Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with translation

How to evaluate an offer to buy foreign rights?

Anonymous — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:31:20 -0800

I self-published a non-fiction technical book recently. A Chinese publisher has just approached me and wants to buy the 5-year Chinese foreign distribution rights. How do I evaluate their offer? I self-published a non-fiction technical book recently. A Chinese publisher has just approached me and wants to buy the 5-year Chinese foreign distribution rights. They appear to be a legitimate company, and they're offering an $1800 advance, 3000 copy 1st print run, and an 8% royalty rate on a $9 USD planned retail price (20% royalty rate on ebook sales).

I've Googled the topic and read some basic background stuff but am generally ignorant of the publishing industry and the retail market for books in China. Does this deal seem fair? Is there anything I should watch out for? [I do not intend to provide exclusivity for sales of the English edition in China--I sell the English ebook myself and it would be a huge PITA for me to keep Chinese buyers from purchasing it.] I'm a little suspicious of doing business with China, having heard many horror stories of IP theft, but honestly...my book is for sale on Amazon, if they wanted to illegally translate and sell it, they could have done that already.

I have already seen this previous question.

Bleeding/Thickness? Japanese paper qualities

lenehan — Wed, 15 May 2013 02:01:57 -0800

Could you translate this graph from Japanese to English for me? It's an overview of different paper types used for calligraphy - but I can't read... This is what google translate got me for the middle part.

Help with Latin!

lalalana — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:50:07 -0800

Hey! Any of you Latin aficionados care to help me translate? I'm looking for a phrase that means something like "(Administrative/Bureaucratic/Decision-Making) Power IS (the greatest form of) Power. It's for a faux-sigil for someone who just got a big promotion to an administrative leadership role.

Can you help translate this Italian phrase?

ataxia — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:43:08 -0800

Can you translate this Italian phrase into English? "Nun so' fesso ma faccio o' fesso perche' facendo o' fesso te faccio fesso." I found this in an Italian restaurant, and our server said it was too complicated to translate. Google searches aren't turning up anything useful, and google translate is giving me "I know Nun 'fool but I do or' fool 'cause doing or' stupid do you fool." Here is a photo.

Finnish to English translation of Moomin theme song

sanskrtam — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:31:56 -0800

I wonder if someone translates the Finnish theme song for Moomin into English. I cannot find the English translation in the internet. It would be very nice to understand what this interesting and classic Finnish song is about. "Kun Muumipeikko, Pikkumyy
ja Muumipappa esiintyy.
Silloin laulu kutsukoon
tuijottelutuokioon.

Käy Muumilaaksoon!

Muumitalon asukkaat
seuraksesi kohta saat.
Pääset mukaan viidakkoon,
taikapilvikarkeloon.

Nyt Muumilaaksoon!

Paa-pa-pa-paa-pa...

Jos lähdet mukaan, lupaan sen,
saat muumihetken mieluisen,
vaikka Mörön märinä
voi värisyttää välillä.

Käy Muumilaaksoon!

Jo muumiperhe odottaa,
ja huuliharpun repustaan
kaivaa Nuuskamuikkunen.
Hän soittaa tutun sävelen.

Vie Muumilaaksoon!"

Automate the dub

saysthis — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 08:51:54 -0800

China is on a major push to dub TV series into English, and I'm primarily a subtitle translator who's been dropped into the middle of this exploding industry. While I've found industry standards fairly easy to research, what I've found less than easy to locate are recommendations for specialized software used in the translation process. What I'd like to know, if anyone here can recommend anything, what are the software packages you use that help to automate or smooth the process, specifically tracking whether timing and lip sync are right, specifically free software, as it's going to be hell to convince my bosses to buy something they can't sample, and I've been assigned a squadron of three untrained non-native translators to do most of the heavy lifting for me.

What does this note say? Possibly arabic?

knapah — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 11:42:57 -0800

A friend of a friend posted a picture of a note to facebook. Can any of you identify the language and offer a translation of what it says? They say: "Found this note inside a bottle that was washed ashore! Anyone know what language it is/can work out what this message in the bottle says?"

It looks like arabic to me, but I'm no expert.

Could a fluent French speaker translate this for me?

uncannyslacks — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 18:41:50 -0800

I would like to know what the beginning of this song says translated to English from French (I'm assuming it's French; at least that's what it sounds like to me). Also, if there's any relevant information you can give me about the French that would be great (e.g., "It's a quotation from..." or "Everyone in France knows that this means..."). Nicolaas Jaar - Etre (Single Link Vimeo).

Persian speakers: help translate words and tone please!

mild deer — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:48:22 -0800

I tried putting this into google translate, but the output didn't make any sense to me. Could anyone please help me translate the conversation and the tone, please? Thank you very much. Followup questions will most likely come after. Person A: onjam ke bar nemidari khanom. mikhastam bebinam behtar shodi?
Person B: Ghesmate khanom goftanet ro mipasandam...
Person A: Merci khanom jon. By the way, Rozeton ham mobarak.

Arabic speakers: Brokenhearted girl needs your translation ability

thatgirl1985 — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 05:17:23 -0800

Here is the photo with the Arabic message: LINK What does this say in English? I think the girl might represent me. She looks brokenhearted, too. Thank you so much for your help!

Translation help - Text on what I believe is Chinese art

WickedPissah — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:30:17 -0800

Just picked up some cool paper cuts. And was wondering if metafilter can help me translate them. I believe they are Chinese but honestly I am not sure. Two images are below: Paper Cut One Paper Cut Two Let me know if you have any trouble with the images. And thanks again Metafilter!

