog limara is a gathering
organized for a sheet metal worker whose shoes have been taken off.
Another instance is the Russian word пошлость /posh-lost'/. This noun roughly
means a mixture of banality, commonality, and vulgarity.Vladimir
Nabokov mentions it as one of the hardest Russian words to translate precisely into
English.
[edit]Family
For various reasons, such as differences in linguistic features or culture, it is often
difficult to translate terms for family members.
Many Bengali kinship words consider both gender and age. For example, Father's
elder brothers are called Jethu while younger brothers are called Kaku. Their wives
are called Jethi-ma and Kaki-ma, respectively. Father's sister is called Pisi,
mother's sister is maasi. Mother's brother is called Mama and his wife, Maami.
English would just use Uncle and Aunt. An elder brother is Dada, elder sister
is Didi, while the younger brother is Bhai and younger sister, Bon.
Most Thai words expressing kinship have no direct translations and require
additional words. There are no Thai equivalents for most daily English kinship
terms, as English terms leave out much information that is natural to Thai.
As an example, Thai does not distinguish between siblings by gender, but by age.
Siblings older than yourself are พี่ (pii), and those younger are น้อง (nawng).
Similar distinctions apply to aunts and uncles, based on whether they are older or
younger than the sibling parent, AND also whether they are maternal or paternal
uncles. For instance, น้า (naa) means "mother's younger brother" etc.
[edit]Siblings
In Arabic, "brother" is often translated into ‫( أخ‬Akh). However, whilst this word
may describe a brother who shares either one or both parents, there is a separate
word - ‫( شقيق‬Shaqeeq) - to describe a brother with whom one shares both parents.
In Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Lao, Tagalog, Turkish, Bengali, Tamil and
Hungarian there are separate words for "older brother" and "younger brother" and,
likewise, "older sister" and "younger sister". There are no words which mean
simply "brother" or "sister". (In Hungarian, however, the
terms "fiútestvér" and "lánytestvér", meaning "male sibling" and "female sibling"
respectively, exist but are not commonly used.)
How would you ask a boy who has several brothers "which" (or "which-th") son of
his parents he is in English, such that his reply would be something like: "I am the
third son"? ("Which in order of number?") This is a straightforward construct in
some other languages, which have an exact word for "which-th", such as
Finnish monesko, Hungarian hányadik, Latin quotus, German wievielte,
Dutch hoeveelste, Esperanto kioma,Korean 몇번째, or Chinese 第幾 dìjǐ.
[edit]Grandparents
Swedish, Norwegian and Danish have the terms farmor and farfar for paternal
grandparents, and mormor and morfar for maternal grandparents. The English
terms great-grandfather and great-grandmother also have different terms in
Swedish, depending on lineage. This distinction between paternal and maternal
grandparents is also used in Bengali, Chinese, and Thai.
Norwegian also has the terms sønnesønn, dattersønn, datterdatter and sønnedatter,
meaning respectively "son of my son", "son of my daughter", "daughter of my
daughter", and "daughter of my son". Similar words exist in Swedish. In both
cases, there exist terms synonymous with the English grand-prefixed ones which
are used when exact relation is not an issue.
[edit]Aunts and Uncles
In Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Turkish, and South Slavic languages there are different
words for the person indicated by "mother's brother", "father's brother" and
"parent's sister's husband", all of which would be uncle in English. An exactly
analogous situation exists for aunt. In Thai this concept is taken a step further in
that there are different words for the person indicated by "mother's elder brother"
and "mother's younger brother", as well as "father's elder brother" and "father's
younger brother".
The Polish language distinguishes "paternal uncle" ("stryj") and "maternal uncle"
("wuj").
Swedish (and Danish) has words tant for "auntie" or lady in general, moster for
maternal aunt, and faster for paternal aunt, but the last two are contractions
of mors syster and fars syster ("mother's sister" and "father's sister", respectively).
The same construction is used for uncles (rendering morbror and farbror). In
Danish, and occasionally in Swedish, the word onkel corresponds to the Danish
word tante.
The distinction between maternal and paternal uncles has caused several
mistranslations; for example, in Walt Disney's DuckTales, Huey, Dewey, and
Louie's Uncle Scrooge was translated Roope-setä in Finnish (Paternal Uncle
Robert) before it was known Scrooge was Donald'smaternal uncle. The proper
translation would have been Roope-eno (Maternal Uncle Robert).
Arabic contains separate words for "mother's brother" ‫( خ__ال‬Khal) and "father's
brother" ‫'( عم‬am). The closest translation into English is "uncle", which gives no
indication as to lineage, whether maternal or paternal. Similarly, in Arabic, there
are specific words for the father's sister and the mother's sister. Bengali has
separate words for such relations, too.
[edit]Nephews, Nieces, and Cousins
Whereas English has different words for the child of one's sibling based on its
gender (nephew for the son of one's sibling, niece for the daughter), the
word cousin applies to both genders of children belonging to one's aunt or uncle.
