#Staff Column
2022.04.12
Why on Earth did Avengers have no chance of winning?
Columnist | Introducing the columns written by member of Amorepacific Group
History of Translation Part 1. Why on Earth did Avengers
have no chance of winning?
have no chance of winning?
Columnist | Rhee Hwanhee
Amorepacific Talent Development Team
#INTRO_Starting a column
OTT services are everywhere, and there are increasing numbers of new books released every year. We are living in a time overflowing with cultural content. In that sense, translation is a field that has more impact than we think, an area that is worth taking note of.
Director Bong Joon-ho of the movie Parasite famously said to the US audience, “Once you overcome the one inch tall barrier of the subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” I’d like to share a story about this 1-inch barrier, which we are familiar with, and a story about many novels that have been translated into Korean. I hope that these five columns offer an opportunity to provide a bit of fun and attract the attention of people who are probably enjoying the numerous amount of content available even at this moment.
OTT services are everywhere, and there are increasing numbers of new books released every year. We are living in a time overflowing with cultural content. In that sense, translation is a field that has more impact than we think, an area that is worth taking note of.
Director Bong Joon-ho of the movie Parasite famously said to the US audience, “Once you overcome the one inch tall barrier of the subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” I’d like to share a story about this 1-inch barrier, which we are familiar with, and a story about many novels that have been translated into Korean. I hope that these five columns offer an opportunity to provide a bit of fun and attract the attention of people who are probably enjoying the numerous amount of content available even at this moment.
#Infamous mistranslations in the film history
In 2019, a foreign film broke the record for first day viewers and exceeded 10 million attendees for the fifth time in Korean history. The movie garnered a massive amount of attention across the nation as a long-awaited film for many, but a lot of people probably still remember the misinterpretation issue that also became a hot topic.
In 2019, a foreign film broke the record for first day viewers and exceeded 10 million attendees for the fifth time in Korean history. The movie garnered a massive amount of attention across the nation as a long-awaited film for many, but a lot of people probably still remember the misinterpretation issue that also became a hot topic.
Yes, I’m talking about Avengers: Infinity War. In the film, at a decisive moment when things started to get overwhelmingly in favor of the villain, the audience groaned when they heard what Dr. Strange told Tony Stark.
“Tony, we have no chance of winning now.”
The actual line in English was “We’re in the endgame now.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the endgame means “the final stage of a game of chess or bridge,” while the English to Korean dictionary says, “the end of the war, the final stage.” Just as there are many expressions that have originated from the game of Go (e.g. a clever move, an irrational number, and an incomplete life), endgame is also an established expression that is derived from chess. That line actually implies that, “We are in the last stage,” meaning that they have a plan despite being in a desperate situation. It’s not even a newly coined word or slang. If a translator thinks that the combination of the words end and game simply means the game has ended, only to conclude that the avengers have no chance of winning, he is making a critical and elementary error, failing to grasp the real significance of a word that seems easy to translate, but actually isn’t.
The final battle scene begins at the climax of the movie. In the scene where characters “throw the hail Mary for the future,” the audience saw it as a scene in which the lead character “gave up on everything.” Instead of having hopes for “what would be the clever move by the avengers,” they had to watch the remaining part of the movie with a sense of defeat, thinking that “the heroes had no hope.” Moreover, the sequel to this film was titled Avengers: Endgame, which meant that, according to the misinterpretation, Avengers: having no chance of winning. This was an example of a translator who had had a significant impact on the movie.
Other prominent examples that became huge issues can be found in the movie Star Wars and the book Harry Potter. Harry Potter even published a completely new Korean translation on the 20th anniversary of its publication. Mistranslations are generally seen in extensive serials, especially in science fiction works. Mistranslations are often caused by unfamiliar words or a lack of understanding on the fictional universe. Another reason is the translator’s anxiety thinking that there must be a different meaning for even a simple sentence. Let’s take a look at one particular famous misinterpretation in Star Wars. Darth Vader says, "Prepare the boarding party, and set your weapons for stun,” and this line is translated into, “Prepare for the party. Make them go crazy.”
