Translating "Stakes"

[trovia]

Me and fellow translators kit_kat_2006 and mondenengel decided to talk some about our translations so to improve on our work. So here are a couple of notes on translating "Stakes." I hope this is interesting for those of you who're learning German too

Comments

[millari]

LOL. What is it you like so much about "skeptisch"? It's such a random choice!
Hmm...I'm not entirely sure, I think because I like the sound of it, plus the fact that it's close in sound and meaning to the English word "skeptic" and "skeptical". But really, I think what clinches it for me is that Americans (and maybe Brits, I'm not sure) sometimes tack on the ending "ish" to words that really have no business having the "ish" ending. We do this to politely introduce a sense of ambiguity or doubt to an adjective in a non-confrontational way that doesn't usually have any ambiguity. It's sort of the equivalent of saying "kind of".

For example:

Felix Gaeta (excitedly): Hey! Is that a new version of the Library of the 12 Colonies?
Pegasus CIC Officer (pausing before replying): Well...newish anyway.

So there is something about "skeptisch" that feels like it's describing being skeptical, but only sort of. This somehow amuses me greatly.

I will definitely make an entry about your fic because it's a tricky one.
Cool! You can even say it was a bitch to translate. :D

Oh, and I should mention that I'm way impressed that you can translate whole stories from any language to any language. This kind of makes me want to try and read BSG fic in Spanish, but I get kind of bogged down when I've tried it.

I also remember I was surprised to learn that you can smirk in pain.
I actually have not seen this! How do you know my language better than me? :D

There is a German linguist data base similar to your thesaurus ... I remember I tried to use it once when I wrote a paper on the meaning of the German term for "gay" and it informed me that "gay" is usually used accompanied by the words "bishop" and "pope."

LOL. TOTAL LOL. Although that's possibly true in the world of Monty Python.

There is a word in German - "mondän" - that means "glamorous and rich" and "poor and sleazy" at the same time.

HA! That's awesome. That word may be very similar to our word "Eurotrash" - um, no offense ;)

This was a fun discussion. Btw, I have not forgotten our outline. I wrote most of it on the train this past weekend as promised, and then while I was in New York, my computer promptly died. It just finally got fixed today, so maybe I can send it tonight. I might be able to finish it when I get home from work.