Me Translate Funny One Day

Essay
Me Translate Funny One Day
By JASCHA HOFFMAN
Published: October 19, 2012

Last year, an Australian news anchor who was interviewing the Dalai Lama with the aid of an interpreter opened the exchange with a joke: “The Dalai Lama walks into a pizza shop and says, ‘Can you make me one with everything?’ ” His Holiness’s baffled stare, viewed by nearly two million people on YouTube, presents a lesson in the risks of translating humor.


But among the polyglots who convened this month in Rochester for the annual meeting of the American Literary Translators Association — where the topic was “The Translation of Humor, or, the Humor of Translation” — there is a sense of cautious optimism. At least some measure of levity, these dedicated professionals believe, must be able to migrate between languages. The French, after all, seem to appreciate Woody Allen. 

Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/21/books/review/the-challenges-of-translating-humor.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

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