Metaglossia: The Translation World

Just over a month after slamming Alexander Semin during a live broadcast on Day 1 of NHL free agency, it appears that former NHL coach turned TSN analyst turned Swiss coach, Marc Crawford is now singing a different tune.

No, he did not apologize to Mr. Semin or his fans.

Instead, according to Crawford, those listening and watching as he proclaimed the Russian winger to have "no character", got it wrong.

In an interview with Switzerland's Tages Anzeiger (S/T RMNB), Crawford completely deflected responsibility for his part in an eyebrow-raising one-minute rant in which Semin was said to be a "complete loser", "not a great teammate" and "the ultimate coach killer".

Here's the translation:

TA: You designated the Russian Alexander Semin as characterless on TSN. What is character strength for you?

Crawford: My quote about Semin was misunderstood. He was compared with Zach Parise, who is one of the best. Semin is a wonderful player, but he still has a lot to learn. And I wish him only the best. To your question: character strength has a lot to do with consistency, good habits, professionalism.

Huh. Now those quotes above were translated by yours truly. While German is my second language, English is my first and Crawford seems to have a solid handle on it as well. So it seems strange to me that I don't quite get, "Semin is a wonderful player," from, "One guy (Parise) has a ton of character, one guy (Semin) has no character. One guy (Semin) scores 30 goals and doesn't help his team, one guy (Parise) scores 25 goals and helps them in every single way." I'm also not sure how assassinating a player's character on public airwaves on the first official day of his new job hunt equates to, "I wish him well."

But maybe that's just me.

Tyndale House Publications in Carol Stream celebrates its 50th anniversary.

When Ken Taylor started Tyndale House Publishers 50 years ago, he named it after the scholar William Tyndale, whose translation of the Bible into English in the 1500s helped lead to him being strangled and burned at stake.

Opposition to Taylor’s paraphrase of the Bible into everyday English wasn’t nearly so virulent, but it did have its critics. Scripture in the vernacular seemed less sacred, less authoritative than King James English and established publishers declined to touch it.

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The Living Bible, of course, became a best-seller for several years running and since then Tyndale House has published numerous other best-sellers in both fiction and nonfiction. The company celebrates its golden anniversary this year as one of the largest independent Christian publishers in the world.

But no one knew the future back in 1962.

Puesto que una afirmación contundente como la del titular nos podría llevar a interminables discusiones, huyamos de circunloquios y vayamos al grano. Al año de la doble edición de La Vanguardia –en castellano y catalán– hay que volver a una pregunta que durante los últimos doce meses ha llegado, como un goteo, al Defensor: ¿Por qué las cartas de los lectores no se traducen? O, dicho de otra forma, ¿por qué hay cartas en catalán en la edición en castellano y viceversa? Ivette Mariscal, la semana pasada, fue la última en formular la pregunta.

La Vanguardia quiere respetar el idioma original escogido por cada lector al escribir y publica sus cartas sin traducirlas, en ambas ediciones. No se trata de miedo a traicionar el texto ni el espíritu de la misiva. La voluntad y la única pretensión es mostrar la convivencia entre las dos lenguas en una comunidad de lectores que pueden hacer suyos los dos idiomas. Y es en esta sección de participación donde mejor se puede reflejar este espíritu. Esta práctica ya era habitual cuando La Vanguardia se publicaba sólo en castellano y en la sección de Cartas ambas lenguas convivían con normalidad.

The Miami Marlins suspended manager Ozzie Guillen for five games after he praised Cuba's Fidel Castro in a magazine interview, the team said Tuesday.