03/08/2013
Watch Your Back: How Back Translation Can Protect Your Globalization ROI :
Let’s begin with the story of an annoyed novelist.
Mark Twain was perplexed and offended by a French translation of his short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". He was a good sport about the mistranslation, and the result was illuminating to us all, but he was probably miffed that the translator mishandled his trademark humor and style.
He decided to fight back: he re-translated the text literally, word for word, back into English. To help prove his point, he characterized the mishap and his effort with this title: The Jumping Frog: In English, Then in French, and Then Clawed Back Into A Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil. In 1903 he published his back-translation with his English-language original and the French translation.
Look at some examples of the original text and the back-translation.
Original: …he was the curiosest man about always betting on any thing that turned up you ever see, if he could get any body to bet on the other side; and if he couldn’t, he’d change sides.”
Back Translation: …he was the man the most fond of to bet which one have seen, betting upon all that which is presented, when he could find an adversary; and when he not of it could not, he passed to the side opposed.”
Original: ‘Well,’ he says, ‘I don’t see no p’ints about that frog that’s any better’n any other frog.’
Back Translation: “Eh bien! I no saw not that that frog had nothing of better than each frog.”
See why Mark Twain was peeved? Nothing really bad happened because of this bad translation, but the world would be poorer for mistranslations of a master. The moral of this story is: don’t translate Mark Twain unless you really understand what it means to transcreate a work of fiction.