This sounds as parochial as the possibly apochrophal story published in a Dundee newspaper in 1912 -
“Dundee man drowned when Titanic sinks, some others also lost”
RussellM
“Sulu, Master of Navigation” came from William Shatner’s opening monolog when he was the guest host on Saturday Night Live.
apocryphal would have been better.
RussellM
Keeve, motek, I think you meant “Shodedei”. You just wrote “Rascals of the Lost Ark”. 
Good point, though.
Thanks, Alessan. My bad. L’Shana Tovah.
… We now return you all to our regularly scheduled trivia …
I agree that the word “hobbit” does somehow convey that feeling. I can (incredibly) still remember a time when I
hadn’t read any of the Tolkien books but had heard the word,
and imagined a creature with endearing qualities, mostly harmless. If we analyze the word itself, I think the second syllable is reminiscent of “Rabbit”, perhaps, which contributes to this. Tolkien, however, said the word
evolved from Old English (Rohirric) “holbytlan”–Hole builder. Maybe it would be better if fantasy titles were
constructed out of native elements of the target language.
In fact, the German translater of “The Hobbit” did a fine job with the names of people and places in the story. “Baggins” became “Beutlin”, and “Bag End” became (I think)
“Beutelheim”.
Did anyone see that News Radio where Jimmy James had his book translated to Japanese and then back to English? The original title was something like “Jimmy James: Taming the Capitolist Lion” and in translation became “Jimmy James: Macho Business Donkey Wrestler.”
Sartre’s French play Huis clos came out in two English translations. The first was “In Camera”, a British translation, I think. It is the nearest approximation to the literal meaning of the French phrase. The idea is of a private meeting between people shut in a room and no one else can intrude. “In Camera” is a Latin phrase meaning ‘in the chamber’.
The next translation was titled “No Exit” – was that the dumbed-down American version? Assuming that Americans would think “In Camera” was about photography?
The Indian film titled Mirc masâlâ in Hindi was released in America as “Spices.” Literally, mirc masâlâ means ground-up chili pepper. The film was not about “spices” in general, but about chili pepper specifically; the use of chili pepper in the film was important to its conclusion. They should have called it “Chili Pepper” but I guess they wanted to exploit the idea of exotic India, the land of spices.
Another Indian film, called Muhâfazah in Urdu, was released in America as “In Custody.” Literally, muhâfazah means the state of being guarded – but it implies more guarding for protection rather than imprisonment. The film, about an old poet on the decline, used the ambiguity in the term with both meanings. In translation half of that is lost.
One of the ones that always puzzled me was “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” In Italian, it’s “Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo” which is ordered differently: “The Good, the Ugly, the Bad.”
Or why the wonderfully stylish and nicely titled “Dellamorte Dellamore” was changed to “Cemetary Man” for US release.
Someone mentioned Peter Jackson’s excellent “Braindead” and why it was released here as “Dead Alive.” I’d hazard a guess that it might be because there’s a (really awful) low budget horror flick titled “Brain Dead” that came out a few years earlier.
sidxiii
“I’d rather be at home, listening to the Ramones…”
Here’s one I never understood:
Why did the Japanese “Gojira” become the American “Godzilla”? Why the change from “R” to “L”? Did the folks who bought it for American release think “Gojira” too hard to pronounce, or too Japanese, or something? Why change the “J” to “DZ”?
There’s a story that somebody’s Jewish grandmother came into the screening room, looked at the Man in the Rubber Suit on the scren, and said “What a Godzilla!” I think this is apocryphal. “Godzilla” doesn’t seem to be yiddish slang, or anything else, for that matter.
So why did “Gojira” become “Godzilla”? I can understand “Mosura” becoming “Mothra”. That makes sense. And the other Japanese monster names seem to be relatively untouched. Godzilla is the Odd Man Out.
