Saturday, September 26, 2009

To traduce or to translate, that is the question...

A very long time ago, one of my translation teachers asked us to do a "traduction"... I laughed so hard I almost got kicked out of the classroom. She didn't apologize or acknowledged a mistake. My guess is, considering she barely could pronounce properly -she kinda made me think of that scene in Singin' in the Rain when a diction couch tries to teach the vulgar blonde how tho pronounce rrrroooouuund vooowels, and her voice is akin to nails on a blackboard, but... I'm digressing, back to my teacher- she had no idea of that other derivation of the latin transducere: traduce... though I am not sure you can take that and make a noun out of it (traduction?).
Today I find this:

traduce \truh-DOOS; -DYOOS\, transitive verb:
To expose to contempt or shame by means of false statements or misrepresentation; to represent as blamable; to vilify.

So, a second, not very well hidden, meaning of translation is to misrepresent... to lead in other direction... maybe she knew that all along and has been laughing at me ever since...

I do not miss her.

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