Dear Editor,
Now catching up with your editorial of 26th January (Mokusatsu).
Someone should write a book “Famous translation errors and situations.” Should be a fascinating read.
I recall the speech given by Haitian president Raoul Cedras when the Americans were threatening to remove him if he did not step down. I listened as the interpreter made a high-school level French mistake and translated “Je pretend…” as “I pretend to step down” (instead of “I intend to step down” – the correct rendering). Of course, that is just what the Americans thought he was doing but he would not have wanted to confirm their suspicions. Fortunately, someone in the state department must have recognized the interpreter’s error as there were no tragic consequences that time.
Then there was the black Monday stock market crash in 1987 which I seem to recall being traced to a translation error though I see no such attribution now on the net.
Perhaps the most apt reference these days is “Ivan the terrible” when another Russian leader is competing to dispossess him of that title. We are told that that is a poor rendering of the Russian word grozny in that rendering it as “terrible” reflects an older use of the word in English.
Finally, we have the following extract from Russia again. “Unfortunately if you translate the word `help’ into Russian, it’s not the same as it is in English. In English it can be just an offer of moral support. But it’s a much stronger word in Russian as in, `we are going to take care of you.’” https://adst.org/2016/11/siberian-seven-escaping-religious-persecution-u-s-s-r/
I think Putin is trying to take care of Zelensky. But definitely not help him at all.
Yours faithfully,
F. Collins
