Books read in August 2023

New: 

 

1. Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North by Blair Braverman

 

Reread:

 

1. Echoes in Death

2. Secrets in Death

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.