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funny or annoying translation mistakes

Nagini's Neville

By Nagini's Neville,
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Nagini's Neville Council Member

Nagini's Neville

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For people, who have read ASOIAF in english and in a different langue, we all know, that the translations of names are often very cringe and just wrong, but what are some funny or annoying translation mistakes, that changed the content/meaning completely? 

I'll start:D In the german audiobook the hound tells Sansa, one day he'll sing a song for her, whether she wills it or no. The thought of him singing to her is just to funny imo.:D

And when dog sniffs the gravedigger, he drops the spade and scratches himself behind the ear not the dog :lol: makes a lot of sense

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Lady Dacey Council Member

Lady Dacey

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I haven't read the books in portuguese, it's way to cringe-worthy for me and plainly not interesting because why would I if I have access to the original material? But I have glossed through them a few times in book stores and read radom chapters. Once I read Arya IV from ASOS and noticed a subtle but significant change in this passage:

The next day they rode to a place called High Heart, a hill so lofty that from atop it Arya felt as though she could see half the world. Around its brow stood a ring of huge pale stumps, all that remained of a circle of once-mighty weirwoods. Arya and Gendry walked around the hill to count them. There were thirty-one, some so wide that she could have used them for a bed.

The Brazilian edition of the book says "some so wide they could have used them for a bed".

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szbszig Freerider

szbszig

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1 hour ago, Loose Bolt said:

In Finnish translation Winterfell is Talvivaara. There was a mining company Talvivaara until it went bankruptcy 2018.

In Hungarian, Winterfell is called Deres, which means Hoarfrosty. I don't have the slightest idea, how they came up with that name. Now, it sounds just silly, but the problem will be much bigger, if it turns out in later books, that the original name has a meaning: e.g. the Others ('Winter') fell there during the Long Night.

The same concern applies to a number of other names as well. Also, every translation will struggle with Hodor's name, if George sticks to that backstory, we saw in the show.

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DanaKz Squire

DanaKz

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OMG. There is an absolutely horrible mistake of Russian translation but I am not sure I can explain you why it's so horrible.

I mean, the word "seat" Like, Harrenhal is kings' seat, Casterly Rock is Lannisters' seat etc.

Russian translator decided to find something cool and ancient-sounding, like, something from 12-13 centuries, something from Middle Ages, words, that are not used in modern Russian. So, they already succeed in this case when they translated "King's Hand" as "Десница короля" - they found very old and cool-sounding word which means "hand" but not so trivial as mere "hand".

So, the "seat", They found some very old word - седалище. Seat - is something to sit on, and седалище means something to sit on, all right. But there is a nuance. It means, ahem, behind. Backside. Southern body part. Arse.

So, now you see what we can read in Russian translation. Harrenhal is kings' arse. Casterly Rock is Lannisters' buttocks. Driftmark is Velaryons' derriere. Cool-cool.   

Upd. Actually it's "Beavers' Cliff is Lannisters' buttocks". See below. 

 

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DanaKz Squire

DanaKz

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1 hour ago, szbszig said:

In Hungarian, Winterfell is called Deres, which means Hoarfrosty. I don't have the slightest idea, how they came up with that name.

Casterly Rock is translated to Russian as "Beavers' Cliff". Don't ask me why. I don't know. It's crazy

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Nagini's Neville Council Member

Nagini's Neville

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2 hours ago, szbszig said:

In Hungarian, Winterfell is called Deres, which means Hoarfrosty. I don't have the slightest idea, how they came up with that name. Now, it sounds just silly, but the problem will be much bigger, if it turns out in later books, that the original name has a meaning: e.g. the Others ('Winter') fell there during the Long Night.

The same concern applies to a number of other names as well. Also, every translation will struggle with Hodor's name, if George sticks to that backstory, we saw in the show.

Oh yeah, you are right. I also thought about that Hodor thing a lot. Seems impossible to solve in german.

In german "Winterfell" stays luckily just "Winterfell", but it's also kinda funny, because that word actually means "winter fur" in german. 

And Stark means strong

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Nagini's Neville Council Member

Nagini's Neville

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1 hour ago, DanaKz said:

OMG. There is an absolutely horrible mistake of Russian translation but I am not sure I can explain you why it's so horrible.

I mean, the word "seat" Like, Harrenhal is kings' seat, Casterly Rock is Lannisters' seat etc.

Russian translator decided to find something cool and ancient-sounding, like, something from 12-13 centuries, something from Middle Ages, words, that are not used in modern Russian. So, they already succeed in this case when they translated "King's Hand" as "Десница короля" - they found very old and cool-sounding word which means "hand" but not so trivial as mere "hand".

So, the "seat", They found some very old word - седалище. Seat - is something to sit on, and седалище means something to sit on, all right. But there is a nuance. It means, ahem, behind. Backside. Southern body part. Arse.

So, now you see what we can read in Russian translation. Harrenhal is kings' arse. Casterly Rock is Lannisters' buttocks. Driftmark is Velaryons' derriere. Cool-cool.   

Upd. Actually it's "Beavers' Cliff is Lannisters' buttocks". See below. 

 

oh my god!! That's absolutely hilarious. I don't know, what I was thinking, believing the the german translation was bad. Seems like some of you have it way worse :lol: :lol: :lol:

But I kinda love languages for that reason though, all the different meanings to words etc. I think it's so fascinating, that reading the same text in 2 different languages will never be the same experience. the meaning will always be slightly different.  

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shameeka Sellsword

shameeka

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21 hours ago, Nagini's Neville said:

:lol: :lol: :lol: Oh no this is just horrible. But really the funniest thing I've ever heard. He pushed Bran out the window saying: "I love doing this"?

What language is that?

It's Korean and it's the result of letting a handful of amateur college students translate without supervision and "borrowing" the name of a well-known translator to put on the cover. It was a cheap practice of publishers who didn't want to waste money on hiring a professional translator.

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kissdbyfire Council Member

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7 hours ago, The hairy bear said:

In Catalan, we got two translations. The second one is OK, but the first one (hurriedly done by a small publishing house) included gems such as the "dome of Valyria" and "Barristan the Bald".

These are just too bloody funny! :lmao::lol: :rofl:

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Nagini's Neville Council Member

Nagini's Neville

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On 3. Oktober 2019 at 4:24 AM, shameeka said:

It's Korean and it's the result of letting a handful of amateur college students translate without supervision and "borrowing" the name of a well-known translator to put on the cover. It was a cheap practice of publishers who didn't want to waste money on hiring a professional translator.

good choice for a best-selling book series :laugh:

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