More than lost in translation

Continuing with the theme, while translations are often hilarious, sometimes, they are not funny at all. When people who transfer words across cultures lose not just the meanings but also the nuances and other underlying associations of those words, the end result can be horrible.

Some examples:

I heard this Japanese pop song which went 'Merry Christmas, blah, blah, blah...' and in the background was, distinctly, the tune of 'Abide With Me', more commonly heard during Lent and at funerals.

The show with Joo Ji-hoon, which I mentioned in the last post, is called Mawang, or 'Devil King'. Its other English title is 'Lucifer'. I'm not sure if the people producing the show really understand the implications of the title. Anyhow, his character isn't actually one of those evil to the core types. He's psychologically troubled because he never got over his brother's untimely death and the fact that the killer got away with it because of his connections.

The one that gets to me most is 'Ave Maria', from 200 Pounds Beauty (not my grammatical error; this is the actual title), 'Ave Maria' being 'Hail Mary', the start of the prayer derived from 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women' (Luke 1:28), the angel Gabriel's greeting at the Annunciation. I have no idea what the song is about but it can't possibly be about Mary and what has she to do with this cosmetic surgery-being a pop star story anyway? I guess Mary would be forgiving about this and I should learn to be more understanding myself...

The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci
(from here)

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my ajumma notes

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