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We have a fun way to describe mechanical, word for word translations in Spanish. It's called _from lost to the river_, that's the direct translation of _de perd
by wcrossbow 3y ago
We have a fun way to describe mechanical, word for word translations in Spanish. It's called _from lost to the river_, that's the direct translation of _de perdidos al rio_, which is a saying meaning that once you have embarked onto a silly/dangerous/nonsense business you might just as well go through with it. A sort of reverse sunken cost fallacy. Of course, the fun is in that it makes no sense once translated. I find it amusing to sometimes make use of such expressions in public.
- evrimoztamur 3y agoIn Turkish, we call it 'chicken translation' or 'tavuk çevirme.' While that normally means rotisserie chicken, a few places badly translated it, and the name stuck for word-for-word.
- tetris11 3y agoI still think sometomes about how Döner got its name. I can just picture a German guy walking past a plate of the thin shredded meat, and then asking someone "what is that?" followed by the customer pointing at the rotating meat stack, and the chef shrugging and saying "yeah, it spins."
- colanderman 3y agoThat is quite literally the etymology of the vasistas window (a.k.a. transom window): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vasistas https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vasistas
- pavlov 3y ago> “direct translation of _de perdidos al rio_, which is a saying meaning that once you have embarked onto a silly/dangerous/nonsense business you might just as well go through with it” Essentially the same saying with the river metaphor exists in Finnish (ojasta allikkoon) but its implied meaning is the opposite of what you’re describing. There’s no suggestion of “might as well”, it’s just: “you were in trouble already but now you’ve really blown it.” I suppose that fits the national stereotypes of adventurous Spaniards vs. cautious and pessimistic Finns.
- jxf 3y agoIt sounds like the English analogy might be "out of the frying pan and into the fire".
- Sharlin 3y agoIt is indeed the direct English equivalent.
- wcrossbow 3y agoI was slightly unfair to my fellow nationals. It's not that you just go through with something silly just because, but rather that uneasy feeling one has when reaching the point of no return on some venture and you have to pick between backing out or pushing through with the original plan. When the latter wins you cheer up and scream ¡de perdidos al rio!
- wheybags 3y ago"Well, we came this far" maybe?
- NovemberWhiskey 3y agoEnglish has “might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb” I suppose?
- tgv 3y agoWhich reminds me of another source of translation errors. Once in a village bar, I saw ensaladilla de cangrejo translated as crap salad.
- andrepd 3y agoTranslation errors in small-town restaurants across Portugal, Spain, and Italy is a bread and butter of my group chat's memes.
- ppseafield 3y agoI wonder if the origin is related to 'crossing the Rubicon', which has a similar meaning (although perhaps less prescriptive).