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!
German gait rendering (December 2019)
Occasionally, when I read a German text, I wonder why the author wrote a certain passage as he or she did. Such passages are often grammatically correct, yet, come across as stylistically unusual or semantically inappropriate. In many cases, an explanation for this can be found in the fact that the German text has been translated from an English original.
On 15 October 2019, WELT online published “Was die Gehgeschwindigkeit über deinen IQ verrät” – an article written by Paula Leocadia Pleiss. The text presents a study conducted by researchers from New Zealand in which the gait speed of people is correlated to their intelligence quotient. After a brief introduction about general conclusions that can be drawn from the way people walk, the second paragraph quotes Terrie E. Moffitt, one of the autors of the study: “Ärzte wissen, dass langsame Läufer in ihren Siebzigern und Achtzigern tendenziell früher sterben als schnelle Läufer im selben Alter.” Luckily, the text also provides a link to the original, published on 11 October in Duke Today, a hub for news produced around Duke University: “Doctors know that slow walkers in their seventies and eighties tend to die sooner than fast walkers their same age.”
The observant reader of the German translation will ask him- or herself: how many people in their seventies and eighties do actually indulge in running? And, remembering the introductory paragraph: what does that have to do with people’s gait? The English original makes it clear that the text is not about running. So why did the author of the German article translate “walkers” as “Läufer”?
Possibly, an amateurish notion of translation is crucial here: namely that an English word should be replaced by a corresponding German equivalent. This method works in many cases; however, in some contexts, certain words cannot be translated on a one-to-one basis. The problem with the translation of “walkers” is a contextual problem; for the participants of the study were supposed to walk at different speeds – normal and maximum. Thus, translating “walkers” as “Spaziergänger” would be inappropriate because the connotations of a leisurely walk implied by the German term do not agree with the strict requirements of the study. And translating “walkers” as “Geher” would be inappropriate because the latter word refers to someone who practises walking as a sport. It seems, then, that the only remaining translation is “Läufer”. After all, the German verb “laufen” can mean “to walk” in certain contexts (such as when a toddler learns to walk, that is, “ein Kleinkind lernt laufen”, or “ich laufe zu Fuß” – “I go on foot”) and the Swiss German equivalent “louffe” very often has precisely that meaning. However, the noun “Läufer”, though it is derived from the verb “laufen”, does not refer to someone who walks.
Thus, none of the three one-word solutions is possible as a translation of “walkers”. What is needed, here, is a verb-based approach featuring, for example, two relative clauses: Ärzte wissen, dass Menschen im Alter von siebzig bis neunzig Jahren, die nur langsam gehen können, früher sterben als Gleichaltrige, die schnell gehen können.
The confusion in the WELT article caused by runners that should walk is further compounded by the description of a task to be performed by the participants of the study: they were supposed to run (“laufen”) “normal schnell auf einem Laufband”, that is, on a treadmill at a normal pace. However, taking a look at the original study (to which the German text provides a link), we get a completely different picture: rather than running on a treadmill, the participants are requested to walk over a “6-m-long GAITRite Electronic Walkway”. This walkway consists of a pressure-sensitive mat that measures several gait parameters, which are then analysed and evaluated by a computer.
One comment below the German article is, perhaps, indicative of how confusing the inappropriate presentation of the study actually is. It goes: “Sehen wir uns doch mal die Gewinner der meisten Marathonläufe an, ob die wirklich klüger als wir sind?” Or, in English: Let’s see if the winners of most marathons are, indeed, cleverer than we are.