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The Little Things...
Apr. 15th, 2010 10:17 pmTranslating is fun. Especially really old stuff, where they sometimes use obscure words. Even more fun when you've been looking at this stuff for so long that your eyes are starting to cross a bit.
For example, a bit of a Qur'an verse stuck in the middle of a text. Don't know which verse, the author assumes that the reader has memorized the Qur'an (and to be fair, back in the 12th century, anyone who was reading this would have it memorized). It starts off all well and good:
"Verily, Muslim men and Muslim women, and believing men and believing women, and the men who submit and the women who submit, and the lords and the ladies," and continues on like that for a bit, listing a whole bunch of different people, before getting around to what it's going to tell this list of people. "God promises you a ladle/large spoon."
I look at my dictionary again. God promises them a ladle? The word I'm looking at in the dictionary is totally ladle. I call Roomie over, and she confirms that I'm not hallucinating: the dictionary says ladle or large spoon. I briefly ponder the spiritual nature of spoons. Is the Matrix being anti-Muslim by proclaiming that there is no spoon? Like the cake, is the spoon a lie? I wonder if this isn't meant to be taken literally, but refers to kitchen utensils of all varieties.
Then I look back at the text. Whoops. I switched around the r and the g. God promises them forgiveness. Well, that makes more sense, but it just isn't quite as much fun, is it?
For example, a bit of a Qur'an verse stuck in the middle of a text. Don't know which verse, the author assumes that the reader has memorized the Qur'an (and to be fair, back in the 12th century, anyone who was reading this would have it memorized). It starts off all well and good:
"Verily, Muslim men and Muslim women, and believing men and believing women, and the men who submit and the women who submit, and the lords and the ladies," and continues on like that for a bit, listing a whole bunch of different people, before getting around to what it's going to tell this list of people. "God promises you a ladle/large spoon."
I look at my dictionary again. God promises them a ladle? The word I'm looking at in the dictionary is totally ladle. I call Roomie over, and she confirms that I'm not hallucinating: the dictionary says ladle or large spoon. I briefly ponder the spiritual nature of spoons. Is the Matrix being anti-Muslim by proclaiming that there is no spoon? Like the cake, is the spoon a lie? I wonder if this isn't meant to be taken literally, but refers to kitchen utensils of all varieties.
Then I look back at the text. Whoops. I switched around the r and the g. God promises them forgiveness. Well, that makes more sense, but it just isn't quite as much fun, is it?
