Lost in Translation

Yesterday I finished Three Men in a Boat and this morning I started the second story in my book - Three Men on the Bummel. I start reading and every chapter starts with some ‘spoilers’ and I see something about a bicycle tour. I remembered that my parents used to tell me about another comic story called (in Romanian) ‘Three Men on Two Bicycles’.

I look up the title in Romanian, it’s another Jerome K. Jerome story. I look through Jerome’s bibliography in English, no bikes. The only other ‘Three Men’ story is the one I’m reading now and the description of both books - Romanian and English - is pretty much the same. That’s when it struck me! This is officially the worst translation EVER.

‘Bummel’ is a German word meaning ‘a journey, long or short, without an end’, as it is explained at the end of the text. A bicycle is not a bummel. Indeed, the three men use bikes on their bummel, but really it has nothing to do with the title. Translating it as ‘Three Men on a Journey’ would have been much better, although still not accurate. They had to use the word ‘bummel’ anyway because it’s key to the text, but whoever translated it deemed it unimportant in the title. (I just realised I wrote this paragraph in Jerome’s voice).

And this, my dear readers, is why I much prefer original texts rather than translations.