Taccuino di traduzione

"Più la storia s'avvicina ai nostri tempi, e più alle fusioni di due civiltà attraverso la carne si sostituisce quella attraverso la carta. Alle invasioni le traduzioni." Cesare Pavese, Il mestiere di vivere: 1940, 11 gennaio

Tutta colpa di Babel Fish

When indignant officials at the Dutch foreign ministry received an email from a group of Israeli journalists that began, "Helloh bud, enclosed five of the questions in honor of the foreign minister: The mother your visit in Israel is a sleep to the favor or to the bed your mind on the conflict are Israeli Palestinian," they might perhaps have guessed what had happened.

Sadly, they did not. Nor did the follow-up questions ("Why we did not heard on mutual visits of main the states of Israel and Holland, this is in the country of this" and "What in your opinion needs to do opposite the awful the Iranian of Israel") enlighten them. And now, according to the Jerusalem Post, the aforementioned journalists' planned fact-finding trip to the Netherlands as guests of the Dutch government is in jeopardy. "How could this email possibly have been sent?" an anguished Israeli diplomat asked the paper. "These journalists have sparked a major, major incident."

Il resto qui.

Postato da: BebaManno a 10:32 | link | commenti (1)
traduzione, articoli, humor

Philip Roth come Oprah?

Difficile da credere, lo so, eppure:

She says: 'Mr Roth, I hate to interrupt your dinner.' (Well, give us a chance, I think, we haven't even started yet.) 'But I have a very disturbed 18-year-old daughter. Do you think it's safe for her to read American Pastoral ? Given, you know, the problem with the daughter, Merry?' Philip says: 'I think your daughter has reached the age when she should read anything she chooses to read. I don't think you can control her reading.' She says: 'Well, I just wanted to hear if it was OK, from the horse's mouth.'

It's the same wherever you go. They don't just want to greet him and praise him (40 years ago, I suppose, they'd have been wanting to berate him or attack him). They want his advice and his blessing, they want him to solve their life's problems at one stroke. At breakfast in a bright, noisy brasserie, two sad ladies dressed in black come up, while I'm trying to broach Zuckerman's interest in Conrad. One of them, with tears in her eyes, says: 'Mr Roth, I'm sorry to interrupt your breakfast. But I had to come and talk to you because it felt like fate that you should be here today. You see, yesterday I buried my husband.' 'I'm sorry for your grief,' Philip says carefully. She goes on: 'And I wanted you to know that the last thing I gave him to read was Everyman . I think it gave him pleasure.' I look down hard at my granola, suppressing all thoughts about what kind of pleasure reading Everyman on your death-bed would give you. Philip, impeccably courteous, gentle and generous as he is with all these supplicants, says: 'I'm very glad it gave him pleasure, and I wish you good luck.'

Hermione Lee, An audience with Philip Roth, nel Guardian.

Il NY Times ha pubblicato il primo capitolo del nuovo libro di Philip Roth, Exit Ghost. 

Postato da: BebaManno a 11:42 | link | commenti
libri, interviste, articoli, humor

Link per il sabato sera se in televisione non c'è nulla di interessante.

Quando parliamo...

Why don't people just say what they mean? The reason is that conversational partners are not modems downloading information into each other's brains. People are very, very touchy about their relationships. Whenever you speak to someone, you are presuming the two of you have a certain degree of familiarity--which your words might alter. So every sentence has to do two things at once: convey a message and continue to negotiate that relationship.

Steven Pinker, Words don't mean what they mean

Dizionario P.I.

Un dizionario politicamente incorretto per scoprire che cosa significano podagra, unpedigreed, babushkage e altro.

Punteggiatura

So Many Exclamation Points! 

Postato da: BebaManno a 20:20 | link | commenti (2)
varie, articoli, humor, linguistica, dizionari

Legalese

Il sito The Party of the First Part promette bene:

For better or worse the instruction manual for today's world is written by lawyers. Now comes a website for eveyone befuddled, enraged, or intrigued by legalese - yes, even lawyers.

E naturalmente c'è anche blog.

Postato da: BebaManno a 12:26 | link | commenti (1)
libri, humor, linguistica, inglese

Le cose che la gente si sogna di notte e fa di giorno...

DNGHU, l'associazione per lo sviluppo di una grammatica dell'indo-europeo moderno. (Link via LH). E, naturalmente, c'è anche la versione in italiano.

