SjornJossed In Translation
Apr. 16th, 2011 12:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beer_good_foamyThis came up in discussion on a post by lutamira last week and I don't think I've seen it discussed on my flist before, so I thought I'd try to post something about:
Just what the hell are Aud and Olaf saying in "Selfless"?
We all know that BtVS 7.05 "Selfless" has several flashback scenes from when Anya was human back in the viking age, all done in a foreign language with subtitles. Now, you'd think getting this right was a simple matter of translation. Unfortunately, matters of translation are never simple. The upside, though, is that actually understanding the language makes the scene even funnier. Before we get to the funny bits, let's say that if you want to get absolutely boringly technical about it, there's three main issues adding to the confusion/hilarity/embarrassment here:
1) History fail.
The main flashback of "Selfless" takes place in the fictional Scandinavian1 village of Sjornjost (which frankly doesn't sound very Scandinavian) in 880AD. And the script has the characters speaking, for all intents and purposes, modern 21st century Swedish. Now, if you want to be a history geek - and who wouldn't - this is about as accurate as having the characters of a story set in 9th century England speak modern US English. The Scandinavian languages (except for Icelandic, but the Icelanders are insane2) have changed a lot in the last 1100 years, and if Aud and Olaf and their fellow villagers had really sounded like they grew up in 1990s Stockholm, it would have been... well, no more odd than Kevin Costner's Robin Hood, or any version of Hamlet ever performed for that matter. It's one of those things we learn to ignore in fiction. However, in this case it never even becomes an issue, because of...
2) Pronounciation fail.
Mutant Enemy deserve kudos for actually bothering with a proper (though see below) translation. Let's face it, 99% of the audience wouldn't have noticed if they'd just used the Swedish Chef Bork generator and tried to pass that off as generic Old Norse. However, they then handed the script to two actors who... again, deserve kudos for actually doing it themselves and obviously having a lot of fun in the process, but what actually comes out of their mouths is almost, but not quite, entirely incomprehensible gibberish that no native speaker would recognise as Swedish. The irony of this is that Swedish fans often presume that since they can't understand a single word, ME really did go to all the trouble of translating the script into now-incomprehensible Old Norse, and are suitably impressed. This has the added bonus of disguising the...
3) Translation fail.
It's not an awful translation as such (not as bad as the German in "Gingerbread"3, anyway.) For the most part, the (written) Swedish lines mean something roughly similar to what the subtitles say, except it was either done by some pretty good (by 2002 standards) translation software, or by a non-native Swedish speaker who's out of practice. Obviously the entire scene is played for laughs, and some of the stiltedness of the language is part of the joke, but it's also a perfect illustration of why you can't do a translation of a text simply by using a dictionary and picking the first listed word; a lot of it is almost right, but thanks to false friends and differences in usage, it gains a level of hilarity that I feel it's wrong to keep from non-Swedish speakers. Let's look at some of the more obvious examples:
...right. So what's the point of all this? Nothing, really. Just that translation is best left to professionals, that you can still get away with not doing your research as long as you keep it funny and include enough actual characterisation to make it worthwhile, and that Abraham Benrubi should get a show of his own where he does nothing but charge around yelling "HAHAHAHA! PUNY RECEPTACLE!"
Footnotes:
1 "Viking" is not an ethnicity, whatever Buffy and Civilization may think. It's a temporary vocation - the 9th century equivalent of "cruise passenger", only with more hard work and pillaging. It's a verb, too; you go a-viking.
2 It's not their fault. They live on a cluster of volcanoes that can blow up any second, raise sheep, go to war over cod, and drink vodka called Black Death. A certain amount of insanity is unavoidable. Besides, it's the awesome kind of insanity; just look at Björk.
3 "ich, eine Geistlicher von nahe die Schwarz Wälder, tat finden das körper von das kinder meine selbst. eine wurde von die junge, die anderen von und mädchen. darauf meine eigene erforschen ich lernte..." ("I, a female male priest from vicinity them Black Forests, made to find the one bodies of the childs myselves. One became from the girlboy, the others from and girl. Thereupon my own to perform research I learned...")
4 Generally, the script has huge problems with the difference between Å (like the O in "bore") and Ä (like the AE in "aeroplane"). In other words, BtVS avoids doing what most heavy metal bands (and Asterix) do änd sïmplÿ stïck ümläüts ön ëvërÿthïng, but true to Buffy's purpose, find a brand new way of getting it wrong.
