“The English language cannot capture the vernacular,” says Biki Molaoli, of Audio Arts Africa. (Script translation is one of the services offered by the production house.)
If we think in English we conceptualise in English. Maybe our idea is brilliant. So simple, so obvious we think everyone will get it.
Wrong.
Why?
The idea, even if it’s not a string of words on a page, is still English. It’s constructed in an idiom peculiar to English. In another language it might not make the slightest bit of sense, regardless of how simple it seems.
Take metaphor for instance. Advertisers love metaphor - describing a thing by likening it to something else. For some reason, a lot of what’s seen as good advertising is constructed around metaphor. African languages are rich in metaphor too. But, as Biki points out, “Where English might have five words to describe a thing, Sesotho might only have one.”
In the case of translations, then, understanding mig...
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Mediocrity has been elevated to an artFrom: basotho.wordpress.com
Post Date: 2008-09-25 03:28:44
“I swear, on my late mother’s grave, that I will be the first to eliminate anyone who tells me theirs is Sesotho when it is [not]“
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more An American Sentence (for Troy Davis)From: basotho.wordpress.com
Post Date: 2008-09-23 00:46:05
With no evidence blacks don’t walk on a technicality blacks die.
Links:
+ Why Am I Not Surprised?
+ Stuff White People Do
+ Troy Anthony Davis
+ A Hundred Death Penalty Mistakes, And Counting
If you can, write an American Sentence for Troy, or about the failure of the justice system in the United States, and post it today on your blog. It may not save Troy from death, but it may raise some awareness about what is wrong with the picture of people dying for no reason. Many p...
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