Monday, January 22, 2018

Generation War (German)

This German mini-series, Generation War, tracked the fictional experiences of a group of friends before and during the Second World War.  One of them is a Jewish tailor who is lovers with a Gentile girl, an up-and-coming singer. At one point they go over the possibility of his getting an exit visa, and this is what he tells her:

 

I would have made two changes:


"Quotas" is more accurate than "figures"- it refers to the number of visas accorded Jews to emigrate by the various countries who accepted them in limited numbers. "Getting out" emphasizes the aspect of escaping from genuine peril much better than "coming out."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A pair of the group of friends are brothers, in the same unit during the invasion of Russia. One is a reluctant warrior, disliked by his fellow soldiers for his tepid support of the war. After being ordered to kill a partisan, (he secretly lets him go) he is finally commended by one of them:

 This is obviously a typo not caught in quality control that should have read:


This emphasizes the importance of a sharp eye.  The translator - who was probably a German native slightly stronger in his maternal tongue than in English - may have actually thought the expression was a "notch in your butt." But since we know that Winter didn't actually kill the partisan, the false congratulation should be poignant, even dangerous. The viewer certainly doesn't need to be instead  chuckling at a typo.


No comments:

Post a Comment

What I Do

Nuance Titles is an LLC I have formed as the mechanism through which I solicit work as a writer and an editor. One of my st...