The final battle scene begins at the climax of the movie. In the scene where characters “throw the hail Mary for the future,” the audience saw it as a scene in which the lead character “gave up on everything.” Instead of having hopes for “what would be the clever move by the avengers,” they had to watch the remaining part of the movie with a sense of defeat, thinking that “the heroes had no hope.” Moreover, the sequel to this film was titled Avengers: Endgame, which meant that, according to the misinterpretation, Avengers: having no chance of winning. This was an example of a translator who had had a significant impact on the movie.
Other prominent examples that became huge issues can be found in the movie Star Wars and the book Harry Potter. Harry Potter even published a completely new Korean translation on the 20th anniversary of its publication. Mistranslations are generally seen in extensive serials, especially in science fiction works. Mistranslations are often caused by unfamiliar words or a lack of understanding on the fictional universe. Another reason is the translator’s anxiety thinking that there must be a different meaning for even a simple sentence. Let’s take a look at one particular famous misinterpretation in Star Wars. Darth Vader says, "Prepare the boarding party, and set your weapons for stun,” and this line is translated into, “Prepare for the party. Make them go crazy.”
With such a solemn face...
Currently, these series have a huge fandom. Accurate interpretations in accordance with the fictional universe are uploaded immediately following the release. There are, however, still many mistranslations in historic and war movies due to flaws in historical research, and those errors won’t be fixed on platforms such as OTT services. Saving Private Ryan is notorious for having omitted a crucial line. The only good translation available is an illegal subtitle created by a blogger.
#What causes mistranslations? – Cultural illiteracy
I began by giving some extreme examples, but mistranslations are caused by misinterpreting the basic vocabulary or sentence structures. Other causes are a lack of understanding on cultural differences, which is also referred to as cultural illiteracy. In the case of English to Korean translation, this means mistranslations that happen due to the translator having a lack of understanding of the local culture, such as sports, food, and customs, even if the translator speaks English well. Examples abound, but I’ll give you one representative example.
I began by giving some extreme examples, but mistranslations are caused by misinterpreting the basic vocabulary or sentence structures. Other causes are a lack of understanding on cultural differences, which is also referred to as cultural illiteracy. In the case of English to Korean translation, this means mistranslations that happen due to the translator having a lack of understanding of the local culture, such as sports, food, and customs, even if the translator speaks English well. Examples abound, but I’ll give you one representative example.
Paul Auster, the author of The New York Trilogy
In Paul Auster’s most famous book, The New York Trilogy, there is a line that goes, “They have minor leaguers at second and short, (…) they can’t even decide who to put in right.” This was translated as “The team had players who barely made to the second class even in the minor league, (…) they can’t even decide who they’ll use for certain positions.” This is a difficult sentence to translate, and you may think that there are no errors in the translation, It is, however, a complete mistranslation. The translator thought that he definitely knew the meaning of words second, short, and right. In this sentence, however, they are referring to baseball positions, so the sentence means, “The second baseman and the shortstop are minor leaguers, (…) they can’t even decide who they should use for the right fielder.” This is something that US readers who are more used to baseball terminology would never be confused about.
#What causes mistranslations? – Excessive liberal translation
Mistranslations are often caused by bad liberal translations by the translators. The difference between the previous two examples and this one is that the above examples are a matter of each translator’s capabilities, but this example is a matter of their intention.
According to the Standard Korean Dictionary, liberal translation means “to translate by maintaining the meaning of the overall context without being excessively constrained by the words or phrases in the original sentence, or such translation.” You can’t divide translations evenly into either a literal and liberal translation, and then translate the entire work using one of the two translation methods. Most translators find balance by placing “being faithful to the original text” on the one end of the scale while putting “being faithful to the readers” on the other end of the scale. Each translator, however, has different center of gravity. A liberal translation can become a mistranslation when the translator focuses too much on “translating by maintaining the meaning of the overall context” and ignores the remaining words and sentences in the original text.
Mistranslations are often caused by bad liberal translations by the translators. The difference between the previous two examples and this one is that the above examples are a matter of each translator’s capabilities, but this example is a matter of their intention.
