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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 9/18/2012 8:14 PM, Matthias Pfeifer
Freshmail wrote:<br>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Hello Fahd.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Can you please go deeper in that
translation issue? This would be very interesting i guess.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Thank you.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Matthias.</font></div>
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<br>
My example is not strictly similar, but also an uproar created by a
translation.<br>
<br>
Some years ago I translated a newspaper article into English in
October, which was originally published in Khmer in August. It was a
fairly precise description of an alleged case of accepting bribes by
a higher level official.<br>
<br>
I was called to court several times and it took quite some
explanation and effort to get me off the hook. What had happened?<br>
<br>
When the article was published in a newspaper in Khmer, nobody
cared, because accusations of corruption were made frequently - and
there was a widely held opinion that corruption - payments under the
table - are common, and nobody can do much about it anyway.<br>
<br>
But after my English translation was published, one of the local
foreign embassies wanted to know what was going on - and only then
the "accused" thought it was time to do some explaining: first of
all that I should withdraw what I had published. But it was only a
translation...<br>
<br>
That may mean - for this stupid film - as long as it was in English,
it did not catch much attention. But after there was a translated
Arab language version, some more people saw what it was - and many
others who had not seen it followed those who had seen it in their
own language.<br>
<br>
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<font color="#151B8D">
Norbert Klein<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:nhklein@gmx.net">nhklein@gmx.net</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.thinking21.org">http://www.thinking21.org</a><br>
Phnom Penh/Cambodia<br>
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