Like-Blog
Presenting you the most interesting translation solutions
Why Like-Blog? Now, first of all, this blog is a blog that you should like (and read regularly) – at least, if you are interested in translation. Then, the topic discussed here is one in which the meaningful likeness between a text and its translation in the language pair English-German plays a key role. On this page, I will take a close look at some interesting translation solutions that I have come across in the course of my work as a translator and translation scholar.
A translation solution is only as good as the arguments that support it. This means that any translation criticism, whether positive or negative, needs to be justified. The quality of a translation solution shows only when we compare it to other possible translation solutions in a given translation situation. Therefore, a translation critic should not only say why a translation solution is bad, but also demonstrate what a better solution might look like. I will try to stick to these principles of translation criticism. So if you have any questions regarding my line of argument or if you disagree, please, let me know your opinion by phone at +49 4171 6086525 or by e-mail to bittner@businessenglish-hamburg.de. So much for the introduction. I hope you’ll enjoy reading this blog!
Reference points (January 2025)
In her article “Africa’s Land and Family Farms – Up for Grabs?” (grain.org, 14 January 2010), Joan Baxter – answering the question as to why Europeans bring their mistakes to Africa – writes: “At the time, I had no answer to her question. But now, two decades later, I think I do. It’s taken years of patient teaching by African farmers from Zambia to Uganda, from Kenya to Cameroon and Mali.”
At a first glance, the German translation seems alright: “Damals konnte ich ihre Frage nicht beantworten, aber jetzt, zwei Jahrzehnte später, glaube ich, eine Antwort gefunden zu haben. Darüber wurde ich jahrelang von afrikanischen Landwirten von Sambia bis Uganda und von Kenia bis Kamerun und Mali geduldig unterrichtet.”
However, looking more closely, we notice that the reference from the second to the first sentence is not logical: or else, what is “Darüber” supposed to refer to?
In the original, the “It” at the beginning of the third sentence can be interpreted in two different ways grammatically: (1) it can refer to the implied finding of an answer to the preceding question expressed in the first two sentences or (2) it can refer as an anticipatory subject to a clause implied at the end of the last sentence: to find the answer. Both interpretations result in the same understanding of the passage.
One problem of the translation is that “Darüber” has no plausible point of reference in the previous sentence. The only point of reference that might be possible, “Antwort”, is semantically unsatisfactory. Another problem is that the verb “unterrichten”, in combination with the adverb “Darüber”, acquires a different meaning from what is intended in the original: jemanden über etwas zu unterrichten means to inform someone about something.
The solution could be: Damals konnte ich ihre Frage nicht beantworten, aber jetzt, zwei Jahrzehnte später, glaube ich, eine Antwort gefunden zu haben. Denn schließlich wurde ich jahrelang von afrikanischen Landwirten von Sambia bis Uganda und von Kenia bis Kamerun und Mali geduldig unterrichtet. The causal relationship between the second and the first sentence yields the implicit subject of the teaching insofar as it logically contains the answer to the question.