Like-Blog
Presenting you the most interesting translation solutions
Why Like-Blog? Now, first of all, this blog is a blog that you should like (and read regularly) – at least, if you are interested in translation. Then, the topic discussed here is one in which the meaningful likeness between a text and its translation in the language pair English-German plays a key role. On this page, I will take a close look at some interesting translation solutions that I have come across in the course of my work as a translator and translation scholar.
A translation solution is only as good as the arguments that support it. This means that any translation criticism, whether positive or negative, needs to be justified. The quality of a translation solution shows only when we compare it to other possible translation solutions in a given translation situation. Therefore, a translation critic should not only say why a translation solution is bad, but also demonstrate what a better solution might look like. I will try to stick to these principles of translation criticism. So if you have any questions regarding my line of argument or if you disagree, please, let me know your opinion by phone at +49 4171 6086525 or by e-mail to bittner@businessenglish-hamburg.de. So much for the introduction. I hope you’ll enjoy reading this blog!
Make no mistake (January 2020)
There may be room for improvement – even with correct translations.
On 30 October 2019, the Scottish newspaper The Herald quoted Ian Blackford, leader of the Scottish National Party in the House of Commons, as saying: “So on that basis, Mr Speaker, I welcome the opportunity of an election, because make no mistake, the election that’s coming is going to be the right of Scotland to determine its own future.” I would never have come across this quotation, were it not for a translation in the German news that made me stumble. ARD online wrote: “Ich begrüße die Möglichkeit, Wahlen zu haben. Denn täuschen Sie sich nicht: Die Wahl, die jetzt kommt, wird das Recht Schottlands sein, über seine Zukunft zu bestimmen.”
Make no mistake: the translation is correct and perfectly adequate for the informative purpose it serves. So why did I stumble? It was not the somewhat clumsy talk about the “Möglichkeit, Wahlen zu haben”; nor did I notice the equation of “Wahl” and “Recht” by the verb “sein”, which, when viewed more closely, seems to be a little strange. No, what I really stumbled over was the main clause before the colon, “Denn täuschen Sie sich nicht”.
This clause is unusual in its form. I doubt that a member of the German parliament would use it. Far more natural would be expressions such as “Wenn Sie sich da mal nur nicht täuschen” or “Lassen Sie sich davon nicht täuschen”. While the former is used to point out to someone that an opinion he or she holds is possibly wrong, the latter expression constitutes a warning to the addressee that he or she should recognise the deceptive quality of a matter he or she is not responsible for. These more idiomatic constructions, however, cannot be used to translate “make no mistake”.
An imperative form, what does “make no mistake” actually mean? I looked up the phrase in question in three monolingual dictionaries. LEXIKO online (www.lexiko.com) offers by way of definition: “Do not be deceived into thinking otherwise” – which is similar to the ARD version. Merriam Webster (online) does not provide a definition but explains that the expression is “used to stress the truth or accuracy of a statement”. My Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English from the nineteen nineties gives “undoubtedly” as a synonym.
As regards the above quotation in The Herald, “make no mistake” could in theory be replaced by “do not be deceived into thinking otherwise” or “undoubtedly”. Only that, in the first case, the result would be a rather unwieldy construction, whereas, in the second case, the comparatively harmless adverb would deprive the sentence of its expressive intensity. This would also be true for a German translation using the corresponding adverb: Zweifelsohne wird die Wahl, die jetzt kommt, das Recht Schottlands sein, über seine Zukunft zu bestimmen.
An ideal translation would take three things into account: (1) the actual meaning of “make no mistake”, for example, as described by Merriam Webster; (2) the intensity of the expression conveyed by its imperative form and idomaticity; and (3) the context in which the expression is used. The third point is particularly important: imagine what Ian Blackford would have said had he given his parliamentary speech in perfect (everyday) German.
Against the backdrop of these considerations, I suggest the following translation: Ich begrüße die Möglichkeit von Wahlen. Denn, um das mal ganz klar zu sagen: Mit dieser Wahl, die jetzt kommt, kann Schottland sein Recht wahrnehmen, über die eigene Zukunft zu bestimmen.