According to the Standard Korean Dictionary, liberal translation means “to translate by maintaining the meaning of the overall context without being excessively constrained by the words or phrases in the original sentence, or such translation.” You can’t divide translations evenly into either a literal and liberal translation, and then translate the entire work using one of the two translation methods. Most translators find balance by placing “being faithful to the original text” on the one end of the scale while putting “being faithful to the readers” on the other end of the scale. Each translator, however, has different center of gravity. A liberal translation can become a mistranslation when the translator focuses too much on “translating by maintaining the meaning of the overall context” and ignores the remaining words and sentences in the original text.
The movies Marie Antoinette (left), and Robot and Frank (right)
The movies Marie Antoinette, and Robot and Frank generated many news articles in Korea alone, though their box office performance or reviews were not so remarkable. It was their translation. The two films did not get proper feedback in Korea because the translators arbitrarily used too many fad phrases regardless of the context of the film. In Robot and Frank, which was released in 2013, an AI robot appears in the movie, and the translator used concise, casual internet language for the robot’s lines out of the blue and damaged the theme of the movie, which was the relationship between the lead character and the robot. Let’s dive deeper into this concept of mistranslations in the movie Marie Antoinette.
Marie Antoinette, released in 2006, is a film adaptation of the novel with the same title. It is set in a palace in the 18th century but made a bold attempt of using modern mise-en-scène throughout the film. The movie critic’s views on the movie were divided but the majority of them were not criticisms as was the case in Korea. One translator, however, completely changed the evaluation of the movie, so you might say, in a sense, he did an extraordinary job than the Infinity War translator.
Modern props like Converse sneakers are used in many parts of the movie. They were used as devices to show Marie Antoinette as a young girl, before she was a princess or a queen. Korean audiences would surely have understood the intention of the director if, for example, that scene had used rubber shoes or straw shoes just for the Korean viewers. Nonetheless, the translator bombarded all sorts of internet fad phrases of the time in the princess’s lines, saying that he, “Intended to convey the director’s intention to the audience.” Hence, we had to watch a movie where a princess from the 18th century Europe saying things like, “He is a tempting hunk,” “I’m completely intrigued,” “Lustful smile,” “Generally embarrassed,” “So annoying,” “Shocking, “Your stylist is your anti-fan.” The original English lines were plain English, and some lines were said to be actual words that Marie Antoinette had said. This is an example in which the translator misunderstood his authority and ignored the basic duties and knowledge after becoming far too absorbed in what he was doing.
Marie Antoinette, released in 2006, is a film adaptation of the novel with the same title. It is set in a palace in the 18th century but made a bold attempt of using modern mise-en-scène throughout the film. The movie critic’s views on the movie were divided but the majority of them were not criticisms as was the case in Korea. One translator, however, completely changed the evaluation of the movie, so you might say, in a sense, he did an extraordinary job than the Infinity War translator.
Modern props like Converse sneakers are used in many parts of the movie. They were used as devices to show Marie Antoinette as a young girl, before she was a princess or a queen. Korean audiences would surely have understood the intention of the director if, for example, that scene had used rubber shoes or straw shoes just for the Korean viewers. Nonetheless, the translator bombarded all sorts of internet fad phrases of the time in the princess’s lines, saying that he, “Intended to convey the director’s intention to the audience.” Hence, we had to watch a movie where a princess from the 18th century Europe saying things like, “He is a tempting hunk,” “I’m completely intrigued,” “Lustful smile,” “Generally embarrassed,” “So annoying,” “Shocking, “Your stylist is your anti-fan.” The original English lines were plain English, and some lines were said to be actual words that Marie Antoinette had said. This is an example in which the translator misunderstood his authority and ignored the basic duties and knowledge after becoming far too absorbed in what he was doing.
This did not cause a controversy at the time since it was a funny animation movie...
There was a controversy surrounding the animation movie Shrek 2, though we can’t say this is clearly a mistranslation. Fiona’s home country, in the movie is translated as “a terribly far away kingdom (the translator used Korean dialect to emphasize ‘terribly’).” That was a translation of a “Kingdom Far Far Away.” This can be taken as a fun liberal translation, but this removed the wit of the original phrase and, instead, added a different element of humor, which was made by the translator.
“Once upon a time in a kingdom Far Far Away...”
