Long time ago, in the faraway galaxy

June 17, 2005 2:56 PM

The Backstroke of the West!Screen shots from a street-purchased dvd of Revenge of the Sith. Apparently translated into Chinese and back again for subtitles.

He big in nothing important in good elephant... Palpatine talking about Obi Wan.
posted by jasper411 (17 comments total)

Does it appear to you that it was translated by someone sympathetic to the Chinese government, and with a hatred of the West? Jedi Council == 'presbyterian church'??
posted by Kickstart70 at 3:14 PM on June 17, 2005

I wonder if they do the same treatment for pron?
posted by fenriq at 3:18 PM on June 17, 2005

ANAKIN: "Every second I was thinking of you. Protecting the endless, nameless Outer Rim settlements became a torture . . . the battles were easy, the longing became unbearable . . . I've never been so happy as I am at this moment."

PADME: "Annie, I want to have our baby back home on Naboo. We could go to the lake country where no one would know . . . where we would be safe. I could go early-and fix up the baby's room. I know the perfect spot, right by the gardens."

ANAKIN: "You are so beautiful!"

PADME: "It's only because I'm so in love . . . "

ANAKIN: "No, it's because I'm so in love with you."

PADME: "So love has blinded you?"

That's an excerpt of dialogue from the actual script. Any garbling of Lucas' original words can only be an improvement.
posted by gigawhat? at 3:22 PM on June 17, 2005

backstoke of the west. heh.
posted by sharpener at 3:26 PM on June 17, 2005

Meh... the translation is as least as good as the original dialog.
posted by wfrgms at 4:22 PM on June 17, 2005

Gigawhat?, you saw the Iheartdarth strip on that psychedelic love garble?
I guess you need to know two sets of dialog to be a Star Wars ubergeek now.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 4:40 PM on June 17, 2005

troopseses.
posted by pterodactyler at 4:47 PM on June 17, 2005

Surely it features the line "all your base are belong to us" at some point?
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:58 PM on June 17, 2005

They had me at fuck.
posted by CG at 5:26 PM on June 17, 2005

A thousand English-to-Chinese-to-English translators working at a thousand subtitling machines for a thousand years would inevitably create Gigli.
posted by squirrel at 6:07 PM on June 17, 2005

"Does it appear to you that it was translated by someone sympathetic to the Chinese government, and with a hatred of the West?"

It was translated by someone in China, but it's hard to tell from the dialogue how patriotic the translator was. I'm curious why you use the word "sympathetic" -- in western mediaspeak that would imply the Chinese government is bad and that this person is one of its few supporters. Are the Chinese government and the West at odds? Why would some random Chinese citizen who apparently makes his living subtitling pirated DVDs hate the hemisphere that guarantees his job security?
posted by twisted mister at 10:53 PM on June 17, 2005

The link as become one with the force...
posted by feelinglistless at 12:58 AM on June 18, 2005

gigawhat, you said it. I welcome the mangling of the original, in the hopes of random evolution and improvement.
whenever the link is up again, that is.
posted by Busithoth at 6:48 AM on June 18, 2005

my site's feeble bandwidth limit couldn't hold the traffic so it'll be down until next month's reset. 19,500 unique users in 6 hours, growing exponentially!

as i have jet lag and cannot sleep, here's the chinese dvd translation of the above dialogue:

PADME: "Oh Anakin"

("Hi, Gold")

ANAKIN: "I've missed you, Padme"

("Dear, how are you")

PADME: "There were whispers you've been killed"

("Heard of you is killed")

ANAKIN: "I'm alright. Feels like we've been apart for a lifetime. It might have been if the chancellor hadn't been kidnapped they'd have never brought us back from the outer rim"

("I did not die, is not. Apparently we will separate the lifetime similar. While hearing of the speaker were kidnap, I thought of that I want to attend the salvation activity)

PADME: "Wait, not here"

("Etc., here not line")

ANAKIN: "Yes, here. I'm tired of all this deception, I don't care if they know we're married"

("I had enough of these politicseses. I think only of to get married with you")

PADME: "Anakin don't say things like that"

("Do not say these")

ANAKIN: "Are you alright? You're trembling. What's going on?"

("Are you O.K. You is shivering. How")

PADME: "Something wonderful has happened. Annie, I'm pregnant"

("Waiting for the happy event condescends to come. Dear, I was pregnant"

ANAKIN: "That's... that's wonderful"

("This...... This is really too stick")

PADME: "What are we gonna do?"

("We should how do")

ANAKIN: "We're not going to worry about anything right now, alright? This is a happy moment, the happiest moment of my life"

("I no longer worried the other thing now. Good. This is a happy time, the most happy time of inside of whole life")

***they kiss and hug***

***two scenes later***

PADME: "Annie, I want to have our baby back home on Naboo. We could go to the lake country where no one would know . . . where we would be safe. I could go early-and fix up the baby's room. I know the perfect spot, right by the gardens."

("I living the child's time you must at home. Make the home a little bit more safe. I can breakfast for the new house that baby tidy up it. It has a great father. A great hopeless situation warrior")

ANAKIN: "You are so beautiful!"

("The beauty that you are like this")

PADME: "It's only because I'm so in love . . . "

("I let me become the beauty to your love"

ANAKIN: "No, it's because I'm so in love with you."

("Not, I love you love deeper")

PADME: "So love has blinded you?"

("Your meaning is a love to tie up you"

ANAKIN: "That's not exactly what I meant"

("That is not my meaning")

PADME: "That's probably true"

("At least I say to half")

***end of scene***
posted by jeremyw at 9:59 AM on June 18, 2005

as far as the translation is concerned, i think the presbyterian church is what popped out of the translator's synonym generator when searching for whatever the chinese character is for whatever they decided to translate 'jedi council' as. anakin is called 'gold' throughout the movie and i think obi wan is 'elephant' but not entirely sure.

the whole thing seems an earnest (and rushed) attempt at english subtitles from the chinese version of what they could understand by listening to the dialogue.
posted by jeremyw at 10:05 AM on June 18, 2005

[This is really too stick]
posted by languagehat at 11:26 AM on June 18, 2005

Metafilter: A great hopeless situation warrior.
posted by Busithoth at 11:38 AM on June 18, 2005