|
Tara King Seasons |
(The titles included at the top
of each comment are: the original in English and the translation of
the "official" Spanish title, respectively.) |
"You'll
Catch Your Death" / Idem
This time these wonderful guys did a great job: a literal translation,
word by word. Only that you'll catch your death doesn't quite
make any sense in Spanish. A reasonable title would have been, for example:
You'll Catch A Nasty Cold.
"Split!"
/ "Transference"
Okay, the episode deals with mind transfer, but this is an inexplicable
translation for Rupture or
Division. Remember guys,
The Avengers never calls things by their name!
"Have Guns
- Will Haggle" / "If You've Got Arms, You May Haggle"
Oh, what a lovely way to put an imperative, terse original title in
such inviting terms, don't you think? Poor devils, they never run into
Lady Beardsley...
"Look -
(stop me if you've heard this one) But There Were These Two Fellers"
/ "Look... Those Two Fellers Were Going"
Surely the translators were a bit lazy in this one, and resolved to
engulf the entire content in parentheses, plus taking unnecessary licenses
to change what appears next. Of course, the title was so very long for
them. Why not shorten it a little if anyway its meaning will remain
the same, eh? As far as we are concerned, dear clowns, you're allowed
to hit in these translators' face with a poisoned custard pie!
"Whoever
Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40" / "Whoever Shot XR40?"
We wonder why Poor George Oblique Stroke vanished in this translation?
Does anyone know? Another inexplicable economy of words messing up the
title of an episode that reflects, with irony and ferocity, the peculiar
man-machine relationship at that time. These greedy guys not only ate
poor George, but also the oblique stroke, always used
in spy-films and series to denote a very hush-hush thing.
"Legacy
Of Death" / "The Legacy Of The Death"
The article "the" spread here, there and everywhere... but
what's the matter with these fellows and their article-mania? Not only
the translation is wrong, but also the addition of articles changes
the original meaning of the title. Again, as in the case of The Conspiracy
Of The Silence we face the problem of the entity. Death does not
bequeath anything. It is the legacy. Is it so hard to understand?
"The
Rotters" / "The Wood Borer"
Well, this one is a bit tricky, as it's not a bad translation but it
doesn't agree with the storyline either. As far as we know, both rotters
and wood borers cause great damage to wood that eventually leads
to dry rot. However rotters are fungi whereas wood borers
are small insects. Only the former substantiates what we see in the
episode, especially in the tag sequence. Hence the Spanish title sounds
somewhat inappropriate, as if once again, the translators would have
worked on the title without watching the episode. No surprise. In addition,
the play on words implied in The Rotters (making clear reference
to the bigoted villains) is completely lost in translation.
"Invasion
Of The Earthmen" / "The Invasion Of The Men From The Earth"
We're dying to know what would have Captain Scarlet said if instead
of Martians he had to fight the Men From Mars... Please, dear
translators, send this silly thing down to the center of the earth,
and if possible, do the same with yourselves!
"The Morning
After" / "The Following Day"
Yes, we know that any morning after is always the following
day, but that morning is translated as day sounds
absolutely incomprehensible, impulsive and unwise. It seems that Merlin's
gas capsules reached also the translators' office, who carried out this
forgettable job as soon as they awoke. Of course, we don't suppose this
title rang a bell for themit's the same as the Oscar-winning song
"The Morning After" from "The Poseidon Adventure"
(1973).
"Wish You
Were Here" / "Wishing You Were Here"
In addition to the incorrect use of the gerund (Me wishing a translator...)
we wonder if they couldn't have translated this title exactly as the
CBS did on occasion of the launch in Argentina of the 1975 Pink Floyd
album bearing the same name? Surely none of these translators is a fan
of Pink Floyd...
"My Wildest
Dream" / "My Craziest Dream"
Another literal translation that makes no sense. In this episode, certain
conditioning techniques are used in a few persons to induce them to
kill. This is done behind their creator's back, whose only goal was
to release repressed fantasies from his patients. In English, wildest
alludes to anything beyond what you imagine or hope for. From a psychological
point of view, this is much more related to an unfulfilled fantasy than
a dream, whether this dream is understood as such or as a yearning.
We'd prefer in this case a translation like My
Biggest Fantasy, which is less literal but much more
in agreement with the essence of the episode.
"Thingumajig"
/ "Something Magical"
Oh dear! These bright folks found out that thingumajig sounded
similar to magic, and for some reason decided the title could
easily be turned into the nonsense they wrote. One single glance at
the episode, and they'd have realized that there's nothing "magical"
in it. Or did they expect the deadly mobile black boxes were magical?
An ordinary English-Spanish dictionary would work wonders in this case,
or maybe, that they recalled the classic B-film of 1950 "The
Thing." That would be an appropriate translation! |