The most unfitting translations of Star Trek novels

[Kilana2]

I need the dubbing when I watch TOS. I tried to watch one episode in English (Miri). I understood next to nothing. I don't have any problems with watching DS9 or Voyager episodes in English. Maybe it's because I know the dialogues almost by heart. Someone said the TOS actors had strange accents. I don't know. The last guy I didn't really understand was a The Voice UK candidate from Scotland.

And maybe Miri wasn't a good episode to start with. TOS had a re-dubbing because of translation issues. So I'm not the only one to have problems with TOS. I'd like to watch it in English. Subtitles would be helpful, though.

 

[Idran]

I need the dubbing when I watch TOS. I tried to watch one episode in English (Miri). I understood next to nothing. I don't have any problems with watching DS9 or Voyager episodes in English. Maybe it's because I know the dialogues almost by heart. Someone said the TOS actors had strange accents. I don't know. The last guy I didn't really understand was a The Voice UK candidate from Scotland.

And maybe Miri wasn't a good episode to start with. TOS had a re-dubbing because of translation issues. So I'm not the only one to have problems with TOS. I'd like to watch it in English. Subtitles would be helpful, though.

English is my first language and Miri doesn't make much sense to me either, for what it's worth.

 

[Kilana2]

Another thought occured to me. I did some research how the Italians translated Star Trek issues. They translated ranks into English, like Tenente Comandante (Lieutenant Commander).

The Germans didn't do that. Leutnant Kommandant sounds odd. And I don't know if the Italian translations of Starfleet ranks correspond to their naval ranks.

Capitano di Fregata would be Commander, but Riker was obviously Comandante according to Memory Alpha Italia.

I remember a German novel where Scotty was Korvettenkapitän Montgomery Scott.

 

[Briet]

The first thing that comes to mind is that in VOY, in Hungarian dub for crewman the say "közlegény" which translates to private. But there are so many bothering thing that as soon as I learned english well enough I switched to the english versions in everithing. I just can't listen to the hungarian dubs anymore when I know the original.

 

[lurok]

English is my first language and Miri doesn't make much sense to me either, for what it's worth.

One of those rare Trek episodes (of all the series) I think I've watched only once.

btw, really interesting thread

 

[loghaD]

An awful one from Swedish, albeit from TV, not literature:

The episode TNG: First Contact features Riker visiting a planet inhabited by xenophobic aliens. Or, in Swedish:

"Riker besöker en planet bebodd av främlingsfientliga utomjordingar."

However, the ones translating the episode description apparently thought "xenophobic aliens" was a trademark or proper noun or something, because over the course of several years and many reruns, the episode description read:

"Riker besöker en planet bebodd av xenophobic aliens."

------

Swedish translations can also be tricky because the word "kapten" can refer either to the position of CO or the rank of Lieutenant. So, Lieutenant Worf is "kapten Worf", and Captain Picard is "kapten Picard" in terms of position but "kommendör Picard" in terms of rank.

Actually I always did sort of think that "Warnog" sounded like a warrior's version of eggnog. So it's an understandable error -- if it is an error.

I don't believe it is ever established in canon if "warnog" means "nog of war" or if it's simply an approximation of a Klingon word.

Klingon-speakers treat it as the latter, though: A phonetic approximation of the Klingon word wornagh.

 

[Christopher]

I doubt very much that it was deliberately meant to be "nog of war." It's just amusing that it can be easily taken that way.

I do wonder about "bloodwine," though. You can't actually make wine out of blood, can you? It must be a figurative name.

And what about raktajino? The name sounds like a play on cappuccino. So is it a human nickname for a Klingon beverage, or is it actually the Klingon name for it? It's "Klingon coffee," but what does that mean? Apparently Marc Okrand's Klingon for the Galactic Traveler says (or Memory Beta says it says) that it's actually a blend of coffee (the Earth beverage) and a Klingon drink called ra'taj liqueur. But canonically it's just "Klingon coffee," implying an equivalent of coffee made from some Qo'noSian bean with a high caffeine content.

