Transloosely Literated

O artigo abaixo, do Jornal The New York Times é um lembrete divertido da importância, entre outras coisas, do estudo cuidadoso da tradução de títulos de obras estrangeiras. Convém ressaltar que, muitas vezes, a escolha do título não cabe ao tradutor da obra, mas ao departamento editorial, ou mesmo à equipe de marketing da editora. Não é raro o departamento editorial de algumas editoras pedir sugestões de títulos ao tradutor e, depois, lançar o livro com um nome completamente diferente, o que nem sempre é má idéia, pois muitos tradutores podem ser ótimos para trabalhar com o texto, mas não para vendê-lo ao leitor.

Transloosely Literated

By HENRY ALFORD

Published: July 6, 2008

A book’s journey from one language into another can be perilous. The Russian title for J. D. Salinger’s classic tale of adolescence translates as “Above the Precipice in the Rye.” A clerk in a Yokohama bookshop once told John Steinbeck’s wife that yes, he had a copy of Steinbeck’s “Angry Raisins.” Has this bumpy road gotten any smoother in recent years? Let the following quiz be your guide.

1. One Italian translation of Roddy Doyle’s novel “Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha” is titled:

a) “Paddy Clarke Ho Ho Ho”
b) “Paddy Clarke Heh Heh Heh”
c) “Paddy Clarke Ah Ah Ah!”
d) “Paddy Clarke, Krakatoa del Laughter”

2. The Brazilian title of Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel “Prep” translates as:

a) “Bean Hulling”
b) “Thong Club”
c) “Pre-surgery Shaving”
d) “Foreplay”

3. James Finn Garner dedicated his best seller “Politically Correct Bedtime Stories” to his wife, Lies (pronounced “lease”), which is the Dutch equivalent of Elizabeth. In the Norwegian edition, the book’s dedication reads:

a) “This book is dedicated to Untruths, for everything”
b) “For Dissembling, my everything”
c) “For Rental Unit, my north star”
d) “Lies Flat, I can’t live without you”

4. Mary Morris was told that in German, the name of her memoir about traveling in Mexico, “Nothing to Declare,” implied authority and hence fascism. So the book was retitled:

a) “Machos und Tortillas”
b) “Caballeros und Tamales”
c) “Mädchen in Mexiko”
d) “Völlig Ungebunden und Frei und Ungebunden”
(“Footloose and Fancy Free”)

5. “Eetlust” is:

a) The German title of Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir, “Eat, Pray, Love”
b) The Afrikaans title of Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story “Sexy”
c) The Dutch title for the Food Network star Jacqui Malouf’s cookbook and romance guide, “Booty Food”
d) The Swedish nickname for H. P. Lovecraft

6. “Teerbaby” is:

a) The German title of Toni Morrison’s novel “Tar Baby”
b) The Dutch novelization of the John Waters film “Cry-Baby”
c) The Afrikaans title of “Why Is My Baby Crying? The 7-Minute Program for Soothing the Fussy Baby”
d) A Belgian doll that weeps when touched

7. In 1987, Elinor Lipman received a letter from the Japanese translator of her story collection, “Into Love and Out Again.” “Dear Mr. Alinor Lipman,” the letter began, “Some questions come out.” They included “Page 39: What is B-school?”; “Page 93: What is health plan?”; and “Page 151: ‘Sabie Hawkins’: Is it a name of a dancehall?” What strange fate had befallen Mr. Alinor Lipman?

a) The letter had been typed by the translator’s assistant
b) The translator had written the letter in Japanese, then had it translated
c) The translator was less talented than she might have been
d) The letter was a prank being played on “Alinor” by Lipman’s friend, Meg Wolitzer

8. In the Brazilian edition of Jacquelyn Mitchard’s novel “The Deep End of the Ocean,” the passage “Beth truly wanted to be mad. A few bricks shy of a load. A few ants short of a picnic” was translated as:

a) “Beth felt like a drunk who couldn’t get served a drink.”
b) “Beth felt like an ant who hadn’t been invited to the picnic.”
c) “Beth felt like a brick that had been pulled from a wall.”
d) “Beth felt like a picnic. A big, crazy picnic.”

9. Puzzled by the word “Daddums,” the Dutch translator of David Shields’s novel “Dead Languages” asked Shields if it meant:

a) “Small pieces of data”
b) “A Dads Against Drunk Driving member”
c) “Molten fool”
d) “Webbed toes”

10. One translator told Sam Lipsyte that the Italian edition of his satirical novel “Home Land” would be worthless because the translator working on the book was using:

a) No punctuation
b) A 19th-century dictionary
c) Paduan slang
d) Heroin

11. In the Italian edition of Dan Wakefield’s novel “Going All the Way,” the main character, a football and basketball star named Gunner, is renamed:

a) Cannonero
b) Pistolo
c) Bombadero
d) Signor Sportpants

12. “Terre des Mecs” (“Land of the Guys”) is the French translation for:

a) Armistead Maupin’s novel “Tales of the City”
b) A nickname for Jamaica in Terry McMillan’s novel “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”
c) A David Leavitt character’s phonetic reference to Long Island as “the Guyland” (as in “lonGUYland”)
d) A nickname for the bottom shelf of “Sex and the City” author Candace Bushnell’s medicine cabinet

13. In his 1999 English version of Giovanni Verga’s “Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories,” G. H. McWilliam translates a passage in which a character moves his possessions into his father’s house by saying that he:

a) “Shifted in his movables”
b) “Distributed his transferables”
c) “Decanted his necessaries”
d) “Reconfigured his what-have-you’s”

14. In a speech at a science fiction festival in Chengdu, China, last year, Neil Gaiman referred to his novel “American Gods” as being “about old gods in America.” The audience erupted into shouts when the interpreter translated Gaiman’s reference as:

a) “ ‘American Goods,’ about old goods in America”
b) “ ‘American Dogs,’ about old dogs in America”
c) “ ‘American Cods,’ about old cods in America”
d) “ ‘American Gauze,’ about old gauze in America”

15. In the Chinese edition of “The Know-It-All,” A. J. Jacobs, an editor at Esquire, received what may be the ultimate bad translation. The photo and biography on the book’s back pay tribute to:

a) “A. J. Jabobs, editor at Esquirry magazine”
b) “J. J. Aacobs, writer of male articles”
c) The book’s translator, Tianfan Jiang
d) Mr. Alinor Lipman

Answers: 1) c; 2) d; 3) a; 4) a; 5) c; 6) a; 7) a; 8) b; 9) c; 10) c; 11) a; 12) c; 13) a; 14) b; 15) c