[Sca-cooks] (Yet) another translation question: cooking hard versus cooking well

[Alexander Clark]

Regardless of which languages one is translating to or from, the words
should not get in the way of the translation.  To the extent that the
translator understands the sense of the original, a good translation seeks
to communicate that sense in any words that are useful for the purpose.

One particular problem that is apt to arise in translation is the
temptation to think in terms of one language having "the word for" some
word in another language.  (This question looks like it might be on that
general idea.)  It is not usual for a word in any language to be really the
word for a word in another language.  By the same token, a gloss that
serves to explain a word in some contexts becomes irrelevant in contexts
where that word does not match that gloss.

So my answer, in short, is that when it is apparent from the context what
was meant by the word, a translation should only address what was meant,
not what the word might have meant in a different context.  And if ever the
meaning is not clear from context, this might be best addressed by a
footnote.

-- 
Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark

On 2017-09-30, 08:14, Julia Szent-Gyorgyi wrote:
> Greetings, helpful cooks!
>
> Revisiting the 1601 cookbook, I find I'm still somewhat stumped by
> what to do with Szentbenedeki's use of the word _kem?ny_ 'hard'.
> Sometimes he applies it within the range of its modern meaning -- hard
> boil, hard (stiff) dough -- but he most often uses it for 'thoroughly,
> well', which in the case of something like rice porridge means exactly
> the opposite of 'hard'.
>
> Should I just use "well" and "thoroughly" (and "crisp" and "stiff"),
> as context dictates, or is that too much interpretation? Am I
> overthinking things? (When a word has multiple senses in its modern
> use, I have no qualms about choosing the one that I judge to fit the
> context best. Should archaic senses be treated any differently?)
>
> Here's one of the affected recipes:
> ---
> Risk?s?t gy?m?lcs?s l?vel. F?zd meg el?sz?r az risk?s?t tejben, s?zd
> meg, hogy kem?ny legyen : azut?n egy kev?ss? tedd ki h?lni, ?s igy
> csin?lj levet re? : v?gy bort tengeri malosa sz?l?t, mandul?t is t?gy
> bel? : alm?t met?lj hosszatt?ban bele, m?zet is t?gy bele ?s egy?tt
> kem?nyen f?zd, s az ut?n borsold meg; bors, s?fr?n, fah?j kell bel?,
> hogy fel akarod adni, rakd az k?s?t egy sz?les vasfaz?kban, t?ltsd r?
> az lev?t ?s egy kev?ss? ha egy?tt forralod, add fel.
>
> Rice porridge with fruit sauce. Cook first the rice in milk, salt it,
> until done [so it is hard], then put it out to cool a little, and make
> a sauce for it thus: take wine currants raisins, also add almonds:
> slice apples lengthwise into it, also add honey, and cook it together
> well [hard], and then season it; it needs pepper, saffron, cinnamon,
> when you want to serve it, put the rice in a wide iron pot, pour the
> sauce on it and after boiling it together a little, serve it.

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