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| 47524 |
Crispbread / Näkkileipä
Kaksi näkkileipää käveli tien yli ja toinen jäi auton alle. Mitä toinen näkkileipä sanoi?
- Hei muruseni! :) HA HAA
Two crispbreads crossed the street and another was wriven over. What did the another crispbread said?
- Hi my pieces!
??? I am sure my translation is poor in english due to jokes are difficult to translate. But if someone see any mistake, couldn't u contack me about that, please???
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Language pair: Finnish; English
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| 47565 |
Translating jokes: Re:Crispbread / Näkkileipä
I’m afraid I don’t speak Finnish, so I can't help you with your translation. But somehow I missed the joke. I look forward to seeing what another Finnish English speaker has to say about your translation.
Of course, the problem may not be with your translation. Some jokes just don’t translate well. For example, we have one in English:
Riddle: What did one firecracker say to the other?
Answer: My pop is bigger than your pop!
This is cute in English because “pop” can either mean the popping sound that the firecracker makes, or it could mean the fathers of the firecrackers, since "pop" is one way of saying "dad" in English. Because in American culture children on the schoolyard often compete by bragging about their fathers, the answer to the riddle has a clever double meaning in the dialogue between the firecrackers. Another example:
Riddle: What did the tablecloth say to the table?
Answer: Don’t move! I’ve got you covered!
Like the first riddle, this one depends heavily not only on English language but on our culture. The riddle has a literal meaning, that the table cloth is covering the table, which isn’t particularly interesting. But the fact that the expression, “I’ve got you covered” is also an idiom we use in gunfights to communicate to someone that we have a weapon pointed at them and are ready to shoot if they misbehave turns this very commonplace situation into an action adventure. Not only is the table ready for dinner, but it’s life may be in danger if it tries to run away.
Your riddle sounds like it comes from a similar style, and because it seems so strange to me in English, it makes me wonder if the Finnish for “My pieces” might not have some alternative meaning in Finnish that doesn’t exist in English.
Sometimes there are ways to translate these jokes by looking for a similar relationship in the second language/culture that conveys a similar humorous association. For example, I’m not aware that they have a word in Spanish that means an exploding noise and also one’s father. But it happens that Spanish has another word like their word for father, which means potato. So if I wanted to translate the joke into Spanish, I might try recasting it so that maybe one farmer says to another farmer, “mi papa es mejor que el tuyo,” My papa/potato is better than yours.” Perhaps not an entirely successful translation, since it's easier to imagine firecrackers as children on a schoolyard than farmers, who we think of as adults. And of course, I don't know if children in Spanish-speaking cultures aren't given to duels at bragging about their fathers on the schoolyard, which is critical to the humor here; but perhaps you see my meaning.
Good luck!
Mark Springer
Sacramento CA USA
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Language pair: English; Spanish
This is a reply to message # 47524
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| 47667 |
Pun testing
As a follow-up to our conversation on puns and the difficulties in translating them: They can also be an excellent way of monitoring how well you are doing with culture and language you are learning. Any of the following that do not make you laugh are either learning opporunities or poor jokes. For what it’s worth, I enjoyed nearly all of them. Let us know which ones you don’t get—you might learn something! Let us know if you have similar ones in your own language. Cany you think of ways to translate these?
01. A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired.
02. What's the definition of a will? It's a dead giveaway.
03. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
04. A backward poet writes inverse.
05. In democracy it's your vote that counts; In feudalism it's your count that votes.
06. She had a boyfriend with a wooden leg, but broke it off.
07. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
08. If you don't pay your exorcist you get repossessed.
09. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
10. Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat minor.
11. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
12. The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.
13. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
14. You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
15. Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN down under.
16. He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
17. Every calendar's days are numbered.
18. A lot of money is tainted. 'Taint yours and 'taint mine.
19. A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.
20. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
21. A plateau is a high form of flattery.
22. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
23. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
24. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.
25. Those who jump off a Paris bridge are in Seine.
26. When an actress saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.
27. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
28. Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
29. Acupuncture is a jab well done.
30. Marathon runners with bad footwear suffer the agony of defeat.
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
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Language pair: English; All
This is a reply to message # 47565
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| 47754 |
Re:Translating jokes: Re:Crispbread / Näkkileipä
> I’m afraid I don’t speak Finnish,
> so I can't help you with your
> translation. But somehow I missed
> the joke.
>
A crumb (rather than "a piece") is
homonymous with "darling" in Finnish.
Puti
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Language pair: English; Spanish
This is a reply to message # 47565
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| 47855 |
Re:Pun testing
> As a follow-up to our conversation on
> puns and the difficulties in translating
> them: [...] Let us know if you have
> similar ones in your own language.
> Cany you think of ways to translate
> these?
>
The following entries can be translated
(nearly) literally into Finnish:
17. Jokaisen kalenterin päivät ovat luetut.
20. Hänellä oli valokuvamuisti, jota ei
koskaan kehitetty.
23. Ne, jotka eivät mahdu housuihinsa,
paljastuvat aina lopulta.
The following entries have been adapted
to local idioms:
5. Demokratiassa pääset antamaan äänesi
kreivin aikaan, feodalismissa kreivi
pääsee antamaan sinun äänesi aikanaan.
6. Hän piti poikaystävää, jolla oli
puujalka, mutta on pannut sen jo poikki.
8. Jollet maksa manaajalle, paha sinut
perii.
21. Ylänkö on korkeatasoinen tasanko.
27. Leipurit eivät juuri toistensa
töitä vaivaa.
29. Akupunktuuri on lääketieteellinen
päähänpisto.
30. Maraton on urheilu tuskissa jaloin.
These were quick ones. With time
better ones can probably be invented.
Puti
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Language pair: English; All
This is a reply to message # 47667
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