Here is part of what snopes has to say on the subject:
IMO, George III is ambiguous, so I agree with this rationale. King George is also somewhat ambiguous, but…
…it was released worldwide with the title “The Madness of King George”, including releasing it with that title to the British. Either they assumed that the British would already know which King George from the play or madness reference or it’s not as ambiguous as you claim.
Anyone who speaks two languages well knows it can be very difficult to translate at the same time the words, the meanings, the connotations etc.
A literal translation can be meaningless.
Full Metal Jacket became in Spanish “Chaqueta Metálica” which is totally devoid of any reasonable meaning. It was just the title.
Full Metal Jacket refers the some international treaty requiring war ammunition to be enclosed in a full metal jacket. Chaqueta metalica would be something like “the metal coat”.
for that poster who was wondering, Encino is a city in California, that I associate with laid-back surfer & skateboarder types. I couldn’t even tell you why.
Why do publishers ignore the Author’s title when publishing a book?
The answer: It’s a power thing. All editors are frustrated writers. All publishers are frustrated editors.
They want to leave their mark on the world and see a way to do it by always leaving the title to their discretion in book contracts.
Joyce Carol Oates fusses about this title point in every interview. Her titles are always superior, and she resents the change. But she can’t promote a book by herself, so she gives in. If it reaches her level, what chance does any authors have when the publisher pulls rank?
re: “La cage aux folles”
Isn’t that a pun, in the original French, between fowls and fools? Doesn’t “The Birdcage” lose the sense of that pun? Not that “Birds of a Feather” is a clear translation of the pun, but at least it’s a humorous title with implications closer in tone to the actual movie, while “The Birdcage” just seems completely lifeless to me.
What about “Man Bites Dog”? The original was “C’est arrivé près de chez vous.” My highschool French is almost entirely gone, but I know that doesn’t refer to any kind of a dog. Altavista’s translator makes it “It arrived close to on your premise”; I might have read it as something like “Close to Home” or something. Again, what’s with “Man Bites Dog?”
And has anyone ever succeeded in translating “Cosi Fan Tutti”?
Proust’s novel, A la recherche du temps perdu is translated into English as REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST. I’ve had the thought that a more literal translation would have been better: IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME. As I read someplace, the point of the book is not just about remembering, it is a more active thing: the search for time lost would be even better. In the search a construction is going on, namely the novel itself, as we learn at the end if we didn’t before. And it turns out that modern research shows when we remember we are really constructing from various traces a new composition. Now here is another question for a whole new thread relating to this present enjoyable yarnball:
why is it that when French is translated into English it is so poorly done? That is, you can ALWAYS tell, even though you had no thought that the book you are reading was originally in French. A few sentences and you look and sure enough, it’s a translation. Also, there are many translations of Gogol’s immortal DEAD SOULS, and some of them translate Russian words and customs of 170 years ago into supposed English equivalents, when at least half the fun of reading foreign literature is in the obscure references, including titles and strange customs that you don’t understand and that give the whole flavor to the thing. When you find that out you wonder how much other damage has been done. For instance when they talk about cabbage soup in an English translation of Russian, do they really mean cabbage soup or was it something else? I believe British pudding is really some kind of a cake and not at all like Royal Pudding that we all enjoyed in our childhood: chocolate, butterscotch, etc., a form of jello I guess. But at least they leave the word pudding and you can go look it up and see what that was. In the Midwest nobody but a pretentious yuppie (or visitor from the East) would call a sweetroll a Danish. What if I wrote a book called MY FAVORITE SWEETROLL,when it came out in NY would it be translated MY FAVORITE DANISH? Suppose I wrote, THE CASE OF THE PURLOINED PAIL, would it be turned into THE CASE OF THE STOLEN BUCKET across the well-known wiggly line across the nation between those who use pail and those who use bucket?
Take a look at translations of the goddess Ishtar (Innana)
when she describes her honeymoon with Tammuz and how he “plowed” her like the ox, and the other poem where she is standing up against her huluppu tree, I think it is, and exposing her […]. Are we to take these literally? Scholarship is so difficult!