Categories: language, translation
Date: 10 February 2010 13:51:59
This morning has been spent wiping the tears of hysteria from my cheeks. I have been translating a badly written tourist text for a place that shall remain nameless. Usually, when doing such documents, I end up dreaming of holidays and wishing I were a thousand miles away from my computer. This morning I was not in the least bit tempted to part with my cash to visit the place in question. It sounded very dull "with extensive views over the ...er....pharmaceutical factory". Get me on the next plane over there...not!
The poor unfortunates that do visit this area are told that they will eat their picnic lunch in a room provided with tables and chairs. " Auch Toiletten sind hier für das kleinere oder grössere Geschäft vorhanden. "* I'm afraid my British sensibilities balked at translating this in its entirety. My impression of our American cousins is that they are even more sensitive about such matters as they use euphemisms such as "bathroom" and "rest rooms" for fear of being too obvious. This German sentence, as far as I'm concerned, is one of those things that can be quite happily lost in translation. I merely informed the tourists of the availability of the facilities.
* Toilets are also available for small or larger jobs