Help translate this message.

January 29, 2006 2:32 PM

Please help me translate this message into as many languages as possible: "This is an important notice. Please have it translated."

These are the languages I've already got--if any native speakers (or resident polyglots) happen to notice any mistakes, please let me know. Hopefully the unicode will post correctly, otherwise I'll do a follow-up.

• This is an important notice. Please have it translated.
• Ogeysiiskan waa mid muhiim ah. Fadlan, soo turjum.
• 这是一件很重要的通知, 请翻译戓中文.
• Man ngec ma pire tek. Tim ber gony i leb Acholi.
• Este es un aviso importante. Por favor asegure que se traduce.
• Это очень важное сообщєние. Пожалуйста имейте иметь его быть переведенным.
• Đây là một thông cáo quan trọng. Xin vui lòng cho dịch lại thông cáo âý.
• Este é um aviso importante. Queira mandá-lo traduzir.
• Ceci est important. Veuillez faire traduire.

posted by Civil_Disobedient to writing & language (48 comments total)

Dit is een belangrijke melding. Zorg dat deze vertaald wordt. (dutch)

Literally "This is an important notification. See to it that it gets translated." There might be better translations of "notice", but you'll have to give some context.
posted by fvw at 2:34 PM on January 29, 2006

In Swedish: "Detta är ett viktigt meddelande. Vänligen se till att få det översatt."
posted by springload at 2:44 PM on January 29, 2006

Correction to Spanish:

Este es un aviso importante. Por favor asegure que se traduzca.
posted by pealco at 2:55 PM on January 29, 2006

German:"Dies ist eine wichtige Mitteilung. Bitte lassen Sie sie übersetzen."
posted by snownoid at 3:01 PM on January 29, 2006

korean: 이것은 중요한 통고입니다. 변역해 주십시오.
posted by provolot at 3:17 PM on January 29, 2006

Do you want Luxembourgish?
"Dest ass eng wichteg Mattdeelung. Loosst se w.e.g. iwwersetzen."

By the way the French only says "this is important" - the full version would be "Ceci est un avis important. Veuillez le faire traduire."
posted by ClarissaWAM at 3:21 PM on January 29, 2006

For the French, I'd go with:

Ceci est une notification importante. Veuillez la traduire.
posted by dsword at 3:26 PM on January 29, 2006

The second sentence of your Russian version is not correct, and the message structure would be unusual to a Russian speaker. My suggestion (for the whole thing):
"Это очень важное сообщение. Пожалуйста, найдите переводчика."

(literally: "This is a very important message. Please find a translator")

That said, I think you are missing something here. Communicating to an audience which is presumed to not know the original language of the message, you should tell them what language it is in so they can find the right person to translate it.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 3:41 PM on January 29, 2006

これは大事な伝言なのです。訳していただけますよ。

Japanese fer ya. My Japanese isn't the best, and there's other ways to say this, but I think this functions for now.
posted by Lockeownzj00 at 3:56 PM on January 29, 2006

re: Spanish: "Por favor asegure que se traduzca" is a very passive way to say this. "Por favor haga que se lo traduzcan" is closer to "Please have it translated".
posted by signal at 4:31 PM on January 29, 2006

From my admittedly spotty recollection of Esperanto:

Ĉi estas afiŝo grava. Bonvolu traduku.
posted by milquetoast at 4:32 PM on January 29, 2006

When in Rome: Questo è un avviso importante. Per favore averlo ha tradotto.
posted by rob511 at 4:47 PM on January 29, 2006

זוהי מודעה חשובה. נא לתרם אותה.
posted by growabrain at 5:07 PM on January 29, 2006

Ooops - Correction:

זוהי מודעה חשובה. נא לתרגם אותה
posted by growabrain at 5:08 PM on January 29, 2006

Danish: "Dette er en vigtig meddelelse. Venligst få den oversat".
posted by AwkwardPause at 5:35 PM on January 29, 2006

Lockeownzj00, according to my girlfriend that's very good, but the second sentence need to be more deferential...

これは大事な伝言なのです。 訳していただけないでしょうか。
posted by drumcorpse at 5:51 PM on January 29, 2006

Well, since everything else I speak is taken:
Isthay isay anay importantay oticenay. Leasepay avehay itay anslatedtray.
posted by allen.spaulding at 5:57 PM on January 29, 2006 [1 favorite]

An revision to my previous comment on the Japanese version...
I guess it depends on context. If the notice is being delivered to a specific individual or group, my revision is correct. If it's a notice for public display, Lockeownzj00's original is more appropriate.
posted by drumcorpse at 6:15 PM on January 29, 2006

Erm, Rob511, that's not correct. The first sentence is right, but "per favore averlo ha tradotto" means, more or less "please have it had translated." It would be more like "deve essere tradotto," or "it must be translated."
posted by lackutrol at 7:17 PM on January 29, 2006

I'm curious; what is this for?

Also - great thread.
posted by odinsdream at 7:27 PM on January 29, 2006

I'm curious too.

Malay: Notis ini amat penting. Tolong terjemahkan kepada bahasa-bahasa lain.

