Bizarre D&D Translations

[Kal Torak]

The italian D&D books are'nt translated that bad, there are a few amusing mistakes but nothing that bad. But in one of the R.A. Salvatore books (can't remember wich) Bugbear whas translated as Pulcorso that is literally Flea Bear!!

The reason you can't get good translators is becouse you can make better money beeing a cleaning lady that a translator (belive you me, I come from a family of part-time translators!)

 

[Shadoe's Lady]

I'm not *exactly* bilingual, but I own a copy of the Spanish translation of the Player's Handbook (Manual of the Player). Most of what I find amusing is that most of the spells that I tended to ignore in Enlgish sound a lot more impressive in Spanish.

 

[Knight Otu]

OK, I rephrase my question: Scully and Mulder are investigating crime scenes with burning pieces of wood?

Better?

tarchon: I'm aware of the meaning of the word spa, I was simply curious if other english speakers were. (and after checking the Concise Oxford Dictionary, I was even aware of the origin).

And yes, your first post illustrates the point I was trying to make before I tripped over semantics.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

I saw a translation of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil one day, into Japanese.

The title, translated roughly, was "All Your Base Are Belong to Us".

Still not sure about that one.

 

[Melan]

In the Hungarian edition, the Glaive was translated as "Zsigerelõ" (Gutting Fork). Which, while incorrect, describes the weapon quite well...
Still, despite all the errors, it is a vast improvement over the 2e translation, which was abominable.

 

[Blacksad]

The 3E translation in French is much worse than the 2e translation

Feat -> Don (Gift)
Sense Motive -> Psychologie (Psychology)
CR -> FP facteur de Puissance (Power Factor)

The translation was made by a guy employed by wizard, who claimed that he wasn't able to do a decent job due to time constraint. The problem is that I have some of his 2e works, and they are as bad as the hackfest he did on the corebooks, while every other material in 2e not translated by him are of very good quality.

N.B. except for the very odd Pit Fiend -> DiantreFosse (Damn a pit!), probably done by an english speaker: diantre and diable can be used as an interjection in french with the same meaning, but diable also means devil in french.

 

[Someone]

The spanish translation is actually well done, and the dungeon master´s gide even improves, but there´s some translations that kicks you right in the face:

Class skills--> habilidades cláseas

I that´s not enough:

Cross-class skills--> habilidades transcláseas

Those two feats are really funny:

Ambidexterity--> Ambidextrismo--> Ambidextrism? (I don´t know if it´s a religion or an illness)

Spring attack--> Ataque elástico--> Elastic Attack (I´m sure Reed Richards have this one!)

Improved unarmed Strike-->impacto sin arma mejorado-->Improved unarmed hit

The spells:

Lightning bolt-->Rayo relampagueante--> flashing ray. A simpler "Relámpago" would have been better IMO.

Chain lightning-->Relámpago zigzagueante-->Zigzaging lightning. They are supposed to zigzag, anyway... Ok, this one wasn´t too bad.

Slay living-->Rematar a los vivos. "Rematar" means to put something out of his misery; to deal a coup the grace.

I don´t have the spanish monster manual, but I can tell you: The tarrasque isn´t "he". Is "she". "¡LA TARRASCA!"

 

[sword-dancer]

But don't be too hard with Amigo, from what I know, Hasbro has made problems.

For the topic:
The term Outsider has been translated as Externar, where Aussenwelter (Out-Worlder) would have worked as well, imho.
One of the earlier editions had a particularly goofy translation: Torch into Taschenlampe (So, Scully and Mulder carry around torches when investigating a crime scene? )

A Ranger wit a torch
was translated as
A forrester with a flashlight

AFAIK AD&DI 1 german translation had more translation misakes and misprintings...

 

[radferth]

I think elastic attack is actually a better name than spring attack. It also brings to mind a new magic item: a giant magical rubber band that grant a small character the spring attack feat when held by a medium or larger character.

PS: about the temple of elemental evil in Japanese, I have seen shoddy translations from Japanese to English that included the phrase "All your (noun) are belong us." Is there some particular Japanese phrase or idiom that folks like to translate this way?

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

I think elastic attack is actually a better name than spring attack. It also brings to mind a new magic item: a giant magical rubber band that grant a small character the spring attack feat when held by a medium or larger character.

PS: about the temple of elemental evil in Japanese, I have seen shoddy translations from Japanese to English that included the phrase "All your (noun) are belong us." Is there some particular Japanese phrase or idiom that folks like to translate this way?

You honestly missed the "All your base are belong to us" phenomenon? Wow. Lucky.

http://www.planettribes.com/allyourbase/AYB2.swf


There, now your luck streak has ended.

*sigh* and while looking for that, I came across a very vicious and bitter stream of homophobic ranting on, of all places, a Chrono Trigger message board. I really hate people sometimes.