Many languages approach these concepts very differently.
The Polish language distinguishes a male cousin who is the son of an uncle ("brat
stryjeczny") and a male cousin who is the son of an aunt ("brat cioteczny"); and a
female cousin who is the daughter of an uncle ("siostra stryjeczna") and a female
cousin who is the daughter of an aunt ("siostra cioteczna"). Polish distinguishes
four kinds of nephew and niece: the son of a brother ("bratanek"), the daughter of
a brother ("bratanica"), the son of a sister ("siostrzeniec"), and the daughter of a
sister ("siostrzenica").
Though Italian distinguishes between male (cugino) and female (cugina) cousins
where English does not, it uses nipote (nephew/niece) for both genders, though a
masculine/feminine article preceding this can make the distinction. Moreover, this
word can also mean grandchild, adding to its ambiguity.
Spanish distinguishes in both cases: the son of a sibling is sobrino, whereas a
daughter is sobrina, equally a male cousin is primo, while a female cousin
is prima.
Norwegian and Danish also distinguish both cases: the son of a sibling is nevø,
whereas a daughter is niece, equally a male cousin is fætter, while a female cousin
is kusine. Collectively the term søskendebarn is used for both. Interestingly,
Swedish does not make these distinctions, although it keeps the term syskonbarn -
and adds brorsbarn or systerbarn depending on the gender of the sibling whose
children it is.
Dutch, on the other hand, distinguishes gender: neef (male) and nicht (female), but
it does not have different terms for nephew and cousin, except the
unusual oomzegger and oomzegster. That is, both a son of a sibling and a son of an
uncle are generally called neef.
Both Hebrew and Arabic contain no word for "cousin" at all; one must say "uncle's
son" or an equivalent.
[edit]Relations by marriage
There is no standard English word for the Yiddish "machatunim" or the
Spanish "consuegros": a gender-neutral collective plural like "co-in-laws".
Similarly, if Harry marries Sally, then in Yiddish, Harry's father is
the "machatin" of Sally's father; each mother is the "machateynes" of the other. In
Bengali, both fathers are Beayi and mothers, Beyan.
Spanish contrasts "brother" with "brother-in-law" ("hermano", "cuñado"); "son"
with "son-in-law" ("hijo", "yerno"), and similarly for female relatives like "sister-
in-law" ("cuñada"); "daughter-in-law" ("nuera"). Bengali
has Dada/Bhai for brother and Jamai-Babu/Bhagni-Pati for brother-in-law;Chhele 
for son and Jamai for son-in-law.
Serbian and Bosnian have specific terms for relations by marriage. For example, a
"sister-in-law" can be a "snaha/snaja" (brother's wife, though also family-
member's wife in general), "zaova" (husband's sister), "svastika" (wife's sister)
or "jetrva" (husband's brother's wife). A "brother-in-law" can be a "zet" (sister's
husband, or family-member's husband in general), "djever/dever" (husband's
brother), "šurak/šurjak" (wife's brother) or "badžanak/pašenog" (wife's sister's
husband). Bengali has a number of in-law words. For example, Boudi (elder
brother's wife), Shaali (wife's sister), Shaala (wife's younger
brother), Sambandhi (wife's elder brother/Shaali's husband), Bhaasur (husband's
elder brother), Deor (husband's younger brother) Nanad (husband's
sister), Jaa (husband's brother's wife), etc.
In Spanish, Concuño is the relationship between two men that marry sisters (or two
women that marry brothers). It gives legitimacy and importance to a familial
relationship that doesn't seem to exist in the English language.
In Russian, fifteen different words cover relations by marriage, enough to confuse
many native speakers. There are for example, as in Yiddish, words like "сват" and
"сватья" for "co-in-laws". To further complicate the translator's job, Russian in-
laws may choose to address each other familiarly by these titles.
In contrast to all of the above fine distinctions, in American English the term "my
brother-in-law" covers "my spouse's brother", "my sister's husband", and "my
spouse's sister's husband". In British English, the last of these is not considered
strictly correct.[citation needed]
[edit]Foreign objects
Objects unknown to a culture can actually be easy to translate. For example, in
Japanese, wasabi わ さ び  is a plant (Wasabia japonica) used as a
spicy Japanese condiment. Traditionally, this plant only grows in Japan. It would
be unlikely that someone from Angola (for example) would have a clear
understanding of it. However, the easiest way to translate this word is to borrow it.
Or one can use a similar vegetable's name to describe it. In English this word is
translated as wasabi or Japanese horseradish. In Chinese, people can still call
it wasabi by its Japanese sound, or pronounce it by its Kanji characters, 山
葵 (pinyin: shān kuí). However, wasabi is currently called 芥末 (jiè mò) or 绿芥
(lǜ jiè) in China and by the phonetic 味沙吡 (weishabi) in Taiwan. Horseradish is
not usually seen in Eastern Asia; people may parallel it with mustard. Hence, in
some places, yellow mustard refers to imported mustard sauce; green
mustard refers to wasabi.
