Some rather nice contributions just in...
In an American film (the contributor was unable to remember the title), the subtitler had rendered “Give me a whisky, on the rocks” as
“Da-mi un whisky, pe stânci” (be assured that the bar in question was not on an offshore lighthouse!)
And “...we'll meet two blocks away, on the corner” as
“...ne intâlnim după două blocuri, la colţ” (thus referring to two [tower block] buildings instead of two streets).
Thanks to Alex Bologa for those.
Ioana has submitted the following via email: “the other day [I] was watching TV, on FocusTV channel, and they translated the expression 'catch 22' as
'prinde 22' ...haha!” Ha ha is correct – colloquialisms rarely translate word-for-word!
She adds: “The best source [of Romanglish] can be the movies on JETIX, for kids. Eg. the movie H2O just add water; they voice-over translated what must've been 'I cannot get a hold on Zane' [sic] as
'Nu pot sa pun stâpanire pe Zane' (said by Zane's father, while desperately trying to call him).
Thanks again Ioana! [NB for the English reader
'a pune stâpanire' in Romanian means to control or capture].
Meanwhile, I found
'Rondele de calamar' (squid rings) translated as 'squid washers' in the menu of a classy seafood restaurant south of Constanţa! Nice touch! ('washers' I presume in the sense of metal rings used in light engineering; no doubt that old tradition of
traducerea cu dicţionar in mâna [lit. translation with dictionary in hand] is to blame...).
A complaint came from a client, last week, that I had used the word 'spirits' at the top of a drinks list on his restaurant menu. Apparently he has looked in his dictionary and the word means 'soul' or sometimes 'ghost'; the holy spirit etc. I wanted to tell him that alcohol is a religion in the UK, but I restrained myself and recommended that he should buy a more comprehensive dictionary...
...last month, a similar situation arose when I (correctly) translated
'somn' as 'catfish' and
'rapane' as 'whelks'; the client insisted that 'catfish' was
'pisica de mare' [lit. cat of the sea] (only in name, my dear sir;
'pisica de mare', unfortunately, is a stingray! - see
Romanglish in the restaurant). His objection to 'whelk' was that this word – according to his dictionary – means 'a fresh wound or reddening of the skin, e.g. following a whiplash'. (Whelk, then? Or welt?! A lesson to us all never to rely on bilingual dictionaries!).
Hopefully more examples or real Romanglish will follow, now that the new menus are out for the summer season; keep your eyes peeled...! I look forward to receiving more contributions from you all...
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