 

[hux]

I've always enjoyed that story about Schwarzenegger offering to do the German language dub for Terminator 2 and being rejected because to the German ear, his particular Austrian accent is associated with yokel farmers.

Apocryphal or not, I like the idea of a country bumpkin terminator.

 

[loghaD]

I do wonder about "bloodwine," though. You can't actually make wine out of blood, can you? It must be a figurative name.

It's worth noting that the Klingon name for bloodwine, 'Iw HIq, simply means "blood alcohol". So, to the retconner, perhaps it is the "blood" part that is figurative, or perhaps the "wine" part is just a bad translation that stuck.

And what about raktajino? The name sounds like a play on cappuccino. So is it a human nickname for a Klingon beverage, or is it actually the Klingon name for it? It's "Klingon coffee," but what does that mean? Apparently Marc Okrand's Klingon for the Galactic Traveler says (or Memory Beta says it says) that it's actually a blend of coffee (the Earth beverage) and a Klingon drink called ra'taj liqueur. But canonically it's just "Klingon coffee," implying an equivalent of coffee made from some Qo'noSian bean with a high caffeine content.

Indeed, the explanation in Klingon for the Galactic Traveler is as follows:

Coffee was originally a human invention.

It was then introduced to Klingons through trade and looting, and Klingons eventually started cultivating on their own (and, in their view, improving it), and they call it qa'vIn.

[This also works fairly well with John M. Ford's account in The Final Reflection, where - as I recall it - coffee is called kafei in klingonaase, and it is described as having been looted from Federation ships. The main character finds it distasteful at first but develops a taste for it over time.]

Klingons then started adding alcohol to their qa'vIn, and then it is called ra'taj (or raktaj in "English").

At some point, the humans got wind of this, and started developing a taste for ra'taj. However, they're not as big on alcohol, so they developed a non-alcoholic variant with steamed milk, and called it a raktajino.

So, in the end, raktajino is only about as Klingon as fortune cookies and chop suey are Chinese.

I'm sure there's a quote or two in DS9 that contradic this, but on the whole, I think it's a pretty good model.

I wonder if the Klingons eventually developed a taste for raktajino themselves, so that the exchange has come full circle (maybe they'll start adding alcohol to raktajino?).
...or perhaps they drink it around humans because it's the closest you can get to proper ra'taj or qa'vIn, or because they find it exotic and like trying new things.

 

[Kilana2]

Swedish translations can also be tricky because the word "kapten" can refer either to the position of CO or the rank of Lieutenant. So, Lieutenant Worf is "kapten Worf", and Captain Picard is "kapten Picard" in terms of position but "kommendör Picard" in terms of rank.

So in the Italian version Riker is obviously Comandante. They used the English rank and translated it.

According to Wikipedia Commander is usually Capitano di Fregata. That would be inconcruous as to the lip-synch I would think....

 

[Idran]

I do wonder about "bloodwine," though. You can't actually make wine out of blood, can you? It must be a figurative name.

Not literally wine - that's strictly an alcohol fermented from some form of fruit - but you can make alcohol from anything with carbohydrates in it if you try hard enough, so I'd agree with what loghaD said, that it might just be a bad translation. Mix blood with sugar (or have blood with a high enough natural sugar content, maybe some species on Qo'noS is like that) and you could make an alcoholic drink out of it. And obviously there's cooked blood on Earth, black pudding and whatnot, but even foods made from liquid blood aren't unheard of here, so it wouldn't be that out of the question either.

 

[Hando]

I do wonder about "bloodwine," though. You can't actually make wine out of blood, can you? It must be a figurative name.

It's worth noting that the Klingon name for bloodwine, 'Iw HIq, simply means "blood alcohol". So, to the retconner, perhaps it is the "blood" part that is figurative, or perhaps the "wine" part is just a bad translation that stuck.

