Quote from: tekla on November 23, 2010, 01:01:43 AM
Try this. "<not allowed> you, fat bitch." I'm betting that translates perfectly and exactly in every language. There is no where you can translate that where it's not an insult.
Actually, you're quite wrong here. For one thing, "fat" doesn't carry negative connotations even in every modern language, much less in ancient languages. Secondly, "bitch" (or "female dog") not only isn't derogatory in every language, but in some cases
doesn't even exist. So the literal translation won't work well in many (most) cases.
Going for a looser translation, you can certainly come up with a phrase that's similarly insulting in every language, but it's doubtful that you'll find one that "feels" the same, that carries the same overtones of fat-hatred and a particular form of misogyny/stereotype of women. You won't find a phrase that conjures up the same mental image, because that mental image is very much a cultural construct.
And as far as the first part, as I understand it it's bloody near impossible to translate "F you" into any language - it's a pretty uniquely English construction.
It is absolutely impossibly to translate
anything perfectly across all languages. Even single words have subtly (sometimes dramatically) different meanings and connotations. Once you get to the sentence level, even a simple statement of fact begins to have multiple ambiguous meanings when translated.
(Oh, and the above assumes that you're a native English speaker who actually knows what you're trying to translate. If you're not - if your native language is a descendant of, say, Chinese, and you're trying to translate the meaning of "F you, fat bitch" at some point in the distant future, without a deep knowledge of 21st-century American culture and language, you're basically screwed. Just working with the meaning of the words, you're going to come up with something like "I want to have sex with you, you deliciously plump female dog." And you'll assume that "bitch" is a term of endearment for the writer. It's hopeless. You actually picked one of the hardest things to translate in all of language, an idiomatic insult.)
