Author Topic: the big request for HELP from Russia!  (Read 47586 times)

Offline dontinterrupt

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Re: great request for HELP from Russian fan!
« Reply #20 on: January 18, 2015, 07:58:53 pm »
JFM, I think you are doing much better than you think! And your dedication to the movie is really admirable, because it is an extremely challenging task to translate something so culturally-defined to another language with a whole different culture and for it to still make sense and retain its meaning and powerfulness! Any questions you got, you keem 'em coming, it's really interesting to see how people of different nationalities interpret the same phrases differently.

Btw, I watched BBM with Polish subs once and I gotta say the poles did a very good job :) oh, and in Polish ver Jack Nasty = Jack Zboczeniec (zboczeniec= pervert, it's a very strong word), I liked this one more than the original even  :D

Offline dontinterrupt

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Re: great request for HELP from Russian fan!
« Reply #21 on: January 18, 2015, 08:15:29 pm »
Oh, and just a thought, with regards to conscription in the US in 1963. If I recall correctly, the US Army had the 'Conscientious objector' programme at that time, meaning that one could refuse being drafted on the basis that he is sincerely against war in any form. But I think being openly a conscientious objector then was just as infamous as being queer. Food for thought I guess :)

Offline Monika

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Re: great request for HELP from Russian fan!
« Reply #22 on: January 18, 2015, 11:10:03 pm »
I really appreciate that my topic has made the whole discussion!
And I'm very sorry, as I said, my English is poor and I need some words from your messages to translate. It takes much time.
So this topic is another big job for me. Because I want to understand every word of BB.

Speaking of army, it seems I've chosen not a good word -- employment. Look, what I wanted to say.

How is it in Russia. When you become 18 years old, you have to join our army. It is just one year you should be there. You can avoid it (not join) only having problems with health. So, as I said earlier, it's quite dangerous here to join the Army these days -- I'm not about being sent to war, but danger is all what happening there. So there are a lot of guys who just afraid to join it; and a lot of mothers who don't want their sons join it. We have very widespreaded corruption here, so you can just pay some money (about 3000$ as I know) to "get" a decease.
So I just want to know, how was it in US in 1963. In fact, I just need Ennis's phrase to say in Russian:

Are you going to join the army, Jack, voluntarily/of one's own accord/of one's own free will (these are from dictionary for better understanding)
OR
What about army? Won't it get you?

So the point is, does Jack want to join or he has to join.
I hope I make it clear.
It's terrible having such — maybe, not really bad, — but slooooooooow English.

P.S. For you to know, this post took 25 minutes.

It's good to have you here, thanks for taking the time and effort to communicate with us!
I'm Swedish, don't speak a word of Russian I'm afraid.

Online southendmd

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Re: great request for HELP from Russian fan!
« Reply #23 on: January 19, 2015, 11:28:54 am »
Thanks for clarifying, dontinterrupt.  I see the confusion with the word 'employment.'

There is no obligatory military service in the US, like in Russia, Israel and other countries. Military service is voluntary, but in the Vietnam era, there was the draft.  However, the draft was random, as there was a lottery that "ranked" people by random birthdays.  If your birthday was high on the list, you'd likely be drafted.  But, if your birthday was low on the list, you might never be drafted. 

So, Ennis is asking "And the army didn't get you?" to mean "So you weren't drafted?"  And then Jack explains his rodeo injuries that would have prevented him from getting drafted.  (As an aside, I miss Ennis saying "sure seem in one piece to me".)


Online southendmd

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Re: great request for HELP from Russian fan!
« Reply #24 on: January 19, 2015, 11:30:10 am »
Btw, I watched BBM with Polish subs once and I gotta say the poles did a very good job :) oh, and in Polish ver Jack Nasty = Jack Zboczeniec (zboczeniec= pervert, it's a very strong word), I liked this one more than the original even  :D

Thanks, dontinterrupt!  I'll add Jack Zboczeniec to my collection.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: great request for HELP from Russian fan!
« Reply #25 on: January 19, 2015, 11:53:52 am »
Great translation help, southendmd!! I'm learning, and remembering a lot, too!
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline JackFromMoscow

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Re: great request for HELP from Russian fan!
« Reply #26 on: January 23, 2015, 06:42:35 pm »
Hey everybody again! Hope the past days were nice for you.
I gotta some more moments I don't understand. Here they are.

4)
Quote
Jack: Shit, that stay with the sheep, no fire bullshit, Aguirre got no right making us do something against the rules.

Right here I can't understand this very part of the phrase: "Aguirre got no right making us do something against the rules".
I suppose that he uses doble negation here, and it makes more difficult for me. Well, I could understand, if he'd say something like "He got no right to make us follow all these rules". If my variant is equal to the original, it would be very good.
P.S. By the way, speaking Russian language, you pretty often need to to use doble negation: such phrases as Lureen's "Husbands don't never seem to wanna dance with their wives" — well, there's no other way to say it without "don't never". So it seemed difficult for me to get used to English's single negation, and now what I see? I see double negation here so it often confused me.

10)
Quote
Quote
Ennis: This is a one-shot thing we got going on here.

