ProvenWrite Translations : Italiano in Inglese / Italian to English

The Lighter (?) Side of Transation....

Toxic Translation: A Twelve-Step Program for Self-Injuring Translators. Can’t stop accepting low rates or bending over backwards to meet unreasonable demands? Here’s a recovery program that’s guaranteed to work!

Show Your Local Supermarket Who’s Boss! (A Letter from an Anonymous Translator): “Dear Owner of My Local Supermarket: No doubt, you feel extremely lucky to have me as your customer. If you want to keep me, though, there are a few simple rules I expect you to observe....”

Eurozone Translations: “Executives willing to spend sixty dollars an hour for their kids' piano lessons balk at paying half that for an hour of a translator's time. Five years from now, you'll realize that the piano lessons were a waste, but you'll still be complaining about the cost of translations.”

Translation India ... one of the finest Klingon translation providers around the globe. One hopes this is meant to be a joke, but you can never be sure with big translation agencies, especially the ones with overseas addresses and the promise of “specially trained translators” who can translate from any existing language into any existing language. DaHjaj 'oH QaQ jaj Daq Hegh!

Splendid Traductions (by Matteo B. Bianchi – in Italian only.) It isn’t only Italian-into-English that suffers at the hands of inexperienced or incompetent translators. Here, novelist and TV writer Bianchi takes aim at Italian translations of English-language movies and TV shows, inspired by serious bloopers in the Italian version of Will & Grace (“Guillermo e Grazia”).

The Translator (in Italian only). From a Brazilian translators’ list and translated into Italian by a colleague, Sandra Biondo. Ever wonder what a translator really is? Here’s a helpful vade mecum....

What English Sounds Like to Foreigners: Here’s the marvelous Adriano Celentano with a spoof on the popularity of English pop music in Italy. A song that “sounds” English, but which is made up exclusively of nonsense. In the introduction, the “student” says, “Listen, professor, what about that song you wrote, with all those odd words that don’t mean anything?” Anyone else hear echoes of Dylan? [Video will open in your predefined media viewer; if you have trouble, try this version.]

And speaking of “odd words that don’t mean anything,” here’s another great video, from Music Idol, the Bulgarian version of American Idol. Tulibu dibu douchoo! [Video will open in your predefined media viewer; if you have trouble, try this version.]

---

Return to the ProvenWrite home page

Wendell Ricketts : ProvenWrite
(+39) 339.653.5754
Wendell@ProvenWrite.com ProvenWrite@gmail.com