Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: John Ames Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: Floppies Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2025 08:35:40 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 25 Message-ID: <20250922083540.0000535b@gmail.com> References: <106mke5$1di32$1@dont-email.me> <106vi4r$3c9cr$2@dont-email.me> <3ihcmlx47d.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <1070cqj$3jkmu$1@dont-email.me> <1071hu3$1idk1$1@news1.tnib.de> <9fjemlxbio.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <6jefmlxb6j.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <10884l7$173em$1@dont-email.me> <1089ge2$1fvl9$8@dont-email.me> <10a68ql$16tjt$1@dont-email.me> <68c6bbc5$0$402$426a74cc@news.free.fr> <10a6rp4$1d082$5@dont-email.me> <2d9jplxvcn.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <10a6t8d$1d082$8@dont-email.me> <4cnjplxbgm.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <10a8lmu$1q6g1$7@dont-email.me> <1s2mplx32v.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <68cdb6b5$0$12931$426a34cc@news.free.fr> <68cea06f$0$3385$426a74cc@news.free.fr> <68d0070f$0$11426$426a74cc@news.free.fr> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Injection-Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2025 15:35:43 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="119a9887518b7bb5a422a4fd526062b6"; logging-data="2485951"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19rctaRJBVzWMvX0STBI8q5gp3pQf+UqB8=" Cancel-Lock: sha1:S5hu6suQ0AMZmJls9WN49tHZNlg= X-Newsreader: Claws Mail 4.3.0 (GTK 3.24.42; x86_64-w64-mingw32) Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:74847 On 21 Sep 2025 14:09:19 GMT St=E9phane CARPENTIER wrote: > Yes, it's impossible to translate, the only way is to find something > similar. It's not always possible. Here a crude translation could only > lost on way to understand it, the understanding remains, but the joke > is lost. Puns are probably the hardest thing to translate; sometimes coincidence or shared linguistic heritage hands you an easy one, and sometimes (as in your example) a change in particulars allows the translator to get the gist of the joke across even if it's technically saying something different...but sometimes there's just nothing you can do, and the harder you try the more tortured the result gets... > I can see footnotes used in the same way in other books. But it's > different. A joke explained is never as funny as a joke understood. Sometimes there's just no helping it, though. Been on a kick digging into medieval beast fables this year, and that's enough of a culture gap all by itself, even before before you get to the satire on the abuses of the clergy in the 12th century or cases where a particular Latin pun is so bad that the original author has to stop and explain just how bad it is...!