Journale Lucy Fricke’s Töchter: A Translation Road Trip

TRANSLATORS ON THE ROAD

By Sinéad Crowe, Isabelle Liber und María Tellechea


Like Lucy Fricke’s protagonists, we translators of Töchter have been on an exciting journey. Though we didn’t set off at the same time – Sinéad has already reached her destination, María is nearly there, while Isabelle is still exploring the area – working on this journal gave us a sense that we were travelling together, or at least that we were writing each other postcards from various stages of our travels.

This is what we imagine our postcards might look like:

Fictional postcards, using images by Lucy Fricke and Justus Menke

One postcard is from Isabelle, who writes:

Hi everyone!
 

It’s pretty hot here … and this bloody car! It refuses to do what I want it to. I hope you’re having an easier time with your articles …

Drive safe!

“Articles”? What is Isabelle talking about?

She’s referring to a translation problem, of course. The protagonists of Töchter travel for the most part by car. Not any old car, mind you; it’s Kurt’s Golf, and to him, it’s so much more than just a vehicle. As Martha explains, her father is unusually fond of his banger:

"He’s dead set on going in his car. You know how it is: memories, nostalgia, all the places he’s been in the car, all the people who’ve sat in it. That car is his buddy. He used to pay it a visit every few weeks, get in and have a beer with it. So if we’re going, we’re going in his car

(p. 24-25)

A little later along the way, it becomes clear that Kurt’s relationship with his car really is unusually close. When Kurt suddenly announces that the Golf needs oil, and that he himself therefore needs a beer, Martha explodes in frustration:

"He trained his car well, didn’t he? ‘We’ve always boozed together.’ What a load of crap, that ‘We’re old pals’ bullshit. It’s a fucking car! No one’s best friend should be a car"

(p. 39)

So Martha’s father and his car are portrayed as old drinking buddies. The problem for Isabelle is that in French, “car” is feminine (la voiture). But Kurt wouldn’t dream of going drinking with a female companion. So Isabelle has to tinker around with the car until eventually she decides on the word le tacot, one of the few French synonyms for “old banger” that are masculine.

Here is Sinéad’s reply:

Dear Isabelle and María,
 

I hear you – I had a similar problem with my car! I managed to fix it for the time being, but we’ll have to see if it passes the MoT test. I suppose sometimes you have to find workarounds and get back out on the road, don’t you?

Bissous!

Sinéad

Nouns don’t have genders in English like they do in French and German, so Sinéad doesn’t have to worry about the articles. Her problem is that in informal contexts, vehicles, ships, etc. tend to be personified and given female names and pronouns (especially by older men!). In the novel, however, it’s important that Kurt, who is a bit of a chauvinist, sees his Golf as a male friend. So Sinéad decides that Kurt should use the pronouns “he” and “him” when referring to his car. Admittedly, it’s not normal in English to use masculine pronouns when talking about a car, but hopefully this doesn’t disturb the reader too much. After all, as Martha says, it’s not normal to have a car as your best friend!

And what does María have to say?

Hola, chicas!

Oh dear, I’m sorry to hear you’re having car trouble.

Mine has been behaving itself so far, and I’ve just been driving and driving …

Hang in there!

María

The fact that the Golf is depicted as male doesn’t present María with any translation issues, as the Spanish word for “car” is masculine. What’s more, in Latin American culture, cars are associated with male attributes; it’s as if they are extensions of the male ego. The true macho latino is as devoted to his car as he is to his mother. What María found more difficult was the many German words for driving and the sounds a car makes, as Spanish doesn’t have quite as many synonyms and onomatopoeic words associated with driving. So it wasn’t easy for her to render German words such as rauschen, wuseln, (durch)brettern, düsten, flitzen, quietschen, holpern and scheppern into Spanish.

As a translator, you sometimes have to change a tyre, turn a corner or just pull over for a while – the main thing is that you don’t let these little breakdowns ruin your trip!

If you want to visit more about this theme, visit this pit stop: JOURNEY’S END.

 

Drive on.

 

PDF