Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Lost in Translation

I love it when I read articles on Lebanese non-Arabic sites. Some of them are just beyond entertaining!

Check out the following news article on Naharnet.

Cabinet on Low Fire as Preparations for Lebanon-Syria-Saudi Summit Underway

So, there is this saying in Arabic that goes "3ala nar khafifa", literally translating into something being cooked at low temperature or low heat. When used figuratively, one is indicating that someone/something is just going to take his/her/its' time to finish doing something.

Oh Ahmad, how is that deal going with Tony?
Ahmad: 3ala nar khafifa habibna, 3ala nar khafifa.

Now, let's just translate that into English shall we?

Oh Edd, how is that deal going with Anthony?
Edd: on low fire love, on low fire.

It just doesn't work.

You would think people over at Naharnet will either start learning proper English soon, or hire someone who knows proper English.

I just find it entertaining!

BG

2 comments:

  1. Naharnet-English is a source of laughter every day. I don't think they'll ever learn...

    ReplyDelete
  2. A few years back, annahar translated something from the economist. naharnet retranslated annahar.

    The result was that the naharnet article was nothing like the economist article.

    hehe.

    ReplyDelete