I do not believe that "wine" is a bad translation. While "HIq" means alcohol - any alcoholic drink, including wine and beer. I have to say that as a translator I would not translate it as alcohol. At least from what I have seen in English we would more likely see a concrete type of beverage.

If we take wine as being accurate we have to say that bloodwine is a fermented drink.

Now here we have a problem as to how literally we take the blood part. If we stay as figurative as possible, it may just mean that bloodwine is fermented from a fruit analogous to our Blood orange.
More literally, Klingon grapes may be bloody red rather then green or purple.
The most literal approach is that bloodwine is really fermented from blood. Our blood does not have enough sugar for fermentation, but perhaps Klingons and/or Klingon species do have the necessary sugar.

Another possibility is that blood is added later, when the wine is being processed. Think black pudding, blood sausage, blood soup...



We are also left asking: is there a bloodjuice or a bloodbrandy?

 

[Christopher]

Not literally wine - that's strictly an alcohol fermented from some form of fruit - but you can make alcohol from anything with carbohydrates in it if you try hard enough, so I'd agree with what loghaD said, that it might just be a bad translation. Mix blood with sugar (or have blood with a high enough natural sugar content, maybe some species on Qo'noS is like that) and you could make an alcoholic drink out of it. And obviously there's cooked blood on Earth, black pudding and whatnot, but even foods made from liquid blood aren't unheard of here, so it wouldn't be that out of the question either.

1: Interesting.

2: Eww.

 

[Idran]

I do not believe that "wine" is a bad translation. While "HIq" means alcohol - any alcoholic drink, including wine and beer. I have to say that as a translator I would not translate it as alcohol. At least from what I have seen in English we would more likely see a concrete type of beverage.

If we take wine as being accurate we have to say that bloodwine is a fermented drink.
...
The most literal approach is that bloodwine is really fermented from blood. Our blood does not have enough sugar for fermentation, but perhaps Klingons and/or Klingon species do have the necessary sugar.

Oh, I was under the impression that the technical definition of wine in particular was alcohol fermented specifically from fruit, that terms like "rice wine" for sake were misnomers. Is that incorrect?

 

[Christopher]

Wikipedia sez:

Other wines, such as barley wine and rice wine (e.g. sake), are made from starch-based materials and resemble beer more than wine, while ginger wine is fortified with brandy. In these latter cases, the term "wine" refers to the similarity in alcohol content rather than to the production process.[53]

 

[Defcon]

Yes that is what I mean

FWIW there is a German website called Deutsche Synchrondatei that lists all German voice actors and their rolls (in German of course).

For example this is the entry for Sir Patrick Stewart:

https://www.synchronkartei.de/?action=show&type=actor&id=414

 

[Kilana2]

Riker sounds different without Detlef Bierstedt as voice-over. Bierstedt spoke Riker in Generations. Then Thomas Vogt took over, who is one of the Tom Paris voice-actors.

Ha!!!! Riker sounds like Paris! I can relate to fans who prefer the originals.

Original voices of Star Trek actors are usually deeper than the voices of their voice-overs (Picard, Worf, Sisko). At least I think that they are.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

@Kilana2: Which TNG Synchro Version do you like more? ZDF or Sat 1? I like the ZDF Synchro much more.

 

[Kilana2]

@Kilana2: Which TNG Synchro Version do you like more? ZDF or Sat 1? I like the ZDF Synchro much more.

The last time I watched TNG via Tele 5. I don't know which version they use.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

@Kilana2: Which TNG Synchro Version do you like more? ZDF or Sat 1? I like the ZDF Synchro much more.

The last time I watched TNG via Tele 5. I don't know which version they use.

Season 1 - 4 until Episode "Final Mission" (Die letzte Mission) - ZDF Synchro

Season 4 (From "The Loss" (Das kosmische Band) onwards until the End of Season 7 - Sat 1 Synchro