The Translation Problem
Philipp Koehn · Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2020
The Translation ProblemImagine that you are a translator.You are asked to translate from German to English and you come across the word Sitzpinkler.Its literal meaning is someone who pees sitting down, but its intended meaning is wimp.The implication is that a man who sits down to pee is not a real man.But there is more going on here.This word was popularized on a comedy show that coined several other terms in this fashion.One is Warmduscher, someone who takes a warm shower, or even Frauenversteher, someone who understands women.In fact, a whole fad emerged to come up with new terms like this.All these terms are used as insults, but not as real serious insults.They are used very much in jest, a slight mocking.These terms are also firmly a reflection of the current zeitgeist, when the expectations of what it means to be a man are changing.Using such terms is a light-hearted commentary on this change.It is not really unmanly to sit down to pee, although it is something that women do and hence a man who wants to be a traditional "real" man loses some of his identity this way.As you can see, there is a lot going on here.So, what is a translator going to do? Probably use wimp and move on.This example demonstrates that translation is basically impossible.The meaning of words in a language are tied to their prior use in a specific culture.Four score and seven years is not just any way to say 87 years.And I have a dream implies much more than just announcing a vision of the future.Words carry not only an explicit meaning but also an undercurrent of implications that often does not have any equivalent in another language and another culture.