Prostokvasha

[06 November, 2007]

The things we say

The kids over at Explosm recently had a translation contest in an attempt to expand their website globally. Of course, as soon as I heard "translation", I started salivating. Nothing makes me happier than to be able to use my bilingual skills. You know, those mad skillz I got.

They warned the contestants about the challenge of translating their very language-dependent humor. They often use slang or puns in their comics, which only an extremely proficient translator could even attempt to carry across. In the end, I chickened out. I tried my best to translate the meanings of the words, to make sure they didn't sound awkward in Russian, but the jokes? The implicit jokes just didn't translate so well. I mean, what's funny in one culture is not in another. And I'm not clever enough to subtly change the humor as well as the language while staying true to the pictures.

That was one tough assignment. I didn't submit anything, but here is what I came up with.







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