20/01/2008

Blunders in translation: should we laugh or cry?

By Mário Magalhães
ombudsman@uol.com.br

There are challenges, from learning the context in which the original word is used, to finding the time to look up terms that differ from one country to the next

"It's something to cry about, isn't it?"

That is how a reader reacted to a translation error in Folha on New Year's Day.

In an interview with political scientist David Samuels, his book "From Socialism to Social Democracy? The Evolution of the Workers' Party in Brazil" was translated using the word for "party" meaning festivities rather than a political organization.

Two days later, the correction clarified that the headline referred to the governing political party and not some sort of gala event --the other literal translation of "party," used in the wrong context.

Whether they make you cry or laugh, mistakes in translation constitute a daily threat to journalism. Occasionally, you read in Portuguese, incomprehensible or distorted, information or statements made originally in another language.

At the end of December, the Screen Actors Guild, the U.S. union of TV and movie actors, turned Folha into a bunch of critics.

In September, "The Palermo Shooting," a film by Wim Wenders, was translated as "shootout." After a warning by a reader, the corrections section recognized that "a more accurate translation" would be "Photographing Palermo" or "Filming Palermo" --"shooting" has diverse meanings.

The "shootout" by the White House stimulated the newspaper's quality program to distribute 10 days later a valuable list of more than 100 "terms commonly used in U.S. election coverage to facilitate translations and avoid problems with false cognates or literal translations of idiomatic expressions."

The list was coordinated by the editor for training, Ana Estela de Sousa Pinto, starting with a suggestion by Roberto Dias, the former correspondent in New York and now deputy national news editor. He points out, for example, that "strategist" is no more than a "marketer."

Readers would win if the newspaper were more faithful to these instructions than is customary in Folha's stylebook.

The stylebook says: The English language expression "press conference" should be loosely translated to its Brazilian equivalent rather than literally. The formulation that is not favored is used frequently.

Another example is "evidence" in place of "proof," which in the environment of the Justice Ministry should be the preferred equivalent in Portuguese as listed in the stylebook. In May, it reported that a man was freed "for lack of evidence." In good Portuguese, it would be preferable to say lack of proof.

Of the seven journalists who contributed to making the list, the best suited is Carlos Eduardo Lins da Silva, now director of institutional relations and public policy. He was correspondent in Washington in 1987-88 and 1991-99.

I consulted him about translation. "The biggest challenge is to find the expression in Brazilian Portuguese that has the closest meaning possible that the word to be translated has in the culture of the language of origin," he answered.

"In other words, know the context in which the original word was used. Such as in the case of 'party': technically, it really is festivities. But ... in the context of politics it is not. For this reason, to translate well and truthfully, is it necessary for the translator to have lived in the society that uses the language being translated. Or, at least, he must know this society very well."

For two decades as a translator at Folha, Clara Allain is recognized for the excellence of her work - the errors shown here were not hers. The daughter of an Englishwoman and Frenchman, she tells about some challenges in her profession.

"They are numerous --perhaps the biggest one is lack of time to find out things that differ from one country to another. For example: the way the words for 'prosecutor' or 'chancellor' are translated, and so forth.

"There are differences in social, political, education and labor organizations etc., from one country to the next, which sometimes cause difficulties in correct translation of terms, or what comes closest to the original idea, when you are running against the clock and a lack of space."

Lins da Silva adds: "haste and laziness are the biggest traps for translation.

The two sins conspire in Folha's betrayal of the original: Silicon Valley comes out muddled, "Il Gattopardo" as "O Gato Pardo" (literally, the dark cat) for the Italian novel "The Leopard"; and the American slang "bimbo," a designation for a "young woman who is pretty but not very bright," has become an expression describing the male organ.

These are blunders of the 90s. It costs nothing to redouble efforts to avoid fattening the anthology of mistakes that make people laugh or cry.

Gol against

(Newspaper) Exclusive photos show 'face' of Gol G5

Folha trumpeted on the front page of its second automotive section on Sunday: "Exclusive photos show the 'face' of Gol G5." Under the headline, there is a picture of one car coming and another going.

The photos were not exclusive. Neither of them was the 'face' and the back side of the new generation of the model announced.

An attentive reader informed me about the use of the images on the Internet since October. I notified the newsroom.

On Wednesday, a correction came out clarifying that, according to the manufacturer, the photos were "a model of how the new Polo will look" --not the Gol.

I insisted in my daily critique for recognition of the brand new model. On Thursday, a new correction completed it.

The newsroom said that it received the material, secretively, from a source. A search for photos on the Internet, to check the exclusivity, was done poorly (it is easy to find them).

I asked why they did not check with Volkswagen. The answer: "It would not be enough to avoid the mistake. No news organization that specializes in automobiles checks with the manufacturers before publishing industrial secrets because the role of the public relations department, historically, is always to deny all projects about new cars.

"The motive is simple: if the press showed photos of a new version of a model that is already in use (the new Gol will come out in June), sales of the current model plummet. Consumers won't buy a new car that will change in a short time because, besides losing the 'newness factor,' the car would lose even more value when it comes time to trade it in."

Translation by John Wright