Comments on: Long time ago, in the faraway galaxy

Long time ago, in the faraway galaxy

jasper411 — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 14:56:03 -0800

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.

By: Kickstart70

Kickstart70 — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 15:14:10 -0800

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'??

By: fenriq

fenriq — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 15:18:05 -0800

I wonder if they do the same treatment for pron?

By: gigawhat?

gigawhat? — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 15:22:47 -0800

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.

By: sharpener

sharpener — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 15:26:41 -0800

backstoke of the west. heh.

By: wfrgms

wfrgms — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 16:22:39 -0800

Meh... the translation is as least as good as the original dialog.

By: Jack Karaoke

Jack Karaoke — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 16:40:57 -0800

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.

By: pterodactyler

pterodactyler — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 16:47:56 -0800

troopseses.

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 16:58:40 -0800

Surely it features the line "all your base are belong to us" at some point?

By: CG

CG — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 17:26:35 -0800

They had me at fuck.

By: squirrel

squirrel — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 18:07:43 -0800

A thousand English-to-Chinese-to-English translators working at a thousand subtitling machines for a thousand years would inevitably create Gigli.

By: twisted mister

twisted mister — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 22:53:11 -0800

"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?

By: feelinglistless

feelinglistless — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 00:58:10 -0800

The link as become one with the force...

By: Busithoth

Busithoth — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 06:48:28 -0800

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.

By: jeremyw

jeremyw — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 09:59:54 -0800

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***

By: jeremyw

jeremyw — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 10:05:50 -0800

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.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 11:26:13 -0800

[This is really too stick]

By: Busithoth

Busithoth — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 11:38:57 -0800

Metafilter: A great hopeless situation warrior.