XPost: or.politics, ca.politics, alt.law-enforcement   
   XPost: rec.aviation.military   
   From: muratlanne@gmail.com   
      
   To translate is never a neutral act. [. . .] It is the quiet violence of   
   turning one world into another, often without consent.   
      
   -------------------------------------   
   Having studied Latin, French and German I can assure you that translation   
   often misses subtle shades of meaning and loaded code phrases like "make my   
   day" and "final solution". There may not be an exact equivalent that doesn't   
   include unintended other meanings. Since English developed from a stew of   
   conqueror's and colonial languages it has kept many near synonyms that may   
   differ slightly in connotation. "Last will and testament" includes both the   
   Saxon Germanic and the Norman French terms. Chinese instructions use "weld"   
   in place of "solder".   
      
   A military aviation example of clear translation is the German Luftwaffe   
   history "Angriffshoehe 4000" and its English translation to "The Luftwaffe   
   War Diaries". The English doesn't seem like an awkward translation because   
   it keeps only the paragraph structure and rearranges the sentences.   
      
   Poetry and music lyrics especially don't translate well. The English lyrics   
   to "Mac the Knife " are only similar to the original German, likewise the   
   German translation of "Where have All the Flowers Gone" isn't a literal   
   copy.   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)