(it's a bit broken, so feel free to correct)
posted by divabat at 7:50 PM on January 29, 2006

I'd say for the Russian, Пожалуйста, переводите aкуpaтно, because the original does not mention a translator, but I am not a native speaker of Russian.

For Czech:

Důležité informace: Předložte je.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 8:09 PM on January 29, 2006

Re: spanish

"Por favor asegure que se traduzca" is a very passive way to say this. "Por favor haga que se lo traduzcan" is closer to "Please have it translated".

I agree about the passiveness of the first version, but the alternative implies that the person reading the message is not capable of translating it himself (it reads "please get somebody to translate it for you")

If that was not the original meaning (is slightly ambiguous in the original english phrase) a better choice might be "Por favor asegurese de traducirlo"
posted by sd at 8:22 PM on January 29, 2006

gesamtkunstwerk, that's sort of redundant though. "Please translate accurately", as opposed to sloppily? If you insist, there is one small typo - it should be "Пожалуйста, переведите aкуpaтно".

But I think I like a combination of your and mine versions: "Это очень важное сообщение. Пожалуйста переведите."

It might or might not be 100% grammatically perfect, but the meaning will be immediately obvious to a Russian speaker, and that seems to be what matters most given the context.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 10:09 PM on January 29, 2006

Bahasa Indonesia: Pengumuman ini sangat penting. Tolong terjemahkan. (This anouncement is very important. Please translate [it].)
posted by dangerousdan at 10:47 PM on January 29, 2006

Thank you everyone for your replies. I am sadly not at complete liberty to talk about the nature of the request, but it should suffice to say (as one might tell from the rather odd phrasing/nature of the phrase) it's for Official Use®

Communicating to an audience which is presumed to not know the original language of the message, you should tell them what language it is in so they can find the right person to translate it.

Actually for this usage it will be generally understood to refer to English, but thank you for pointing out this logical inconsistency. A bit like asking someone to go look up how to spell a word in the dictionary.

Also, I'd like to thank the Russian speakers here for pointing out the incorrectness of the second part to my original Russian version. The first part I was sure of, the second I put through Altavista's Babelfish. Apparently automatic translators sound fishy in all languages.

Thanks, Arigato, Tak, Dank, Gracias, Merci, Tarima Casi, etc., etc. to all and I'll run this through the Best Answer Mill® when I get a chance tomorrow.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:58 PM on January 29, 2006

Finnish: Tämä on tärkeä tiedote. Olkaa hyvä ja käännättäkää se.
posted by keijo at 12:03 AM on January 30, 2006

For the French, I'd use 'avis' rather than 'notification' - assuming this is a notice that's pinned on the wall, rather than something you receive through the mail. If the latter, then 'notification' is more appropriate. And you need the 'le' in 'veuillez le faire traduire'. (not a native speaker)
posted by altolinguistic at 2:31 AM on January 30, 2006

also, 'ceci est important' would be OK if it was obvious what 'ceci' referred to.
posted by altolinguistic at 2:32 AM on January 30, 2006

Dit is een belangrijke mededeling. Laat het alstublieft vertalen. (dutch, alternate version)

mededeling is better than melding, melding sounds too much like a specialist detail to me, mededeling is more general, applicable to everyone. This version of the second sentence keeps the 'please' in there. Or you could modify fvw's translation like this:

Zorg ervoor dat het vertaald wordt.

Leaving out ervoor sounds flemish to me, for a more general dutchness better put it in.
posted by disso at 3:18 AM on January 30, 2006

Hindi (India):
यह एक जरूरी सूचना है। इसे हिंढी मे अनुबाद कीजीए।
posted by ayush at 4:44 AM on January 30, 2006

Native Japanese speaker here! Well, I finally made an account just to translate this. Hope it isn't too late...

Japanese translation:

これは大事な通達です。翻訳してもらって下さい。
Kore wa dai-ji na tsuutatsu desu. Hon-yaku shite moratte kudasai.

伝言(den-gon) means more like a spoken message that you leave on an answering machine.通達 is more like a notice that you see pinned up on a bulletin board. So I guess if the "notice" is a spoken one, then 通達 should be replaced by 伝言.

No offense to drumcorpse, but 訳していただけないでしょうか。means "Will you translate this for me?"

Hope this helps!
posted by misozaki at 5:00 AM on January 30, 2006

it's for Official Use®

Then this is a very poor way of going about it. No offense to anyone, and I'm glad everybody's having a good time, but virtually all the entries here should be prefaced by blindcarboncopy's "It might or might not be 100% grammatically perfect..." If this were for one of those silly "I can eat glass" webpages, fine, but if it's supposed to be official, for god's sake get it translated professionally. Why do you think translators get paid for what they do? Do you really think that a bunch of random MeFites with half-assed knowledge of various languages are going to give you any better results than Babelfish? To take one example, blindcarboncopy says: "there is one small typo - it should be "Пожалуйста, переведите aкуpaтно." He mistakes an imperfective form for a typo, and misses the genuine typo (there are two к's in aккуpaтно). Not picking on bcc, who's simply having fun playing with a language he enjoys, as is everybody else here, but that's the kind of results you're going to get, and I don't know what else you expected.

