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Translating jokes: Re:Crispbread / Näkkileipä
I’m afraid I don’t speak Finnish, so I can't help you with your translation. But somehow I missed the joke. I look forward to seeing what another Finnish English speaker has to say about your translation.
Of course, the problem may not be with your translation. Some jokes just don’t translate well. For example, we have one in English:
Riddle: What did one firecracker say to the other?
Answer: My pop is bigger than your pop!
This is cute in English because “pop” can either mean the popping sound that the firecracker makes, or it could mean the fathers of the firecrackers, since "pop" is one way of saying "dad" in English. Because in American culture children on the schoolyard often compete by bragging about their fathers, the answer to the riddle has a clever double meaning in the dialogue between the firecrackers. Another example:
Riddle: What did the tablecloth say to the table?
Answer: Don’t move! I’ve got you covered!
Like the first riddle, this one depends heavily not only on English language but on our culture. The riddle has a literal meaning, that the table cloth is covering the table, which isn’t particularly interesting. But the fact that the expression, “I’ve got you covered” is also an idiom we use in gunfights to communicate to someone that we have a weapon pointed at them and are ready to shoot if they misbehave turns this very commonplace situation into an action adventure. Not only is the table ready for dinner, but it’s life may be in danger if it tries to run away.
Your riddle sounds like it comes from a similar style, and because it seems so strange to me in English, it makes me wonder if the Finnish for “My pieces” might not have some alternative meaning in Finnish that doesn’t exist in English.
Sometimes there are ways to translate these jokes by looking for a similar relationship in the second language/culture that conveys a similar humorous association. For example, I’m not aware that they have a word in Spanish that means an exploding noise and also one’s father. But it happens that Spanish has another word like their word for father, which means potato. So if I wanted to translate the joke into Spanish, I might try recasting it so that maybe one farmer says to another farmer, “mi papa es mejor que el tuyo,” My papa/potato is better than yours.” Perhaps not an entirely successful translation, since it's easier to imagine firecrackers as children on a schoolyard than farmers, who we think of as adults. And of course, I don't know if children in Spanish-speaking cultures aren't given to duels at bragging about their fathers on the schoolyard, which is critical to the humor here; but perhaps you see my meaning.
Good luck!
Mark Springer
Sacramento CA USA
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Language pair: English; Spanish
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Mark S.
March 18, 2005
# Msgs: 4
Latest: March 22, 2005
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Joke: By the Numbers
Just a reminder to newcomers, that this board is organized by topics. I notice we're having a lot of people looking for partners in the jokes section. Many of us are coming here looking to tell jokes and read jokes, so if all we can find are request for partners, it's a bit frustrating. Please go back to the main board area and post your requests in the seeking partners area, down toward the bottom of the list. Be sure to ask the management or the rest of us if you need help.
And now, for anyone here looking for some fun, I hope you'll enjoy my contribution:
On a remote Aleutian Island, a crew maintains a satellite communications terminal. Since very few people are willing to go up there to work, those who are there have to stay for a very long time, and they all get to know each other very well. One of the great problems in this situation is that it’s really hard to get any jokes there that everyone hasn’t heard. So on Friday evenings, when everyone settles down for a couple of beers and a little relaxation, they save time and effort by assigning each of their jokes a number. So when they want to tell one, they only need to say:
“17!”
And everyone busts up laughing, “Ah! 17, that’s great! One of my favorites!
Then someone else will pipe in with “23!”
“Ahhh Hahahah! 23! What a dopey guy! God I love number 23!”
Well, on one of the very rare occasion that they actually got a new technician, Ed Brown, into the installation, he’d been there a few days when Friday rolled around. He was fascinated watching these guys all sitting around, and one goes, “38!” and everyone starts busting up laughing, thinking that’s so funny. And then someone else says “9!” And everyone starts laughing again.
Ed has never seen anything like this, and he’s fascinated. And he taps Jerry Simms, the guy who’s been showing him around, on the arm and says, “Hey, Jerry, you think I could try that?”
And Jerry says, “Hey, knock yourself out, man.”
So Ed stands up, and everybody looks at him, smiling, and Ed says:
“3!”
Their eyes all glaze over, and the smiles fade. People are shaking their heads with puzzled expressions on their faces, and Ed is really stumped. He can’t imagine what he could have done wrong.
So he goes back and sits down by Jerry, scratching his head, and Jerry pats him on the back, saying, “Don’t let it get you down, Ed. Some people just can’t tell a joke.
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Language pair: English; All
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Mark S.
March 17, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:Hello to all
hi zulfi
i hope that you are fine, mi name is fernando and i want to practice my english and to teach spanish
i am married and we have two babies ,i woulk like to learn a lot of english .i am from cali colombia
regards
fernando
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Language pair: English; Spanish
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fernando h.
