Thursday, August 31, 2023
Books read in August 2023
Saturday, August 19, 2023
Translating Good Omens subtitles: "Bildad the Shuhite! Need any shoes?"
This post contains exactly one (1) line from Good Omens Season 2, which technically makes it a spoiler that should be tagged under the fandom's robust spoiler tagging policy.
At one point in Episode 2, Crowley introduces himself as "Bildad the Shuhite," then adds "Need any shoes?"
A pun, with half the pun unchangeable! (Bildad the Shuhite being the name of a specific biblical character who would already have an established name in the target language.) How do you translate this?
I've recorded the content of the subtitles here but haven't drilled down into them yet. Additions, analysis, commentary, and transcriptions of the languages I can't do myself are more than welcome!
Languages I know:
French (both Canada and France): souliers. This is a direct translation and doesn't really work as a pun.
German: Schuhe (direct translation, works as a pun)
Spain Spanish: suéteres (sweaters, works as a pun)
Latin American Spanish: jesuita (Jesuit. Works as a pun with "el suhita")
Polish: buty (direct translation, doesn't work as a pun)
Languages I don't know: (I'm just transcribing them from now, might dabble in looking them up later)
Bahasa Melayu: "Perlukan kasut?"
Catalan: xulla
Dansk: sko
Euskara: "Surik nahi?"
Filipino: Sapatos
Indonesia: Bildad, orag Suah. Butah Sepatu?
Italian: Servano scarpe?
Nederlands: schoenen
Norsk Bokmal (Norwegian): sko
Brazil Portuguese: suar
Portugual Portuguese: suínos
Romanian: cizme
Suomi (Finnish): "Onko kengän tarve?"
Swedish: Schack
Turkish: "Ayakkabi lazim mi?"
Cestina (Czech): Buty
Russian (my transliteration): "Savany sh'yu"
Ukrainian (my transliteration): shurupi
Greek, Arabic and Hebrew are also available, but I'm not able to translate or transliterate them.