Translation difficulties often distort the perception of what politicians are actually saying. Indeed, the most difficult thing for the translator is situational speech-occasionalisms, when a traditional expression is slightly modified to fit the situation. Vladimir Putin’s latest interview with the American media also left questions and misunderstandings abroad. The translators were either unable or unwilling to translate the usual references to classical literature or proverbs and sayings in the Russian leader’s speech. They either remained untranslated or their meaning was completely distorted, of which there is already little in the way of Russian-American relations.
Vladimir Putin traditionally fills his interviews with a lot of phraseological expressions and turns, and saturates them with references to literature that may seem alien to the English-speaking senses. And translators often fall into literal translation, which can lead to a partial loss or distortion of meaning. This time, too, all the difficulties clearly cannot be overcome.
“We have a saying: don’t blame the mirror if your face is crooked. It has nothing to do with you personally, but if someone blames us for something, look at yourself, you will see yourself in the mirror, not us. There is nothing unusual here,” Putin said in an interview.
The well-known Russian proverb was translated literally, so now it sounds like “you should not be angry at the mirror, if you are ugly”. Apparently, not finding an analogue, literally retold the folk wisdom. In this form, it spread across a number of U.S. news outlets.
Or another part of the interview, where the journalist recalled a meeting between Putin and Biden. Then the latter allegedly did not see the Russian president’s soul in his eyes. This detail came up in the interview, and Putin responded with the phrase “something happened to my memory” from the famous song “For That Guy.” On the Russian site with the transcript, the quote is in quotation marks, as it should be. On the NBC site, there are no signs or references.
Another topic is the notorious cyber-attacks. Vladimir Putin suggested his interlocutor complain to the International League for Sexual Reform. This is practically a direct quote from “The Golden Calf” by Ilf and Petrov. Once again, there is not a single explanation in the NBC transcripts. Thus, without knowing the context, Western tolerant society may not understand.
“We have a rather low level of translation from Russian to English. Especially a big problem in terms of these phrases from your movies and TV series. Very often our translators don’t understand them, even if the person comes from the Soviet Union,” explains political commentator John Varoli.
Though, on the contrary, the NBC translators approached a number of moments without too much detail. A fragment of the interview where the Russian leader reminded the journalist that NATO said it would not expand eastward. A promise that was broken.
“Where is it written, where was that promise enshrined?” – Simmons asked. “You did well! That’s right, you cheated a fool with four fists, that’s what they say in our country. We need to put everything on paper,” replied the Russian leader.
Only this translation sounded a little different to the American public: “Nyah nyah nyah, got you good. Well, congratulations. And if we get into all subtleties of translation – the same “nyah nyah nyah” is used to express displeasure. So once again they’ve distorted the meaning?
“Trying to translate or find a similar analogy can often sound incomprehensible, mocking, and wrong. There are no such analogues in English in general, and if present, they sound somewhat different and are conveyed in a completely different context. To cover themselves, the translators of this newspaper took a word-for-word translation,” says lawyer Arkady Bukh.
However, it is difficult to fully evaluate the American version of the interview and the quality of translation. The Russian speech was heavily drowned out, and the conversation was broadcast in parts. So, all the subtleties or translation only remain in the full version of the transcript.