Help me translate a phrase into Quenya

Errant — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:07:10 -0800

[TolkienFilter] A friend of mine would like to translate the phrase "'plans to give you hope and a future' Jeremiah 29:11" into Quenya. Please help me help her do that. Quoting now from her message to me: "There doesn't seem to be a word for 'future' in Quenya, so I was thinking about using 'good fortune', 'tomorrow', 'better tomorrow', something like that. I have a transcription tool for getting it in the Tengwar. A Sindarin translation would also be fine, but it looks to me like the vocabulary is more limited and more formal, and I figured 'Jeremiah' would have to just be phonetic. I'd prefer the informal 'you' to the formal 'thee'."

She thinks she does have a translation already, but she would like to double-check it and/or improve on it via the hivemind. If it matters, it's for a tattoo, I believe. She would like the chapter and verse notation translated also. Thanks very much.

Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers

outlandishmarxist — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 16:41:30 -0800

I'm looking for places, either online or in person, to workshop literary translation and exchange knowledge/resources. I'm working on a literary translation (German to English) that has a publisher. What I'd like, though, is a place to workshop segments, get readers, get feedback, etc. I live in NYC, so it can be something NY-based, as well as online-based. Forums, workshops, anything (although I don't want to pay).

Take me to the library ...

bwonder2 — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:00:48 -0800

I am working on a short translation and I need to access some already-published texts on the subject of the piece. I've exhausted the libraries in my city, as well as the bookshops and friends, and I want to know if there is some kind of online "library" service where I could post what I was looking for -- copies of specific page numbers in a book, or copies of index or contents pages that I could then follow-up with a request for copies of certain pages. Does such a thing exist? Thank you.

Quick help with very basic german

[@I][:+:][@I] — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 11:17:21 -0800

We have this "German translation" of a template, which is obviously incomplete: Sie haben einen Termin mit Dr. [DOCTOR'S NAME] on [DATE] at [TIME]. I don't trust google translate, so I come to you, German speakers of metafilter. Can you please finish the translation? Thanks.

Basic Latin translation

Parsnip — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 02:20:17 -0800

Can someone, please, confirm or correct the following translation from English to Latin: Light and Shadow = Luci atque umbris Why is it not 'lux atque umbris'? Thanks!

Wordpress site, built in English, for Chinese readers

cilantro — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:46:53 -0800

Tell me what you know about building a Wordpress-based site in English, but with Chinese-language content. Or any other language, really, if it applies to this situation. The site will be built by English-speaking designers and developers for an English speaking company that wants a small Chinese-language Wordpress site for their burgeoning Chinese market.

The CMS will be in English, and Chinese language content will be input directly into the CMS by the translator. The reason we're not doing this as a static build is that the content will change on a regular basis.

All the information I've found so far is about using plugins to automatically provide translation - that doesn't apply because we will be using a professional translator. I just want to know about things like

-design considerations
-Chinese character support
-I know Wordpress.org is banned in China - does that mean there will be problems at all with building a site with a Wordpress framework?
-Anything else I've forgotten?

Hokis - Armenian slang?

jitterbug perfume — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:16:35 -0800

Trying to find out more about what the word Hokis, which seems to be a slang term, means in Armenian. Not very googlable, or not for me. Any help would be much appreciated.

Do you speak French? Could you help me translate this?

mermily — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:57:48 -0800

My piano teacher gave me the music for this. The video is of one of my fave pianists (Cortot) giving a masterclass on the piece and I'd really like to know what he's saying. (Hope this is the appropriate place to ask.)

What is this exotic thing?

wats — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:02:34 -0800

Would anybody be kind enough to help me by translating some Japanese text of some type, that might help shed some light on a mysterious item that I have had in my posession for several years? So I've been into geocaching off and on for a good decade or so now. Maybe round 2004 or 2005, I took an item out of a cache on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It is a small mask depicting the face of a cow (I'm pretty sure), about the size of a fist. It's quite delicate, made out of plaster or papier mache. Looks like this. I quite like it and have had it displayed in my house ever since.

With the item came a 4x5 piece of paper with some Japanese text on it, and after all these years I'd sure love to know what it says (sorry to say that I don't even know if I've oriented it the right way up).
The inside of the mask also contains a symbol of some kind, painted in gold, seen here. Does it mean anything?

Anyone recognise the mask or accompanying writing as being of any particular significance?
Thanks for the help!

In Seven Psychopaths, what did the hooker say in Vietnamese?

monkeys with typewriters — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:04:09 -0800

I feel like I should be able to find the translation with Google, but it is proving more difficult than expected. I would love to know what they were saying in the Vietnamese parts of this movie.

Does anyone know what this says? Maybe Chinese or Japanese?

katinka-katinka — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:28:00 -0800

My friend found this slip in some packaging; can anyone tell us what it says? Image here.

Kanji wear it?

tilde — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:53:26 -0800

Any idea what this says? On a dark "ninja style" hoodie my young newbie martial arts enthusiast has fallen for. There is a stylized Japanese sun patch on it as well, so I'm assuming kanji ....

Mostly don't want to offend someone or look foolish with some crazy nonsensical thing; could say "eat Fruity Oatie Bars" for all I know. Knowledge is power. Thanks.

What do these funny letters say?

crazylegs — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:02:05 -0800

Can you read Hebrew? Help me out! I have a book with the publisher and date written in Hebrew, which you can see here. I totally can't read it. Can you?

'Actuality is indexical' in Latin?

Anything — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:58:58 -0800

Please help me high-falute! How would you translate the modal realist tenet 'Actuality is indexical' into Latin? The introductory paragraph in the linked Wikipedia article as well as the summary of tenets should give context for those who'd be interested in providing an answer. Thanks!