Chacun à son goo... -- By: Mark Steyn
By webmaster@nationalreview.com (Mark Steyn)
Jay, re the translation game, every time I use a non-English expression round these parts I get a ton of mail dismissing me as a Rino-squish metrosexual who pays too much for his hairdresser and is undoubtedly the love-child of David Frum and Arianna Huffington. Sorry, I pass. Until the 1960s, foreign phrases were as American as Dean Martin, Wayne Newton and Nat "King" Cole: Darling, je vous aime beaucoup, je ne sais pas what to do. Danke schoen, darling, danke schoen. Volare, oh oh, cantare, oh oh oh oh. I rest my case. Random insertion of foreign lingo is as American as apple pie à la mode.
My favorite when it came to this shtick was the late Bernard Levin, who never bothered to translate long chunks of Latin or German in his columns, but then two lines down would use some esoteric term such as "Coca-Cola" and parenthetically add "(a carbonated beverage popular in the United States)".
As for those editors (and next time name names, Jay) who insist on replacing "Dickensian" with "in the style of Charles Dickens, English novelist, 1812-1870", that's a big part of why American newspapers are unreadable. It's like going down a suburban avenue with speed-bumps every 20 yards. The whole trick of writing is to let the reader get into fourth gear. |
