Why translation is an art, not a science - hitting (on) women edition
So, back on Tuesday, I was scrolling through my Twitter feed when I saw this tweet from Gazeta.ru online newspaper (and Livejournal's corporate sibling)
Катрин Денев: мужчины должны быть свободны в вопросе битья женщинhttps://t.co/dmaqQ4Jy74 pic.twitter.com/vAWw0V029u
- События дня (@GazetaRu) January 9, 2018
For those of you who can't read Russian, the tweet said "[French actress] Catherine Deneuve: Men should be free to beat women."
I went to the article - which turned out to be a summary of the Guardian article. And, when I went to the link, it turned out that it actually said: "Catherine Deneuve says men should be 'free to hit on' women."
Now... You can definitely see how somebody could have mistranslated it like that. But, well, Gazeta.ru is a professional news outlet. One of the oldest Russian online media outlets, in fact. And when you are translating an article in a foreign language, you better be damn sure you know what you're doing.
In fairness, somebody had since caught on, and the Gazeta.ru article has since been corrected. I mean, I don't think the term they used is quite correct, either, but it's a lot closer to its intended meaning. And it certainly doesn't imply that Deneuve condones violence against women.
Though they still kept the image. And the original tweet is still up, a monument to the importance of not just knowing what words mean - but what they mean in cultural context.
Like I've been saying for the past few years - translation is an art, not a science.
Катрин Денев: мужчины должны быть свободны в вопросе битья женщинhttps://t.co/dmaqQ4Jy74 pic.twitter.com/vAWw0V029u
- События дня (@GazetaRu) January 9, 2018
For those of you who can't read Russian, the tweet said "[French actress] Catherine Deneuve: Men should be free to beat women."
I went to the article - which turned out to be a summary of the Guardian article. And, when I went to the link, it turned out that it actually said: "Catherine Deneuve says men should be 'free to hit on' women."
Now... You can definitely see how somebody could have mistranslated it like that. But, well, Gazeta.ru is a professional news outlet. One of the oldest Russian online media outlets, in fact. And when you are translating an article in a foreign language, you better be damn sure you know what you're doing.
In fairness, somebody had since caught on, and the Gazeta.ru article has since been corrected. I mean, I don't think the term they used is quite correct, either, but it's a lot closer to its intended meaning. And it certainly doesn't imply that Deneuve condones violence against women.
Though they still kept the image. And the original tweet is still up, a monument to the importance of not just knowing what words mean - but what they mean in cultural context.
Like I've been saying for the past few years - translation is an art, not a science.