That joke used to work in English.
By c. 1300, of things, “to come into physical contact with, join by touching or uniting with;” also, of persons, “come together by approaching from the opposite direction; come into collision with, combat.”
Comment on Anon experiences German humor
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 23 hours ago
In case people are wondering: it’s indeed a german joke.
It’s a pun. “meet” and “hit” are using the same word in german
That joke used to work in English.
By c. 1300, of things, “to come into physical contact with, join by touching or uniting with;” also, of persons, “come together by approaching from the opposite direction; come into collision with, combat.”
So it’s a misstranslated joke then. With that information it’s kinda funny or at least it makes sense.
More like untranslatable, as the context just doesn’t work in English. You either have something that doesn’t make sense or - if you use the other meaning - a statement with no humor. The pun is completely dependent on the German phrasing.
That’s why translation can be so hard, especially for poems, songs, comedy etc. Double meanings, metaphors, rhymes etc are often lost when translated.
I only understand train station.
In some cases you can replace a pun with another pun that works in the target language.
In other cases, where you’re translating a religious text, doing something for scholarly reasons, or otherwise think your audience would really like to know what’s going on in a text you have to add a translation note.
treffen.
GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 23 hours ago
Come to think of it, that’s a thing in Swedish as well - we could make the pun work there as well:
Två jägare träffades. Båda dog.
SmackemWittadic@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Båda dog! Båda dog! No Treåt
(I know å is pronounced like “eu” like in Blåhaj)
GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 22 hours ago
For it to match Swedish phonetic rules, it would have to be:
Bäd dågg! Bäd dågg! Nåu trit!
SmackemWittadic@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Oh true my bad, thank you!
FooBarrington@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
A Båda dog once bit my sister… No realli!
Taalnazi@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Works in Dutch too.
Twee jagers treffen elkaar. Beiden zijn dood.