Sunday, September 19, 2010

Eminescu , Dracula and Google translate poetry

All started with my wish to transmit ot a friend from Brazil how is the shit life in Romania (It's a crazy country these days) and is better pictured with the ending Satire III by  Mihai Eminescu but the translation is quite crazy if read it
I don't know what the poet who translated that smoked but is not good ... Fagots anyone?

Here is the original text in Romanian :
Dar lasati macar stramosii ca sã doarma-n colb de cronici
Din trecutul de marire v-ar privi cel mult ironici.
Cum nu vii tu Tepes doamne, ca punand mâna pe ei,
Sã-i imparti în doua cete: în smintiti si în misei,
Si în doua temniti large cu de-a sila sã-i aduni,
Sã dai foc la puscarie si la casa de nebuni!

O, leave in the old chronicles our forefathers to rest;
For they would gaze upon you with irony at best.
Rise once more, o Tepes ! Take and divide these men
As lunatics and rogues in two big tribes, and then
In mighty, twin infirmaries by force both tribes intern,
And with a single faggot prison and madhouse burn.

So let's try with google translate

"But at least let you sleep-like ancestors in the chronic dust
Enlargement of the past you would look up ironic.
How come you did not Dracula, Lord, that by putting his hand on her
Let's split into two bands: the mad and the mise,
And two with large prison by force to gather them,
To give fire to the prison and the madhouse!"


and then in Portuguese

Mas, pelo menos, deixá-lo dormir antepassados-como na crônica de poeira
Alargamento do passado que você ia olhar irônico.
Como é que você não Dracula, Senhor, que ao colocar a mão no seu
Vamos dividir em duas bandas: o louco eo mise,
E dois de prisão por grande força para recolhê-los,
Para dar fogo à prisão eo hospício!

Doesn't sound too bad only That Vlad Tepes is not equal with Dracula from the movies

In the letter (Satire III) is seen as heroic character:

His image in modern Romanian culture clashes with foreign perceptions. It is the last part of a rather popular 19th century poem by Mihai Eminescu, "Scrisoarea a III-a", that helped turn Vlad's image into modern legend, by having him stand as a figure to contrast with presumed social decay under the Phanariotes and the political scene of the 19th century (even suggesting that Vlad's violent methods be applied as a cure).

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