Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site mnetor.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcs!mnetor!sophie From: sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: Re: Re: Now is the time for all good men... Message-ID: <1029@mnetor.UUCP> Date: Mon, 17-Jun-85 13:58:32 EDT Article-I.D.: mnetor.1029 Posted: Mon Jun 17 13:58:32 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 17-Jun-85 15:21:48 EDT References: <742@oddjob.UUCP> <388@mtxinu.UUCP> <1041@peora.UUCP> <989@mnetor.UUCP> <1067@peora.UUCP> Organization: Computer X (CANADA) Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada Lines: 70 > Dear Sophie, > > Your translation of Spanish is atrocious! here, let me properly translate > it for you. But first let me reference you to the original article, in > which I said I would write my next in Spanish by dint of withdrawing from > the English Language awhile to one where I could speak the language without > being attacked for it. > Serves you right! if you are going to write in a language that other people don't understand, you will be misunderstood! it was your idea in the first place. I could have made up the entire thing if I had wanted to and a lot of people wouldn't have known the difference. You took that risk, just be thankful I didn't. > >> Si yo me digo <>, no significa nada mal. > > "If I say 'nigger's work', it doesn't harm anybody. > > Now, this is a very serious mistranslation. What it actually says is, > > "If I say `the work of the blacks,' it doesn't mean anything bad." > As far as I know "the work of the blacks" is not an english expression unlike "nigger's work" which is (I think.... hmmmm maybe I am confusing it with french: "travail de negres" certainly used to be a common expression until black people started objecting. Maybe the only reason you can still get away with such an expression in spanish is that there aren't enough black spaniards around to complain). Whether the spanish litterally means "nigger's work" or "work of the blacks", it is still a pretty derogatory expression. > This was a reference to the fact that `negro' in Spanish means `black', and > was an example of semantics being externally imposed by the perceptions > of the reader. > Oh, no! you can't get away with that so easily. "el trabajo de negros" alias "nigger's work" alias "travail de negres" has very simple semantics no matter what the perceptions of the reader are. They all mean "shit work that only slaves or lowly creatures like blacks" would do. You can rant and rave all you want about the beauty of the colour black, but there's no ambiguity about the meaning and implications of this statement at all. > >> Y eso no tiene problemas metricales!! > >"And these don't have problems with the metric system!!! > > Ha! ha! You must have me confused with a steel worker from detroit, who > thinks the metric system is "communist". (I saw it on the news.) > > No, what this says is, "There are no metrical problems with this." > Referring to the fact that the scansion of the original and revised > poems is the same in this case. > I don't give a **** about your metricals or metrics or whatever they are. What I did care about, and translated properly, was your appellation for feminists: "puta". This means "whore" in spanish. If you don't want to be attacked for your language, then don't use offensive language. > Now, this article doesn't have a whole lot of meaningful semantic content; > it is just your joe-average net.flame posting, which unfortunately leaked > into net.women (I forgot you would be here, Sophie!) due to the > cross-posting fanatics among us. > If you are going to insult people, you should make sure that you either do it in an appropriate newsgroup (not net.women if you are going to call feminists whores) or if that is too difficult, then you can at least do it in a language that people you are insulting can understand. if you didn't mean to insult people, then you should have made it clear by speaking a language they could have understood. -- Sophie Quigley {allegra|decvax|ihnp4|linus|watmath}!utzoo!mnetor!sophie