SC - tooth powder
Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
Sat May 13 06:32:54 PDT 2000
And it came to pass on 13 May 00,, that Christina van Tets wrote:
> ><< Polvos para los dientes - Tooth powder >>
> >
> >You mean 'Powder for the Teeth' I assume?
> >
> >Ras
>
> Yes, but the Victorians and earlier called it tooth powder too - in much
> the same way you can go into a pet shop and find kangaroo meat, chicken
> meat and puppy meat all sitting together in the fridge...
>
> Cairistiona
I often change translated phrases into a form that fits English usage
better. I do not usually write "juice of oranges" or "broth of chickens".
Sometimes there is a fine line between preserving as much as possible
of the original text, and making the translation readable, but phrases
like "tooth powder" and "orange juice" are common. If you have a copy
of Santich, take a look at her translations. She does the same. She
even renders a Catalan phrase that literally means "eggs cooked in
water" as "hard-boiled eggs".
Now, if a word of a phrase simply doesn't exist in English, or is a
metaphor or idiom, then as Ras said, it needs to be footnoted. In the
recently reposted recipe for anise cookies, the translation contains the
phrase, "stir it with one hand". I recently learned what I had suspected
but couldn't prove: it's an idiom meaning "stir in one direction". If I were
reprinting the recipe sheets, I would use the clearer meaning, and
footnote it.
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
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