Wer Dopt, Fliegt!
What is it about Austrians? They have all that beauty in their country and yet for every Franz Klammer and Hermann Meier that are role models for everyone, they seem to give us a Hitler or this weekend's news that the entire Austrian cross-country team may be doping. As they might say, "nicht gut!"
Curious, I went to check out some Austrian newspapers to see what their reaction may be to the current scandal. My German is pretty rusty after twenty years of not using it, but fortunately I have Altavista's Babel Fish translator to give me literal translations that, while obviously stilted, at least give you the general idea of what's being said. Well, Die Österreicher seem pretty pissed, not only at the scandal, but at the timing.
But the best thing about Babel Fish is that it makes for some hilarious translations. My favorite is a quote by Wolfgang Schüssel, the Austrian Chancellor. He states the need for a clear deliniation between what is permitted and what is not, and concludes with the exclamation, "Wer dopt, fliegt!" Now, my colloquial Austrian is admittedly not very good, but from the translation I think what he is saying is, "He who dopes, should be thrown out on his ass." But Babel Fish's literal translation is way better:
"Who dopes, flies!"
Another Austrian, Sigmund Freud, would have been proud of that.
Curious, I went to check out some Austrian newspapers to see what their reaction may be to the current scandal. My German is pretty rusty after twenty years of not using it, but fortunately I have Altavista's Babel Fish translator to give me literal translations that, while obviously stilted, at least give you the general idea of what's being said. Well, Die Österreicher seem pretty pissed, not only at the scandal, but at the timing.
But the best thing about Babel Fish is that it makes for some hilarious translations. My favorite is a quote by Wolfgang Schüssel, the Austrian Chancellor. He states the need for a clear deliniation between what is permitted and what is not, and concludes with the exclamation, "Wer dopt, fliegt!" Now, my colloquial Austrian is admittedly not very good, but from the translation I think what he is saying is, "He who dopes, should be thrown out on his ass." But Babel Fish's literal translation is way better:
"Who dopes, flies!"
Another Austrian, Sigmund Freud, would have been proud of that.
posted by cc at
3:31 PM
1 Comments:
It's fun to take American colloquialisms and have them translated into another language, and then have them translate them back. Hmm. Sounds like a future post.
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