mardi 19 décembre 2017

Bum of bag...

... is the name of a book which translates French idioms literally for
the amusement of English speakers. ("Bum of bag" being "cul de sac".)
The book shows in a humorous way that idiomatic expressions translated
literally are often incomprehensible.

I had my doubts when in Psalm 28:3 I read in our Monkolé text, "Maà
dasim si bɔgɔ akã do ilu kukã ŋa do woo ce laalɔ ŋa", which means
"don't put me in one bag with the wicked and those who do evil". I
checked the French versions, and sure enough I found one with that
meaning, "Ne me mets pas dans le même sac que les méchants, eux qui font
le malheur des autres".

Now, as I have already mentioned, I am not a native Monkolé speaker, so
though I had my doubts, I simply asked my translators if the expression
existed in Monkolé. They decided to change it to "Don't treat me as you
treat...", which I suspect does make more sense!

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