I hate to come off as the wet blanket—god knows I always enjoy these playing-with-language threads—but I'm afraid you're going to get in trouble at your job if you're supposed to be getting proper translations of an official document and instead are going with Human Babelfish.
posted by languagehat at 6:33 AM on January 30, 2006

Common folks - there has to be some latin (or other obsolete ancient language) experts out there that can put their education to use.
posted by Psharden at 6:42 AM on January 30, 2006

"This is an important notice. Please have it translated."

Italian:

Questo è un avviso importante. Per favore, fatevelo tradurre".
posted by matteo at 9:01 AM on January 30, 2006

Nitpick with the Chinese translation: '件' isn't the proper 量词 for the noun '通知'. The third to the last character of your original sentence looks like a typo. I'd also make it slightly more concise:
这是一条重要通知, 请翻译成中文.
posted by of strange foe at 10:24 AM on January 30, 2006

Languagehat, you are right about my missing the other typo (now that I look at it, it's glaringly obvious), but I stand by my other correction. I am not well-versed enough in Russian language formal structure (being neither a linguist, nor a translator), but as a native speaker I can tell you that what I wrote definitely sounds right, whereas the original does not.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 12:00 PM on January 30, 2006

Bah. Upon more reflection, I take back that statement. Either form is valid, but the meanings they carry are very slightly different (not enough to matter for this discussion), and lh's form is less frequently used.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 1:19 PM on January 30, 2006

as a native speaker I can tell you that what I wrote definitely sounds right, whereas the original does not

Ah, that's a different story. Yeah, the perfective form you gave is correct—in general, positive commands use the perfective, negative ones the imperfective form—but I didn't see any point getting into that, since your complaint was that it was a typo, and I didn't realize you were a native speaker who would automatically feel the imperfective was wrong. But that brings up another point: even native speakers miss typos, unless they're also proofreaders (or have that kind of eye). And the poster has no idea who's a native speaker and who's not, whose translations are trustworthy and whose aren't. I stand by my puzzlement that this thread could be considered a good way to get translations.
posted by languagehat at 1:22 PM on January 30, 2006

On non-preview:

lh's form is less frequently used.

Whoa there! It's gesamtkunstwerk's translation, not mine! My Russian certainly isn't perfect, but I wouldn't have used an imperfective form in that context.
posted by languagehat at 1:24 PM on January 30, 2006

Use matteo's version rather than mine. He's the native!
posted by lackutrol at 3:28 PM on January 30, 2006

Languagehat is right both times. While we're all well-intentioned I'm sure some of us are either not yet proficient or a little rusty. I used to do Italian > English translation professionally, and I wouldn't trust myself to get it right the other way even then. Now I've been out of the business for several years and some constructions don't even occur to me.

Dang! I need to reread me some Calvino.
posted by lackutrol at 3:39 PM on January 30, 2006

Languagehat, my bad on attributing someone else's translation to you.

I used to do freelance translation of technical documents from Russian to English a few years ago. That was difficult enough, and it was translating unambiguous technical jargon that I was well-acquainted with in both languages. Tackling more freeform document is well out of my reach, even though I am completely fluent in both Russian and English. I just don't have the educational background that doing it right requires.
posted by blindcarboncopy at 4:34 PM on January 30, 2006

Why do you think translators get paid for what they do?

Well, I appreciate the concern, LH, and I apologize for not being more forthcoming about the nature of my inquiry, but I have already had this translated, and in fact was merely trying to gather some additional reassurances that the versions I have recieved are, in fact, correct.

Thing is, LH, having already gone through the process of hiring a few different translators, I can tell you that for the not-so-common languages you take what you can get. Which means we'll take any Mr. Local Serbo-Croatian Translator we can find over nothing at all, which is not much different than Mr. Metafilter Serbo-Croatian Translator, who is right nearly as often but costs a good deal less.

Anyway, thank you all for your responses, and LH, for your concern.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:41 PM on January 30, 2006

Ah, thanks for clarifying. I certainly appreciate the difficulty in finding reliable translators, even for money, and I can see where you'd be willing to try the MeFi Lottery as a supplement.
posted by languagehat at 5:16 PM on January 30, 2006

The present communication is mission critical in achieving key strategic outcomes going forward, and all personnel are expected to facilitate continuous improvement in the ongoing dissemination process by proactively identifying and empowering linguistically appropriate and culturally sensitive implementation methods for adaptation to the comprehensibility requirements of a diverse range of stakeholders.
posted by flabdablet at 5:17 PM on January 30, 2006

In Hungarian:

"Ez egy fontos üzenet. Kérem, gondoskodjon a leforditásáról!"
posted by kzs at 2:47 AM on February 1, 2006

Romanian: "Acesta este un anunţ important. Vă rog traduceţi."

kzs: nice timing, huh? :)
posted by vkxmai at 7:59 PM on February 1, 2006