On translations and the metric system
I am reading (yet another) Swedish detective novel translated into English at the moment, and I find that I'm thrown by some of the translation.
As you might guess, it's to do with the translation of the units of measurement from metric (I assume, but I'll get back to that) to imperial.
First thing is, I have taken to the metric system like a duck to water, and faced with an imperial measurement like 3 feet, I will automatically convert it back to metric. And, efficient person that I sometimes am, I regret the time that the translator spent that I just had to undo.
Then, I'll try to figure out what the original metric number was. "About sixty miles" probably started out as "about a hundred kilometres" (except in Swedish ;), I don't have to think about that one, but "around four feet" takes a bit more consideration.
Which isn't to mention the conversions that I can't do in my head, notably from Fahrenheit to Celsius, or anything to do with weight. Actually, on the subject of weight, even when I lived in Ireland and weighed myself in stones and pounds and ounces, I could never remember how many of what were in what - I mean, was it made deliberately confusing with a mixture of sixteen and fourteen? - and I can't even take a guess at it now!
And, I also get thrown because it sounds so odd for a Swedish character to be thinking of miles, or talking about pounds. I find myself wondering if it is a character note, if there is some plot element that has the character using the imperial measures instead of metric. As I would if I read an American book with a character talking of the temperature in Celsius, because I know what units they habitually use, and to use others is strange or at the least unusual.
And then I almost set the book aside when I read that the footprints were size 11 1/2. Whose size 11 1/2, for pity's sake?? What does that mean? Since the intended audience of this book is not me, nor is it Swedes, then who is it and what system do they use?
I'm being slightly disingenuous. The audience is obviously American (despite it being a UK publication), and in fact I discovered thanks to this page that size 11 1/2 is pretty standard (if still pretty much a blank for me, I have trouble remembering my own shoe size never mind understanding others'). But then if all of this is translated so as not to confuse the reader with strange and alien terms, why leave the currency as Kronor?
As you might guess, it's to do with the translation of the units of measurement from metric (I assume, but I'll get back to that) to imperial.
First thing is, I have taken to the metric system like a duck to water, and faced with an imperial measurement like 3 feet, I will automatically convert it back to metric. And, efficient person that I sometimes am, I regret the time that the translator spent that I just had to undo.
Then, I'll try to figure out what the original metric number was. "About sixty miles" probably started out as "about a hundred kilometres" (except in Swedish ;), I don't have to think about that one, but "around four feet" takes a bit more consideration.
Which isn't to mention the conversions that I can't do in my head, notably from Fahrenheit to Celsius, or anything to do with weight. Actually, on the subject of weight, even when I lived in Ireland and weighed myself in stones and pounds and ounces, I could never remember how many of what were in what - I mean, was it made deliberately confusing with a mixture of sixteen and fourteen? - and I can't even take a guess at it now!
And, I also get thrown because it sounds so odd for a Swedish character to be thinking of miles, or talking about pounds. I find myself wondering if it is a character note, if there is some plot element that has the character using the imperial measures instead of metric. As I would if I read an American book with a character talking of the temperature in Celsius, because I know what units they habitually use, and to use others is strange or at the least unusual.
And then I almost set the book aside when I read that the footprints were size 11 1/2. Whose size 11 1/2, for pity's sake?? What does that mean? Since the intended audience of this book is not me, nor is it Swedes, then who is it and what system do they use?
I'm being slightly disingenuous. The audience is obviously American (despite it being a UK publication), and in fact I discovered thanks to this page that size 11 1/2 is pretty standard (if still pretty much a blank for me, I have trouble remembering my own shoe size never mind understanding others'). But then if all of this is translated so as not to confuse the reader with strange and alien terms, why leave the currency as Kronor?