How Animated is Over-Animated?

From the English version of my hotel brochure:

CITEA VANVES -- Porte de Versailles enjoys a privileged location, with easy access to Paris and to the Exhibition Center of Porte de Versailles.  The quietness of the area is only at 10 minutes away by subway, to the over-animated place of Montparnasse, with its many stores, theatres, restaurants, and cinemas.

Comments

[Andrew]

Right you are, Eleanor, I have been remiss in the translation arena.

I live in Germany, which creates three problems for the amateur translation hunter. First, most Germans speak pretty good English. Second, the grammatical structure of German just doesn't lend itself to the kinds of glorious manglings that you saw in Spain (God, that was inspired!). The sentences may look peculiar to an English-speaker, but they just don't have that Dadaist je ne sais quoi that Romance Language amateur translation can achieve. Third, (ok, a little cultural stereotyping here), Germans are notoriously thorough. When they write something down in English that may be read by hundreds of strangers, they either consult a native speaker for review, or work long into the night with their dictionaries and English grammars until they get it pretty close to right. Shame on them!

To make up for the lack of Lyrical Amateur Translation on German Joys, I will do 3 things. First, let us not forget that there is Lyrical Amateur Translation *into* German, as well, although I can't really do justice to it on an English-language website. Recently, the German magazine Titanic featured some choice examples, including the German-language portion of a Brazilian restaurant menu. After consulting a German-Portuguese technical and scientific dictionary for perhaps 2.5 seconds, the restaurant owner concluded that the proper German word for pasta was "Isolationsschlauch," or "isolation-tube." German diners could order "Isolation-tubes in Marinara Sauce," an "Isolation-tube salad," etc. [The real German word for pasta is, of course, Pasta).

Second, I will point everyone to the website http://www.engrish.com, dedicated to the Japanese, the undisputed world champions of lyrical amatuer translation. Be prepared to waste hours here.

Third, in a bit of shameless self-promotion, I'll link to a crude travel diary I wrote of a trip to India, in which I describe being confronted with menus that offered "fried steam" and "alien steak." (I ordered, and ate the alien steak. You can even see a photo of it!)

http://www.andrewhammel.com/india.htm

http://www.andrewhammel.com/new%20land%20of%20nandi%20part%202.html

[Eleanor]

I am surprised that you haven't been sent more examples of Lyrical Amateur Translation, a choice theme. Here is a small contribution from a Spanish hotel - the last six words seem to open a window onto a completely different landscape.

'By ecological reasons, is begged not to squander water, closing its exit in washrooms and showers after its use. Not to use the toilet as wastepaper basket. With these simple actions we will contribute to not squander this well so precious as scarce.' (Pension Viladomat, Girona)

[Lisa]

If I remember correctly, Andrews, I believe there is a fantastic and huge flea market in that suburb . . . I wanted to check it out while I was there, but ran out of time. I'm curious to hear how the demonstrations are today. I was in Vienna once while there were such demonstrations going on and they turned violent . . . it was an interesting place to be for a Midwestern native who never saw her people revolt over anything, not even the worst President in the history of the U.S.