This is a famous introductory line often used in classic fairy tales featuring a prince or a princess. Shrek 2 also begins with this line. Korean children’s books also have a similar line to this. The original animation uses this line to stimulate the nostalgia from childhood stories, while using it as the name of a country as a laughter trigger. This is like setting the background of a Korean fairy tale in the age of “Once Upon a Time.” It is meant to give laughter with a witty setting, instead of tweaking the expression “Far Far Away” to make it sound funny. It is regrettable that the translator used a dialect that was not even used in the original text.
For your reference, the Shrek series was translated by a well-known veteran translator, and he always mentions Shrek as one of “the most memorable translation pieces he is proud of.” Not surprisingly, his liberal translation was popular among moviegoers in the 1990s and even movie journalists at the time. Twenty to thirty years ago, there was a widespread perception that a “good translation of a foreign film is a liberal translation that makes it easy for the Korean audience to understand,” and he was the one who created such perception.
In fact, “a terribly far away kingdom” is a decent translation compared to his previous translations. The movie Mulan released in 1998 had a line that goes, “I’m your worst nightmare.” This line appears when the villains appear, and it is a parody of a line that appears often in the Batman series. He translated the line into “I’m the cousin of Yonggari (a monstrous dragon).” In Bug’s Life released in the same year, he translated “It's nonsense compared to the Twig 1993” into “We even overcame the Danpung (Korean for fall leaves) disaster in 1993.” It was a parody for the worst disaster of the time, the sudden collapse of Sampung shopping mall. This is an unacceptable translation these days, but the translation was well received back then.
For your reference, the Shrek series was translated by a well-known veteran translator, and he always mentions Shrek as one of “the most memorable translation pieces he is proud of.” Not surprisingly, his liberal translation was popular among moviegoers in the 1990s and even movie journalists at the time. Twenty to thirty years ago, there was a widespread perception that a “good translation of a foreign film is a liberal translation that makes it easy for the Korean audience to understand,” and he was the one who created such perception.
In fact, “a terribly far away kingdom” is a decent translation compared to his previous translations. The movie Mulan released in 1998 had a line that goes, “I’m your worst nightmare.” This line appears when the villains appear, and it is a parody of a line that appears often in the Batman series. He translated the line into “I’m the cousin of Yonggari (a monstrous dragon).” In Bug’s Life released in the same year, he translated “It's nonsense compared to the Twig 1993” into “We even overcame the Danpung (Korean for fall leaves) disaster in 1993.” It was a parody for the worst disaster of the time, the sudden collapse of Sampung shopping mall. This is an unacceptable translation these days, but the translation was well received back then.
#Closing – Accepting the translation
Since translations are done by people, there can never be such a thing as a perfect translation (It doesn’t, however, mean that we can trust AI in the field of story content). So, how then should we accept translated films and books that may contain mistranslations?
First and foremost, we need to be generous and recognize the limitations of translation. It doesn’t mean that we should always forgive critical mistranslations, but we must not miss out on the fun by being too engrossed in finding misinterpretations. There are extreme examples such as in Infinity War and Marie Antoinette, but a certain level of translation quality needs to be maintained, and such mistranslations that take away from the fun of the original work are rare. The notorious Infinity War translator actually translated most of the Marvel movies and his translations often provoke controversy. There are, however, many people who still rave about Marvel movies in Korea.
Professor Young-mok Jung, a famous translator for books written by Alain de Botton, said in an interview, “The original work and the translated work are different. If you think that they must be the same, that becomes a nightmare.” and further explained the limitations posed by translation that are bound to be different from the original work. In that sense, the generosity we must exercise, for example, would be to not to expect to get the same emotions delivered by the original Great Gatsby when reading the Korean translated version of the book. Great Gatsby is a book that has been translated by multiple translators. Although there is a difference in the degree of mistranslations, all translations can have some degree of mistranslation, and they will also have slightly different interpretations of the same sentence or the same scenes. It doesn’t mean that we always get to access works that are inferior to the original work. A well-written story naturally has multiple translations, and we get to enjoy someone’s interpretation of the story who must have thought most deeply about the original work.
The second way of accepting translations I’d like to suggest is “not to get too excited about transcending translations.” Professor Jung explained his thoughts on desirable translations in the same interview, saying, “It’s the editor’s job to consider convenience for the readers, and it’s natural for the translator to faithfully translate the author’s words.” Of course, this is his personal view and I’m not saying this is necessarily correct, but I think this is a meaningful opinion for us as the audience and readers who accept translated content.