This one is a bit controversial.  "One-shot thing" means "once only", "one time only".  
However, it's not clear that he is saying "it shouldn't happen again".  The rest of the sentence, "we got going on here" implies that it might keep on happening. He's using the present tense.  (Not "a one-shot thing we did".)  To me, the "one-shot thing" refers to the whole arrangement this summer.

Oh boy. This is a theme for another topic here :D It became even more unclear now, but for sure I understood the phrase, — I'll have to conversate about it on Russian forum of BB, how to translate this.

10a)
Quote
Aquirre: There's not much you can do about it down there, neither. Unless you can cure pneumonia.

Well, his tone and face expression make it seem that the reason why he says such strange phrase is what he have seen that day. What does he really imply (has in his mind)? Is it related somehow to the fact he've seen their "stem the rose" stuff? Russian version doesn't make it clear at all: "There's nothing you can do down there, if you're not a wizard". When I saw this first time, I thought: "wtf is he talking about?? a wizard??" it's quite weird in Russian.

13a) There's a Biker in the scene of the Independence day, saying: "There are so many pussies here ready to be humped like a frog". Oh Jeez, I hate translating their speech (of these Bikers), but I can't solve the problem avoiding it. So guys, would you please tell me if I may translate the last part of the upper phrase like this: "...pussies ready to be f*cked"?

21a)
Quote
Lashawn: Our husbands aren't interested in dancing. They ain't got a smidgen of rhythm between 'em
I've written it with bold type, the part I cannot understand. What exactly does Lashawn mean here?
P.S. Her name is a nightmare for Russian translators :D I mean, we know there are such American names like Jack, Kate or Alex. They are quite easy to pronounce. But Lashawn... This name doesn't sound good here, 'cause we have no diphthongs in Russian language and combination of letters such as "Lash" is pretty extraordinary for russian pronunsiation.

21c)
Quote
Jack: ...as far as our marriage goes, we could do it over the phone.
What exactly does he mean here? May I rephrase it into "Recently we could speak by the phone only" so that would mean that they are getting far from each other, their meetings became rare, etc?

21f)
Quote
Ennis: It was hard enough getting this time. The trade-off was August.
What is the trade-off Ennis is talking about? Maybe, he's saying here, the August of theprevious year was trade-off?

Oh.
Quote
Quote
But first, want a cup of coffee, don't ya? Piece a cherry cake? ;)
Oh, you know. A coffee would be great, but cake... I can't eat it just right now.
I would have a piece but only after ending my translation work  

My cherry cake is going to be covered with mold.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2015, 09:31:32 pm by JackFromMoscow »
An unsatisfactory situation with translation into Russian.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: great request for HELP from Russian fan!
« Reply #27 on: January 24, 2015, 12:07:09 am »

Right here I can't understand this very part of the phrase: "Aguirre got no right making us do something against the rules".
I suppose that he uses doble negation here, and it makes more difficult for me. Well, I could understand, if he'd say something like "He got no right to make us follow all these rules". If my variant is equal to the original, it would be very good.

Jack is saying that Aguirre should not make them go against the rules. The forestry service makes shepherds camp in allotted places, but Aguirre wants Jack to set up an additional tent (just a pup tent, but a tent nevertheless) near where the sheep are grazing in order to protect them at night. He wants them to roll up the tent every morning and be on the "QT" (quiet time) so Forestry doesn't figure out that there's an extra tent site.
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline JackFromMoscow

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Re: great request for HELP from Russian fan!
« Reply #28 on: January 24, 2015, 04:30:10 am »
Thank you very much, Front-Ranger, for the explanations. Now I understand Jack is just talking about the Forestry rules, not Aquirre's ones. But I can understand Aguirre in this situation pretty good; he just doesn't want his sheep to be eaten by coyotes, so it is pretty logical to send a herder up there. So why would Forestry forbid any extra tents in such situations? Maybe Aguirre had to pay more for extra tent?
An unsatisfactory situation with translation into Russian.

Online southendmd

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Re: great request for HELP from Russian fan!
« Reply #29 on: January 24, 2015, 09:09:21 pm »
Hi Jack!  Let's have at it!
Quote
10a
Aquirre: There's not much you can do about it down there, neither. Unless you can cure pneumonia.

Well, his tone and face expression make it seem that the reason why he says such strange phrase is what he have seen that day. What does he really imply (has in his mind)? Is it related somehow to the fact he've seen their "stem the rose" stuff? Russian version doesn't make it clear at all: "There's nothing you can do down there, if you're not a wizard". When I saw this first time, I thought: "wtf is he talking about?? a wizard??" it's quite weird in Russian.

I have to agree that it's a weird exchange. Certainly it's about the futility of being far away from everyday life.  But, the "unless you can cure pneumonia" sounds strange.  It's also about being helpless:  your uncle is dying, there's nothing you can do here or down there. Of course Jack cannot cure pneumonia (only a wizard can???), meaning he has to stay on the mountain, he is no use to Uncle Harold.  I'm not sure it has to do with the "stem the rose" at all.  

 But also how strange that Ma Twist contacted Aguirre to tell Jack.  While it's nice that Aguirre went to the trouble to tell Jack about Uncle Harold's illness, Aguirre never dismounts from his horse, which is considered very disrespectful.  

So, JackFromMoscow, I am also puzzled by this scene.  Anybody else have thoughts?

(Not to even mention the famous "disappearing log".)