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Subject:Translation Humor - Help From:Tom Johnson <johnsont -at- FREEWAY -dot- NET> Date:Tue, 3 Nov 1998 14:41:26 -0500
Here's one of those humorous translation gotchas. When translating the
English word "dovetail" into Portuguese for Brazil it came back from the
reviewer as dove rear-end. At least that is what our translation vendor
tells me. It gives a whole new perspective to the sentence, "Before moving
the headstock, it is very important to wipe the dovetail clean."
Needless to say, the literal translation back into English sounds like a
real blooper. I need to find out who is right, the translator or the
reviewer? Is anybody out there fluent in Portuguese who can tell me how
they would translate it? If you would like the two versions in Portuguese,
contact me offline and I'll send them to you.
Thanks a bunch.
Tom Johnson
Traverse City, MI.
business johnsont -at- starcutter -dot- com
personal thomasj -at- freeway -dot- net