"Humour me" and other bad subtitle translation

[skylee]

It was quite boring at work today so I chatted with a colleague via emails on this topic. My impression is that when "humour me" is used in films most of the time the Chinese subtitle is wrong. I can recall that I last heard this used seeing the film 50/50, but can't recall what the bad subtitle was.

What do you think is a good translation? How about (這次)依我吧/聽我説吧?

I can cite one more recent example of bad subtitle translation - the title of an opera "Il muto"in the recent "Phantom of the opera" recording has become 穆圖二世 in the subtitle.

Care to share your views?

[roddy]

I want to suggest 迁就, but suspect I'll think I something better later.

[skylee]

Yes I think 遷就 will do.

[FlorenceZhu]

I learned a new phrase! I saw someone said it's 哄我，humour a child is 哄小孩?

PS. I opened this forum accidently one day, and found it was interesting. I can rediscover Chinese which I took for granted, and can improve my reading and writing English at the same time. ^^

[Lu]

I've found that illegal dvd's here in Beijing usually have hilariously bad subtitles. They generally don't even come close to what's actually being said, I have no idea what kind of translators they get for that stuff.

Recently I was checking subtitles for a Dutch movie. The film had been translated from the English subtitles, which is already not the best of ideas, but it's hard enough to find someone to do halfway decent English to Chinese titles, let alone someone who knows Dutch. At some point in the movie, the main character gets a tattoo. He wants it to say 'Moeder' ('Mother') underneath a heart. We then get a short shot of the tattoo being done, at that point it only says 'Moe'. The English titles, quite correctly, translate this as 'Moth'. The Chinese titles in turn manage to translate this to 蛾子.

[skylee]

I have just come across a completely wrong translation in an internet version of an episode of The Good Wife (S03E12). A man meets a woman in a musuem. They don't know each other but they look at the same painting. She tells him where the painter's signature is on the painting. The woman then moves on to another painting, and the man follows her. The woman turns to the man and says, "That wasn't a pick up line.". And the subtitle goes "那不是一條隨便畫的線".

[imron]

A lot of the internet versions of foreign shows are fan-subbed, hence the less than stellar translations you sometimes find.

[skylee]

Here is another not so stellar one -

And I told you in confidence ≠ 我也很自信地告訴過你了

[skylee]

I found this screenshot in my pc. I took it because of the wrong translation I suppose.

You have no money to speak of ≠ 值得一提的是你沒有財產

I know, I know. It is fan-sub.

[skylee]

I am watching the series The Borgias and have just come across this photo (S1E1) on baidu. I think even in that context "rest assured" can't be translated to 請安息.

[imron]

請安息 it cannot

[skylee]

I've just come across another one - XX be damned ≠ XX 糟透了

[skylee]

This is from Scandal (S2E3) and it is so wrong. The Chinese is almost the opposite of the English. Not sure what is wrong with the translator.

[skylee]

Again this is from Scandal (S2E18). But this time it is about the props, not the fan sub. Please take a look at the attached screen shots.

This scene is about an interview in a detention room at an airport. The notices on the walls show prominantly the word "理會", which by the look of it is supposed to be the Chinese translation of "Attention". This is of course wrong. But I guess such mistakes are not uncommon.

[muyongshi]

I was watching an episode of Castle last night on LeTV (season 3 episode 24) and the actress said that after she heard someone arguing she "bolted"- subtitles said something to the effect of 锁了们.

(At least that one is understandable in terms of the why).

[Kenny同志]

"Humour me" is not that hard to translate provided I have the context.

Quoted from Urban Dictionary:

Person 1: Dude, come check out my totally awesome ninja pencil!

Person 2: Yeah..... no thanks...

Person 1: Naw, come on...humor me!

My attempt:

三德子，快來試試我的超級無敵忍者鉛筆！

是嗎？不過我現在沒時間。

誒，來嘛，你就試下嘛！

Notes:

三德子 is a nickname I made up. I changed dude to it because more often than not, a nickname is more natural and appropriate in showing intimacy in Chinese.

Just like "no, thanks", 沒時間 is a polite way to refuse someone. 我不試，謝謝'd sound a bit formal and stiff here, if not rude.

[renzhe]

But "Yeah..... no thanks..." is a very clear "no, not interested at all" here. Mind the ellipses (...) Also mind the general tone, which is very colloquial (dude, naw, totally awesome) and suggests the two people are quite close.

Your translation is too polite, IMHO. Simple "没兴趣" probably captures it better.

[skylee]

Now that we are back to discussing humour me, I have another screenshot from Scandal (S2E20) to share.

Here, the character Cyrus, who is the Chief of Staff, is persuading the POTUS to do something he does not want to do. And Cyrus says, "Humour me, humour me". And the subtitle goes 讓我開心開心...

[skylee]

Re #18, here is the same scene but this version is on youku. 遷就我一下 sounds better than 讓我開心開心.

[Kenny同志]

Your translation is too polite, IMHO. Simple "没兴趣" probably captures it better.

Yeah. Now think about it, 沒興趣 is better.