March 17, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:Japanese? Nihongo?
Nihongo? Yes! Gold membership? No... Gomenne
But if you have anything specific to ask I can help you here! I'm 15.
Where are all the gold members? Hmm...
Peace
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Language pair: Japanese; Spanish
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Camille T.
March 15, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Million Dollar Fingerbowl
One day a cowboy walks into a bar. He passes a very small man, no more than a foot tall, standing on a piano bench and playing the piano. The cowboy sits at the counter and orders a beer. He’s been there just a few minutes when he notices this very ornate jewel-encrusted cloisonné finger bowl full of water. Puzzled as to why such an odd thing would be sitting on the bar, he asks the bartender about it.
The bartender says, “well, that there’s a magic fingerbowl. You wet your fingers in it and rub them three times around the rim while you think about your wish. Be careful, though. It don’t always come out the way you imagine.
Well, the cowboy figured, “hell, what did he have to lose?” So he dipped a couple fingers in the bowl, ran them three times around the rim while he thought about his wish. He’d barely finished when suddenly there was a horrible noise out in the street. Not knowing what to think, he ran out the front entrance to the bar, the bartender right behind him,to find the streets flooded with squawking, quacking ducks in every direction as far as he could see.
“Goll dern, boy,”exclaimed the bartender, “What on earth did you wish for?
I wished for a million bucks!” said the cowboy, “Not a million ducks! What’s the matter with that thing?”
“Now, don’t go takin’ it personal” said the bartender.”You don’t think I went askin’ for no twelve inch pianist…”
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA, USA
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Language pair: English; All
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Mark S.
March 8, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Silly riddles for the incarcerated
A couple of very silly riddles in English:
Q: You are a prisoner in a cell with no entrances or exits. All that is in the cell are a bed and a calendar. How do you survive?
A: By eating the dates from the calendar and drinking the water from the springs in the bed.
Q: You are trapped in a cell with no entrances and no exits. You have only a bed and a mirror. How do you escape?
A: You look in the mirror so you can see what you saw.
You use the saw to cut the bed in half.
Since two halves make a whole (hole) you can crawl out through the hole to freedom!
Because these are based on puns, they don’t translate into other languages. Perhaps someone will share similar jokes from Spanish or other languages with us!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
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Language pair: English; All
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Mark S.
March 4, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Marianne
February 24, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Joke
Perchè non va l'arancio al mercato?
Perchè manda Rino.
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Language pair: English; Italian
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Marianne
February 24, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:NOT A GOLD MEMEBER
Hello! I can help you with russian. If you are interested - answer me, and I can give you my mail ;)
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Language pair: English; Russian
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Aleksei N.
February 23, 2005
# Msgs: 2
Latest: February 23, 2005
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Re:Funny words in English and Turkish
Hey everybody,
Having invited everyone to come look at this conversation begun by Javier Bustamante and friends, I decided I’d better translate my message in Spanish dated Feb 17, just in case anyone wanted to read it who didn’t speak Spanish: So here goes:
The few paragraphs aren’t important, just a request for native-speaker feedback on my Spanish, and a summary of Javier’s message, in case mine was read by anyone not familiar with his. I’ll translate beginning with paragraph 4:
I know very well about such things. When I lived in Turkey, we ahd to be very careful about certain things. When going shopping, we couldn’t use the word, “peach” because it was a very rude word in the Turkish. I never found out exactly what it meant, but I’ve always assumed it was like the Spanish word, “Puto,” which I’d translate into English roughly as “bastard”.
It’s fortunate that AM radio stations aren’t so popular any more, because we love to wear T-Shirts printed with our favorite radio stations. The problem is that “am” in Turkish, means the same thing as “manco” in Japanese (a reference to Javier’s message). It’s not a word most of us would want to wear emblazoned across our chest, especially in a very conservative culture like Turkey.
I was in Turkey on an assignment with the Air Force. At that time, I had a friend that spoke very good Turkish, being married to a Turkish woman. One day, we were waiting in line at the chow hall for dinner. There was a Kurdish employee at the front entrance, whose job it was to check our I.D. to make sure that only people who were supposed to be eating there would be served. Near his station, there was one of those black signs behind glass with those plastic letters they would use to tell us what was being served for each meal. My friend waited until the supervisor was looking the other way, and rearranged the letters on the board to say, “amkebap”, which, you’ll realize would mean something in Turkish that some of us might find pretty disgusting. So I won’t get graphic about it.
But I’ll never forget the expression on the supervisor’s face when he noticed what had been done. I still don’t know how it is possible for a man from the Middle East to turn that particular shade of red.
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
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Language pair: English; Turkish
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Mark S.
February 20, 2005
# Msgs: 3
Latest: February 20, 2005
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