Postato da: BebaManno a 16:32 | link | commenti (3)
humor, linguistica

Aldo Buzzi

James Marcus di House of Mirth rende omaggio allo scrittore Aldo Buzzi, che ieri ha compiuto 97 anni.

Se non avete mai letto niente di Buzzi, cominciate da Uovo alla kok. Non potrete non esserne deliziati.

Postato da: BebaManno a 10:38 | link | commenti
libri, articoli, humor

Neologismo: il Tesoretto

Dicasi Tesoretto l'Ammontare in eccesso delle Entrate dell'Erario rispetto alle previsioni. Ovvero il Tesoretto è il risultato di un improvviso rigurgito di Onestà di chi prima non pagava le tasse, oppure un semplice artifizio di bilancio per far figurare un maggior introito statale in seguito all'aumento delle Imposte pagate da aziende e cittadini pentiti. Insomma il vezzeggiativo più nazionalpopolare degli ultimi tempi potrebbe essere l'ennesimo stratagemma di comunicazione che può voler dire tutto ed il contrario di tutto, come fino a poco tempo fa lo sono stati il Federalismo fiscale e la Finanza creativa.

Da: Enrico Bertolino, Il vero tesoretto per le imprese - Il Sole 24 Ore.

Postato da: BebaManno a 17:26 | link | commenti
humor, linguistica, italiano

Per il sabato sera

Why not the Worst?

Confesso: mi piacciono i libri di Lisa See, Laura Lippman e Henning Mankell. Una volta ho leggiucchiato anche una biografia di Richard Burton.

Bad books are an essential part of life, as entertaining and indispensable as bad clothing (ironic polyester shirts), bad music (John Tesh at Red Rocks, Phil Collins anywhere), bad trends (metrosexuality, not using toilet paper for a year in order to “help” the environment) and bad politicians (take your pick). I started reading extremely bad books as a boy, when my beloved but slightly unhinged Uncle Jerry lent me the classic Reds-under-the-beds screed “None Dare Call It Treason,” and have been reading them ever since.


Blog: De recensie - Blog di recensioni letterarie. In olandese.


Warum ich so weise bin: neologismi inglesi coniati da bloggers.


The Curious Dreamer:  il dizionario dei simboli onirici.

Podcast/Radio: Word of Mouth, programma della BBC Radio 4.

Postato da: BebaManno a 20:50 | link | commenti
libri, articoli, humor, linguistica, blogs, podcast, dizionari

Il pericolo dei sottotitoli e l'ego di Nicholas (ovvero: una cosa che avrei sempre voluto fare, ma non ho mai trovato il coraggio...)

Riporto pari pari dal sito di French Morning:

François Bayrou a accusé les chaînes de télévision françaises d’être "pro-Sarkozy". Visiblement, à France 2, quelqu’un a décidé -discrètement- de rétablir l’équilibre et de pousser le "tout sauf Sarkozy". Lundi soir, le journal télévisé était entièrement consacré au résultat de l’élection. Comme d’habitude, ce même journal a été diffusé sous-titré en anglais sur plusieurs réseaux cablés des Etats-Unis (la chaîne 25 à New York, chaque jour à 19 h) ce même lundi. Sauf que cette fois, le sous-titrage a fait des siennes. Nicolas Sarkozy dit : "’j’invite tous les Français (...) à s’unir à moi. Le traducteur lui s’amuse : "(...) to rally my inflated ego".

Traduction de la traduction : "à rejoindre mon égo surdimensionné".

Il resto qui.

Postato da: BebaManno a 09:55 | link | commenti
traduzione, articoli, humor, blogs, francese

La prossima volta che qualcuno vi chiama bitch, ringraziatelo.

Given all its negative connotations, it is not surprising that women fear being called a bitch. In fact, though, it is something that we should embrace. Why? The US feminist magazine BITCH explains it like this on its website: "When it's being used as an insult, bitch is an epithet hurled at women who speak their minds, who have opinions and do not shy away from expressing them and who do not sit by and smile uncomfortably if they are bothered or offended. If being an outspoken woman means being a bitch, we will take that as a compliment, thanks."

Il resto dell'articolo, firmato da Kate Figes, è qui.

Postato da: BebaManno a 12:26 | link | commenti (2)
articoli, humor, linguistica