5 Total number of towns in 9th century Scandinavia: about half a dozen, the largest being Hedeby in what is now northern Germany with up to 1,000 inhabitants. Exactly which "downtown" Aud is referring to is unclear. But now you know why we had to go abroad to pillage.
6 This is the one point where Emma Caulfield gives up completely and just speaks pure gibberish. To my ears, it sounds vaguely Thai.
7 I think. Though according to the research of one T. Pratchett, inexperienced travellers might think that "Aargh!" is universal, but in Betrobi it means "highly enjoyable" and in Howondaland it means, variously "I would like to eat your foot", "Your wife is a big hippo" and "Hello, Thinks Mr Purple Cat." One particular tribe has a fearsome reputation for cruelty merely because prisoners appear, to them, to be shouting "Quick! Extra boiling oil!"
lutamira last week and I don't think I've seen it discussed on my flist before, so I thought I'd try to post something about:Just what the hell are Aud and Olaf saying in "Selfless"?
We all know that BtVS 7.05 "Selfless" has several flashback scenes from when Anya was human back in the viking age, all done in a foreign language with subtitles. Now, you'd think getting this right was a simple matter of translation. Unfortunately, matters of translation are never simple. The upside, though, is that actually understanding the language makes the scene even funnier. Before we get to the funny bits, let's say that if you want to get absolutely boringly technical about it, there's three main issues adding to the confusion/hilarity/embarrassment here:
1) History fail.
The main flashback of "Selfless" takes place in the fictional Scandinavian1 village of Sjornjost (which frankly doesn't sound very Scandinavian) in 880AD. And the script has the characters speaking, for all intents and purposes, modern 21st century Swedish. Now, if you want to be a history geek - and who wouldn't - this is about as accurate as having the characters of a story set in 9th century England speak modern US English. The Scandinavian languages (except for Icelandic, but the Icelanders are insane2) have changed a lot in the last 1100 years, and if Aud and Olaf and their fellow villagers had really sounded like they grew up in 1990s Stockholm, it would have been... well, no more odd than Kevin Costner's Robin Hood, or any version of Hamlet ever performed for that matter. It's one of those things we learn to ignore in fiction. However, in this case it never even becomes an issue, because of...
2) Pronounciation fail.
Mutant Enemy deserve kudos for actually bothering with a proper (though see below) translation. Let's face it, 99% of the audience wouldn't have noticed if they'd just used the Swedish Chef Bork generator and tried to pass that off as generic Old Norse. However, they then handed the script to two actors who... again, deserve kudos for actually doing it themselves and obviously having a lot of fun in the process, but what actually comes out of their mouths is almost, but not quite, entirely incomprehensible gibberish that no native speaker would recognise as Swedish. The irony of this is that Swedish fans often presume that since they can't understand a single word, ME really did go to all the trouble of translating the script into now-incomprehensible Old Norse, and are suitably impressed. This has the added bonus of disguising the...
3) Translation fail.
It's not an awful translation as such (not as bad as the German in "Gingerbread"3, anyway.) For the most part, the (written) Swedish lines mean something roughly similar to what the subtitles say, except it was either done by some pretty good (by 2002 standards) translation software, or by a non-native Swedish speaker who's out of practice. Obviously the entire scene is played for laughs, and some of the stiltedness of the language is part of the joke, but it's also a perfect illustration of why you can't do a translation of a text simply by using a dictionary and picking the first listed word; a lot of it is almost right, but thanks to false friends and differences in usage, it gains a level of hilarity that I feel it's wrong to keep from non-Swedish speakers. Let's look at some of the more obvious examples:
What the script says:
AUD: Olaf! Are you injured? You smell of blood and musk.
What the actor supposedly says:
AUD: Olaf! Är du skadad? Du luktar blod och musk.
What that actually means:
AUD. Olaf! Are you injured? You smell of blood and swarth.
---
What the script says:
OLAF: Oh! They [trolls] are wretched creatures indeed.
What the actor supposedly says:
OLAF: Åh! De är verkligen vrickade kreatur.
What that actually means:
OLAF: Oh! They are sprained farm animals indeed.
---
What the script says:
AUD: And the rapid reproductive rate of our rabbits – honey, sit down – has given me an idea. I can give the excess out to the townspeople, exchanging them not for goods or services but for goodwill and the sense of accomplishment that stems from selflessly giving of yourself to others.