Another method is using description instead of a single word. For example,
languages like Russian and Ukrainian have borrowed words Kuragaand Uruk from
Turkic languages. While both fruits are now known to the Western world, there are
still no terms for them in English. English speakers have to use
"dried apricot without core" and "dried apricot with core" instead.
One particular type of foreign object that poses difficulties is the proper noun. As
an illustration, consider another example from Douglas Hofstadter, which he
published in one of his "Metamagical Themas" columns in Scientific American. He
pondered the question, Who is the first lady of Britain? Well, first ladies reside at
the White House, and at the time, the woman living at 10 Downing Street
was Margaret Thatcher. But a different attribute that first ladies have is that they
are married to heads of government, so perhaps a better answer
was Denis Thatcher, but he probably would not have relished the title.
[edit]Poetry, puns and wordplay
The two areas which most nearly approach total untranslatability
are poetry and puns; poetry is difficult to translate because of its reliance on the
sounds (for example, rhymes) and rhythms of the source language; puns, and other
similar semantic wordplay, because of how tightly they are tied to the original
language. The oldest - best-known - examples, are probably those appearing in
Bible translations, e.g. the verse inGenesis (2, 7), which explains why God
gave Adam this name: "God created Adam out of soil from the ground"; the
original Hebrew text reveals the secret, since the word Adam connotes the
word ground (being Adama in Hebrew), whereas translating the verse into other
languages loses the original pun.
Similarly, consider the Italian adage "traduttore, traditore": a literal translation is
"translator, traitor". The pun is lost, though the meaning persists. (A similar
solution can be given, however, in Hungarian, by saying a fordítás: ferdítés, which
roughly translates as "translation is distortion".)
That being said, many of the translation procedures discussed here can be used in
these cases. For example, the translator can compensate for an "untranslatable" pun
in one part of a text by adding a new pun in another part of the translated text.
Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest incorporates in its title a pun
(resonating in the last line of the play) that conflates the name Ernest with the
adjective of quality earnest. The French title of the translated play
is "L'importance d'être Constant", replicating and transposing the pun; however,
the character Ernest had to be renamed, and the allusion to trickery was lost. (Other
French translations include"De l'importance d'être Fidèle" (faithful) and "Il est
important d'être Aimé" (loved), with the same idea of a pun on first name / quality
adjective.) A recent Hungarian translation of the same play by Ádám
Nádasdy applied a similar solution, giving the subtitle "Szilárdnak kell lenni" (lit.
"One must be Szilárd") beside the traditional title "Bunbury", where "Szilárd" is a
male name as well as an adjective meaning "solid, firm", or "steady", being itself a
translation of the Greek name Constantine.
The Asterix comic strip is renowned for its French puns; its translators have found
many ingenious English substitutes.
Other forms of wordplay, such as spoonerisms and palindromes are equally
difficult, and often force hard choices on the translator. For example, take the
classic palindrome: "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama". A translator might choose to
translate it literally into, say, French — "Un homme, un projet, un canal:
Panama", if it were used as a caption for a photo of Theodore Roosevelt (the chief
instigator of the Canal), and sacrifice the palindrome. But if the text is meant to
give an example of a palindrome, he might elect to sacrifice the literal sense and
substitute a French palindrome, such as "Un roc lamina l'animal cornu" ('A
boulder swept away the horned animal').
Douglas Hofstadter discusses the problem of translating a palindrome into
Chinese, where such wordplay is theoretically impossible, in his bookLe Ton beau
de Marot [1] — which is devoted to the issues and problems of translation, with
particular emphasis on the translation of poetry. Another example given by
Douglas Hofstadter is the translation of the jabberwocky poem by Lewis Carroll,
with its wealth of neologisms andportmanteau words, into a number of foreign
tongues [2].
A notable Irish joke is that it is not possible to translate mañana into Gaelic as the
Irish "don't have a word that conveys that degree of urgency".
[edit]Iconicity
According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann, "iconicity might be the reason for refraining
from translating Hallelujah and Amen in so many languages, as if the sounds of
such basic religious notions have to do with their referents themselves – as if by
losing the sound, one might lose the meaning. Compare this to the cabbalistic
power of letters, for example in the case of gematria, the method of interpreting the
Hebrew Scriptures by interchanging words whose letters have the same numerical
value when added. A simple example of gematric power might be the famous
proverb ‫נכנס יין יצא סוד‬ nikhnas yayin yåSå sōd, lit. "entered wine went out secret",
i.e. "wine brings out the truth", in vino veritas. The gematric value of ‫" יין‬wine" is
70 (50=‫; ן‬10=‫; י‬10=‫ )י‬and this is also the gematric value of ‫" סוד‬secret" (;6=‫; ו‬60=‫ס‬
4=‫)ד‬. Thus, this sentence, according to many Jews at the time, had to be true."[3]