Phrases that the audience love calling “transcending translations” are generally memorable sentences, so they often contain provocative expressions. A good example here is the “I'm the crazy bitch around here,” from the American show Gossip Girl, and “Shock and awe, losers!” from The Simpsons. I’m not saying these translations are writing, but, rather, they are witty translations that kept the slang in the original text without distorting the meaning. What concerns me though is that whether we, as the audience and the readers, are forcing the translators to be inclined to these “transcending translations” in one way or another by praising just those translations.
As we can easily access different content and the movie audience and readers’ understanding on various cultural contexts is increasing, we seem to see less excessive liberal translations that simply pursue immediate fun like what was seen in Mulan and Bug’s Life. When we develop an atmosphere in which translations that are more faithful to the original text are well received by the public and such translators are more recognized in the market, we’re likely to see fewer misinterpretation caused by excessive liberal translation.
I began the column by introducing examples of mistranslation but translating story content is very challenging. In the next series, I’ll talk about those challenges and introduce translations that we’ve encountered by overcoming such obstacles.
Since translations are done by people, there can never be such a thing as a perfect translation (It doesn’t, however, mean that we can trust AI in the field of story content). So, how then should we accept translated films and books that may contain mistranslations?
First and foremost, we need to be generous and recognize the limitations of translation. It doesn’t mean that we should always forgive critical mistranslations, but we must not miss out on the fun by being too engrossed in finding misinterpretations. There are extreme examples such as in Infinity War and Marie Antoinette, but a certain level of translation quality needs to be maintained, and such mistranslations that take away from the fun of the original work are rare. The notorious Infinity War translator actually translated most of the Marvel movies and his translations often provoke controversy. There are, however, many people who still rave about Marvel movies in Korea.
Professor Young-mok Jung, a famous translator for books written by Alain de Botton, said in an interview, “The original work and the translated work are different. If you think that they must be the same, that becomes a nightmare.” and further explained the limitations posed by translation that are bound to be different from the original work. In that sense, the generosity we must exercise, for example, would be to not to expect to get the same emotions delivered by the original Great Gatsby when reading the Korean translated version of the book. Great Gatsby is a book that has been translated by multiple translators. Although there is a difference in the degree of mistranslations, all translations can have some degree of mistranslation, and they will also have slightly different interpretations of the same sentence or the same scenes. It doesn’t mean that we always get to access works that are inferior to the original work. A well-written story naturally has multiple translations, and we get to enjoy someone’s interpretation of the story who must have thought most deeply about the original work.
The second way of accepting translations I’d like to suggest is “not to get too excited about transcending translations.” Professor Jung explained his thoughts on desirable translations in the same interview, saying, “It’s the editor’s job to consider convenience for the readers, and it’s natural for the translator to faithfully translate the author’s words.” Of course, this is his personal view and I’m not saying this is necessarily correct, but I think this is a meaningful opinion for us as the audience and readers who accept translated content.
Phrases that the audience love calling “transcending translations” are generally memorable sentences, so they often contain provocative expressions. A good example here is the “I'm the crazy bitch around here,” from the American show Gossip Girl, and “Shock and awe, losers!” from The Simpsons. I’m not saying these translations are writing, but, rather, they are witty translations that kept the slang in the original text without distorting the meaning. What concerns me though is that whether we, as the audience and the readers, are forcing the translators to be inclined to these “transcending translations” in one way or another by praising just those translations.
As we can easily access different content and the movie audience and readers’ understanding on various cultural contexts is increasing, we seem to see less excessive liberal translations that simply pursue immediate fun like what was seen in Mulan and Bug’s Life. When we develop an atmosphere in which translations that are more faithful to the original text are well received by the public and such translators are more recognized in the market, we’re likely to see fewer misinterpretation caused by excessive liberal translation.
I began the column by introducing examples of mistranslation but translating story content is very challenging. In the next series, I’ll talk about those challenges and introduce translations that we’ve encountered by overcoming such obstacles.
※ Among the examples mentioned in the column, the mistranslations of movies are examples seen in the theater release or DVDs, which are now corrected on all OTT services (and/ or have been replaced by other mistranslations).
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