LiveJournal will be undergoing maintenance on May 25, and might display errors until complete. Please see http://lj-maintenance.livejournal.com/ for details and updates.

greenkrokodilla (greenkrokodilla) wrote in linguaphiles,
2013-01-09 14:56:00

Cartoon text

Ssomeone is trying to translate cartoon captions into English. Here is the cartoon and 2 versions of text. The translation should be moderately stupid (as cartoon captions go), possibly with a hint of being funny. Could you verify that is the case (or not)?





------VERSION 1------ (very close to the original non-English text)

PIC 1
А: Hey, when's the wedding?
B: I don't know. We haven't kissed yet

PIC 2
A: How come?!
B: To be honest, the girl's a bit out of my reach.


-------VERSION 2------(a bit different idea)

PICTURE ONE:
A (the smart alec monkey): "Bet you haven't kissed that girl yet" -
B (the timid monkey with flowers): "No, not yet."

PICTURE TWO:
B (the timid one): "But how did you know?"
A (the smart alec monkey): "She's out of your reach"
  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    switch
    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded  

    Help
  • 13 comments

philena

January 9 2013, 15:14:42 UTC 4 months ago

Hmm. "Out of my reach" sounds a little bit forced. Here are some other idioms that sound a bit more natural (to me) that you could play with:

Out of my league (doesn't quite get the height joke, though)
Too much woman for me
She looks down on me (requires completely different joke, but you seem open to that)

greenkrokodilla

January 9 2013, 15:46:52 UTC 4 months ago

hmm..right, "looks down on me" might work, too.
I do not see any joke in "out of my league" though

philena

January 9 2013, 20:12:17 UTC 4 months ago

Yeah, "out of my league" doesn't work for me either. I think I included it because it sounded like a more natural version "out of my reach."

Hmmm: what about something based on "reach for the stars"

dragondancer515

January 9 2013, 15:37:04 UTC 4 months ago

The problems with me for version #2 are 1) the dialogue would read backwards due to the positions of the bubbles (reading SmartAlec /before/ Timid) and 2) the facial expression of SmartAlec in second picture doesn't match his comment.

The first translation, however, made me laugh. And I think "out of reach" works just fine. The connotated "out of my league" would come naturally to most readers, I think, in addition to the sight gag of the short guy and the tall slim girl in the high spiked heels.

greenkrokodilla

January 9 2013, 15:48:23 UTC 4 months ago

aha, thanks

sidheag

January 9 2013, 17:06:43 UTC 4 months ago

How about "she's a bit above my level"? It may depend crucially on what group of English-speakers you're trying to amuse, though. I'm a native speaker of UK English, and "she's out of my reach" doesn't make it funny for me. I think what happened for me is:

I read "[she's] a bit out of my reach"

- which isn't, in my dialect, an idiom meaning that someone is too good for you, or whatever, so what first popped into my head was someone who was out of someone's arm's reach, literally

- so I quickly mentally corrected to the obviously intended metaphorical meaning

- but since the literal meaning was already in my head, it turning out to be literally true didn't have the unexpected flavour that makes things funny.

greenkrokodilla

January 9 2013, 18:49:27 UTC 4 months ago

yep, I agree - that kind of advice is why I asked this question on the first place. "A bit above my level" might also work, and you are a far better judge of that than I could be myself.

di_glossia

January 9 2013, 19:37:09 UTC 4 months ago

The first one sounds fine to me and reminds me of the sort of wordplay common in comic strips such as The Far Side. "Out of my reach" is so close to "out of my league" that it should be readily apparent.

5x6

January 10 2013, 02:01:27 UTC 4 months ago

Actually, your question is incorrectly posed, on two counts:

(1) Neither version is close to the original Russian text.
(2) Both version are just slight variations of the same theme (if I am not mistaken both were suggested by the same fellow)

A version that reflect the Russian text precisely was also mentioned in the original discussion, namely:

When are you and Mimi going to get married?
I don't know; we haven't even kissed yet.
How come?
I can't reach!

The last line is a nearly exact translation of the Russian original, Я не дотягиваюсь, which does not have any connotation of the girl being out of his league.

greenkrokodilla

January 10 2013, 05:08:08 UTC 4 months ago

yes, Mr Know-All, and as a joke in English that falls flat.

gr_cl

January 10 2013, 05:45:37 UTC 4 months ago

I think the literal translation works fine in English.

5x6

January 10 2013, 13:08:47 UTC 4 months ago

Exactly as the original Russian joke.

If you want to invent a new joke, funnier than the original, it is fine, but why present it as a translation?

greenkrokodilla

January 11 2013, 09:40:41 UTC 4 months ago

I am a gynecologist. All my life I wanted to become a brain surgeon. But I just wasn't tall enough. Har-har-har-har.