Toast, It's not just for breakfast anymore: Lost in Translation

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Lost in Translation

I wrote a goofy joke that I was going to translate into arabic, calling the post 'Muslim Humor'.

Militant #1:Knock knock!
Militant #2:Who's there?
Militant #1:Allah
Militant #2: Allah who?
Militant #1:Allaht of people are dying in my name these days!

It's not funny, but it was to be translated into arabic and probably unread, so I didn't work too hard. Here's what it looks like:

مناضل رقم 1 : الدقه الدقه!
مناضل رقم 2 : من هو؟
مناضل # # 1 : الله
مناضل رقم 2 : من الله؟
مناضل رقم 1 : الات الناس يموتون اسمي في هذه الايام.

I translated it back into English to see if it was translating well:

Struggler No. 1 : precise accuracy!
Struggler No. 2 : Who is he?
Struggler No. 1 : God's
struggling No. 2 : God?
Struggler No. 1 : My name is charming people die these days.


Does this mean that 'militant' and 'struggler' are synonymous in arabic? I think we may be looking at one of those 'root causes' that some people are so concerned about. Militant means pretty much the same as terrorist in my book. I wonder if 'terrorist' means 'lover of life and freedom' or something similar in arabic.

If it came across as 'murdering struggler' I wouldn't have as much of a problem with the translation...



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