Catalan–English translation breakout
A small but select group of attendees joined Mary Fons i Fleming and Timothy Barton’s table for an interactive breakout session in which we let our creative juices flow, translating Catalan texts into English.
As an appetiser, we were served a list of titles of popular films and series to translate into English. But there was a catch: many of them were Catalan translations of titles originally written in English. While in some cases the translations were quite close to the original, like A dalt i a baix (Upstairs Downstairs), each culture has added its own local ingredients, sometimes creating something quite distinct from the original recipe. Translators and interpreters (especially the latter, who don’t have time to do research) need sound cultural knowledge to be able to recognise and properly translate at least the best-known titles to get a similar reaction in their new audience.
Coming up with the perfect replica in a different cultural context is easier said than done – after all, Ningú no és perfecte (“Nobody’s perfect”), which is how Some Like It Hot was translated into Catalan. Take Porca Misèria, a popular and very Catalan comedy drama. A literal translation would miss out either on the feeling of frustration with life’s miseries or on the fact that one of the characters was an actual pig called Misèria.
We were then served our first course, a discussion on football pitches and backsides, as we delved into a text about the origins of “culers”. Fans of FC Barcelona received this nickname because they used to sit on top of the wall surrounding the field, with their buttocks in view from the street outside. We uncovered some potential pitfalls regarding the historical accuracy of the source text, which claimed that the wall was used because the ground did not have any stands, even though photos showed that it clearly did. We also discussed the translation of “camp”, which the experts among us would translate as “ground” rather than “stadium” or “field”.
Our second course involved translating some public transport campaigns, such as the “Evolucionem. Fem civisme” sign from the regional railway, and “Posa’t a la meva pell, no al meu lloc”, from another campaign encouraging passengers to leave room for people with disabilities. Based on the text and images of these campaigns, we brainstormed a few snappy translations, such as “Move with the times” and “Put yourself in my shoes, not in my space”.
For pudding, we had some interesting thoughts expressed by journalists, who described books as the last hope for humankind in the face of the cultural loss driven by the internet. The phrase “Els editors ens hem deixat guanyar la batalla de Google” sparked a discussion on the use of a reflexive verb, which makes the publishers, rather than Google, take centre stage: the onus was on them to fight Google, but they failed to do so due to their inaction. A suggested translation was “As publishers, we’ve let Google win the fight”.
Our sobretaula was distinctly literary. The poverty-stricken character from L’home de la maleta, by Ramon Solsona, found the most varied and expressive ways to describe the extreme hunger people experienced in post-war Spain. A collaborative approach was the best way to creatively translate this excerpt and ponder the associations of cabbage and sweet potato with extreme poverty in our different cultures. After such a hearty lunch, we were spared from dancing with Hunger (“ballar els goigs de Sant Prim”; lit. “to dance (to) the paeans of Saint Thin”) as we left the table.
This METM25 session was chronicled by Elisa Cristóbal González.
Featured photo by METM25 photographer Julian Mayers.