What the actor supposedly says:
AUD: Och den snabba tillväxten av dina kaniner -- ålskling, sitt ner – har gett mej en idé. Jag skulle kunna ge Överskottet till folket I stan, inte I utbyte mot gods eller service, men för gott rykte och känslan av utförande som kommer från osjälviskheten att ge till andra.
What that actually means:
AUD: And the rapid growth of your rabbits – haney4, sit down – has given me an idea. I can give the surplus out to the people downtown5, exchanging them not for freight or maintenance but for good reputation and the sense of carrying out that comes from the selflessness of giving to others.6
---
What the script says:
OLAF: You are my perfect Aud. I could never want for another.
What the actor supposedly says:
OLAF: Du är min perfekthet Aud. Jag skulle aldrig kunna ha lustar för någon annan.
What that actually means:
OLAF: You are my perfectitude Aud. I could never have lusts for anyone else.
---
What the script says:
VIKINGS: The troll is doing an Olaf impersonation! Hit him with fruits and various meats!
What the actor supposedly says:
VIKINGS: Trollet gör en Olaf personifiering! Slå honom med frukt och variationer av kött!
What that actually means:
VIKINGS: The troll is making an Olafrepresentation! Beat him with fruit and permutations of meat!
---
What the script says:
OLAF: COME HERE, TINY MAN! YOU ARE DELICATE AND TOYLIKE!
What the actor supposedly says:
OLAF: KOM HÄR, LILLE MAN! DU ÄR DELIKAT OCH SER UT SOM EN LEKSAK!
What that actually means:
OLAF: COME HERE, LITTLE MAN! YOU ARE DELICIOUS AND LOOK LIKE A TOY!
---
What the script says:
OLAF: AHHHHHRRRRHHHH!
What the actor supposedly says:
OLAF: AHHHHHRRRRHHHH!
What that actually means:
OLAF: AHHHHHRRRRHHHH!7
...right. So what's the point of all this? Nothing, really. Just that translation is best left to professionals, that you can still get away with not doing your research as long as you keep it funny and include enough actual characterisation to make it worthwhile, and that Abraham Benrubi should get a show of his own where he does nothing but charge around yelling "HAHAHAHA! PUNY RECEPTACLE!"
Footnotes:
1 "Viking" is not an ethnicity, whatever Buffy and Civilization may think. It's a temporary vocation - the 9th century equivalent of "cruise passenger", only with more hard work and pillaging. It's a verb, too; you go a-viking.
2 It's not their fault. They live on a cluster of volcanoes that can blow up any second, raise sheep, go to war over cod, and drink vodka called Black Death. A certain amount of insanity is unavoidable. Besides, it's the awesome kind of insanity; just look at Björk.
3 "ich, eine Geistlicher von nahe die Schwarz Wälder, tat finden das körper von das kinder meine selbst. eine wurde von die junge, die anderen von und mädchen. darauf meine eigene erforschen ich lernte..." ("I, a female male priest from vicinity them Black Forests, made to find the one bodies of the childs myselves. One became from the girlboy, the others from and girl. Thereupon my own to perform research I learned...")
4 Generally, the script has huge problems with the difference between Å (like the O in "bore") and Ä (like the AE in "aeroplane"). In other words, BtVS avoids doing what most heavy metal bands (and Asterix) do änd sïmplÿ stïck ümläüts ön ëvërÿthïng, but true to Buffy's purpose, find a brand new way of getting it wrong.
5 Total number of towns in 9th century Scandinavia: about half a dozen, the largest being Hedeby in what is now northern Germany with up to 1,000 inhabitants. Exactly which "downtown" Aud is referring to is unclear. But now you know why we had to go abroad to pillage.
6 This is the one point where Emma Caulfield gives up completely and just speaks pure gibberish. To my ears, it sounds vaguely Thai.
7 I think. Though according to the research of one T. Pratchett, inexperienced travellers might think that "Aargh!" is universal, but in Betrobi it means "highly enjoyable" and in Howondaland it means, variously "I would like to eat your foot", "Your wife is a big hippo" and "Hello, Thinks Mr Purple Cat." One particular tribe has a fearsome reputation for cruelty merely because prisoners appear, to them, to be shouting "Quick! Extra boiling oil!"
