The Globe needs better translators
By adamg - Wed, 09/12/2007 - 9:53pm.
Scott Allen Miller notes the Globe, which used to translate stories about Pedro Martinez into Spanish, now translates stories about arrested Brazilians into Portuguese. Only the stories in Portuguese have a more sinister tint to them:
The original story reported that the State Police "brought Medeiros to the Andover barracks and placed him in a cell". The Globe translation says "os policias levaram Medeiros para uma cela improvisada numa espécie de abrigo militar em Andover." Translation: "the police brought Medeiros to an improvised cell in a kind of military shelter in Andover."
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Borrowed from the MBTA
Maybe they're using the same translator as the MBTA. We all remember "Person Who Carries Bags Square" and "Venerate the Beach," right?
Bizarre
It's not like there's not a word for "barracks" in Portuguese (quarteis). Abrigo? Abrigo? That's a shelter, not a barracks. They didn't take him to a military shed in the woods! They took him to the police barracks! There's perfectly good words for that in Portuguese (quartel policial); the translator was editorializing.
And an "improvised" cell? Huh? How do they get "improvised" out of that? There's some real hooters in this story. I think maybe the translation was based on an earlier version of the story, because it's got information that isn't in there at all.
So now we've got the police alleging that the case is under investigation? And not only that, but Medeiros fell down ("a queda") in his cell? The English version doesn't say he fell down. It says he fell ill. That's two very different things - in both languages.
But the big question I'm left with is: do police really call 911? Aren't they the people who answer when you call 911?