Translating "Ten Good Things Happen To Felix Gaeta"

[trovia]

Original: "Ten Good Things Happen To Felix Gaeta" by lls-mutant. I'm going to post it tomorrow or something. (rap541's "Going Native" is online though: Unter Wilden"Ten Things" was easy in terms of finding the right words but there were a couple of interesting general difficulties which I think are rather typical for English-German translation. I warn you though,

Comments

[puszysty]

Du and Sie was taught to us as one of the simplest concepts in German when I was in high school (classmates = du, adults = Sie. get it? good), and yet...it really isn't, is it?

Totally beside the point but...what with us being a soccer nation, we've got no bases either. We just attack and score! made me collapse in a fit of giggles.

[trovia]

I've read somewhere that pronouns are one of the hardest things to learn. Though I understand that it wouldn't make sense to get into it in school. I think it might be quite easy to catch on to the rules in one specific setting. The rule you were taught is for school and university specifically, if you exchange adults for teachers.

Me and you, we'd be using "du". Both because we're uni students (which historically makes us part of the same group of political rebels! :D) and because we're in fandom, where everybody uses "du". :)

Totally beside the point but...what with us being a soccer nation, we've got no bases either. We just attack and score! made me collapse in a fit of giggles.

Well, it's true. You should see me handling the other team's balls. :p

[puszysty]

Really? huh. I wouldn't have thought that. I suppose there is fairly significant a gap between school-taught language and practical language in terms of what you need to pay more attention to.

[rapfic]

I'm just impressed you can translate :)

I can read french, and speak it and spanish a bit, but German is hard!

All I know how to say is "Jews! Get out of the boxcar!"

And you can imagine that this is perhaps not the most polite thing to say in German :)

[trovia]

German being my first language certainly gives me an edge. :) I'd have trouble translating German-English. Writing freely it is much easier than translating.

If you can read French, you're better at anything I ever managed. :)

All I know how to say is "Jews! Get out of the boxcar!"

ROFL. Schindler's list, I guess? :D And no, not the best idea to say that. Although people might just think you must be a strange, drunk, British hooligan. ;)

[trovia]

Oh, you're mostly German! Cool. Curse words are good. If you know enough curse words, you don't need to know any other words. :D

You know, I don't get the bases at all. Are you, like, a slut if you don't comply with the bases? How about lesbians? Do they have bases as well? I'm curious. :)

[lls_mutant]

Nope. First base is kissing, second base is above the waist groping, third is below the waist groping, and home is sex.

I'm sure there's got to be some modified version for lesbians that like baseball :) (otherwise, like you said- attack and score!)

[millari]

First of all, you're back!!!! (List of Baltar scenes are getting finished this weekend then.)

Secondly, I have to say that I found this geeking out over pronouns utterly fascinating. I don't know if my writing shows it demonstrably, but I'm totally intrigued by the power of names, nicknames, titles and forms of address to show the connections between people and the subtleties of their relationships. Please keep writing these up as long as it pleases you because I totally enjoy them, even if they're about stories I haven't read. As someone who loved this fic, it was even cooler to think about it in this way

[trovia]

Yes, I'm back! :)) Looking forward to the scenes. It's annoyed me a bit while I was away that we hadn't moved along a bit faster. I would have loved writing a scene or two.

You know, I actually liked this writeup so much I think I will even put it in my memories. :)Wow, cool. :) I'm glad this is interesting for so many people. One out of the two friends of mine who wanted to do this isn't in on it anymore (I, uhm, kind of kicked her off my flist after a fight not related to LJ), so I was thinking maybe I'm doing this for one person only

[lls_mutant]

Wow- this was really cool! :) I'm so not a linguistics person and know very little German, but it was really neat to read about the process and stuff.

As for the name... I guess switching it to Louis makes sense? I mean, on the one hand, the "Lucas" reflects that it was written before the webisodes. But on the other, now that we know the name, it's jarring, I think.

Thanks for doing this- I'm grinning like an idiot!

[trovia]

Louis it is, then. :)

I'm glad I made you happy! I have lots of fun doing these posts.