Beyond Babel
January 19th 2010 02:20
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
-- Genesis 11:6-7 (King James version)
As we all know, the non-serious Magic expansions Unglued and Unhinged were printed only in English. The ostensible reason for this was that the humor in the cards would not have translated well into other languages. But even regular Magic sets contain English humor – and other things that don’t translate so well into Chinese or Russian.
Consider, for example, the Tenth Edition uncommon No Rest for the Wicked.
The title refers to a well-known English proverb. I have no idea whether other languages even have an equivalent. The Spanish version, for example, has a title line that says “No hay reposo para los malvados,” which makes it one of the few card names that is a complete sentence, and one which is not even a proverb in that language.
Then there’s Guildpact. The Izzet guild’s defining identity was “impulsive learning,” indicated in many card names by either strange compound words or pre-existing words that just sound strange.
Schismotivate is basically “schism” plus “motivate,” which you can just invent in English and have most people understand what it means. At least the basic parts of this word exist in other European languages, but even so, it was transplanted nearly directly for most languages. Interestingly, some European versions of this card add one or two letters to make its name instead “schizophrenia” plus “motivate,” which suggests that the adaptation may have been based partly on the flavor text.
Finally, even serious sets always contain at least a couple of cards with humorous flavor text or presentations. One of the most famous and facepalm-inducing is the Urza’s Saga and Planechase uncommon Goblin Offensive.
But this card only works because the English words “offensive” meaning “attack,” and “offensive” meaning “offensive,” happen to be spelled and pronounced the same way. What if you need to print this card in a language that doesn’t have that quirk? Should you use the first meaning in the name, and change the flavor text? Should you change the name to something closer to whatever the equivalent joke in that language would be? I don’t know the answer, and I wonder what Wizards of the Coast would do if they ever reprinted the card in other languages.
-- Genesis 11:6-7 (King James version)
As we all know, the non-serious Magic expansions Unglued and Unhinged were printed only in English. The ostensible reason for this was that the humor in the cards would not have translated well into other languages. But even regular Magic sets contain English humor – and other things that don’t translate so well into Chinese or Russian.
Consider, for example, the Tenth Edition uncommon No Rest for the Wicked.
The title refers to a well-known English proverb. I have no idea whether other languages even have an equivalent. The Spanish version, for example, has a title line that says “No hay reposo para los malvados,” which makes it one of the few card names that is a complete sentence, and one which is not even a proverb in that language.
Then there’s Guildpact. The Izzet guild’s defining identity was “impulsive learning,” indicated in many card names by either strange compound words or pre-existing words that just sound strange.
Schismotivate is basically “schism” plus “motivate,” which you can just invent in English and have most people understand what it means. At least the basic parts of this word exist in other European languages, but even so, it was transplanted nearly directly for most languages. Interestingly, some European versions of this card add one or two letters to make its name instead “schizophrenia” plus “motivate,” which suggests that the adaptation may have been based partly on the flavor text.
Finally, even serious sets always contain at least a couple of cards with humorous flavor text or presentations. One of the most famous and facepalm-inducing is the Urza’s Saga and Planechase uncommon Goblin Offensive.
But this card only works because the English words “offensive” meaning “attack,” and “offensive” meaning “offensive,” happen to be spelled and pronounced the same way. What if you need to print this card in a language that doesn’t have that quirk? Should you use the first meaning in the name, and change the flavor text? Should you change the name to something closer to whatever the equivalent joke in that language would be? I don’t know the answer, and I wonder what Wizards of the Coast would do if they ever reprinted the card in other languages.
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Comment by GermanMagicPlayer
Flavour: Sie greifen auch den Geruchssinn an.
Transl.: They attack the sense of smell as well.
That's exactly why I don't buy German Magic cards