Coping with You
By Danilo and Vera
Nogueira
(Professional translators, editors, consultants, trainers)
Brazil
danilo.tradutor@uol.com.br
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The PM was a bit green. And when the
client asked for a few changes, he asked me, with pointed irony "There must be
an agreed translation for a simple word like contact. Don't you think so?"
The language in
Brazil is changing so fast that grammar books cannot keep the pace and what they recommend
is not what sounds acceptable to many.
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Oh, well, when you translate a list of
unconnected sentences, without any context whatsoever, which someone else is to feed into
some existing translation, done by someone you never heard of, there is no telling whether
a particular instance of contact should be treated as a noun (contato) or as
a verb. In addition, if it is to be treated as a verb, we still must decide between
infinitive (contatar) and imperative (contate). I know it could not be a
present indicative, because there was no pronoun. But if it is an imperative, it can be
singular and plural (contate/contatem). And, if it is an infinitive and the
translation into Portuguese, there is a good chance we should use an inflected infinitive (infinitivo
flexionado, which, in the case of regular verbs, is identical to the future
subjunctive) - for Portuguese infinitives can change for person too, which is more than
they can do in many other famous and excellent languages. That gives you quite a fistful
of possibilities and does not take into account the fact that all those words may be spelt
with ct, too: contacto, contactar, contacte,... an option preferred by many
even in Brazil.
I explained this to the PM (not that he
understood one tenth what I said) and added that things are not so straightforward as he
would like them to be. For instance, any self-respecting English-Portuguese dictionary
would give him at least a dozen different translations for you, which is an even
"simpler" word, a statement that may have driven him to desist from the career
as a PM to become an MFV (mobile food vendor). PMing is not for the weak-hearted. I might
have added that more often than not, none of the 15+ translations found in dictionaries
will be of any use to the translator. Translation begins after the dictionary ends, and you
seems to be good proof of that.
A
question of style
The first question regarding the
translation of you is how to style the people you are addressing. In Brazil, tu is
regional, vós has all but disappeared and the only practical use of Senhoria
is to refer to soccer referees. So the practical choice is between você and o
senhor. Você is considered informal, o senhor is considered formal. The
difference is often compared to the du/Sie, or tu/vous distinctions found in
German and French, but in fact we use você for a lot of people who would be
addressed as vous/Sie.
Not many years ago, senhor was
considered the better alternative: o senhor may be a bit stiff for certain
occasions, but você might be considered a bit too intimate by certain persons.
However senhor is now often avoided as sexist, because it refers only to males. The
female form is senhora. When addressing the general public, we can go it o(a)
senhor(a), but it is very awkward and has the additional disadvantage of placing the
women as a parenthetical appendix to men.
We have accounts with three banks and all
of them dump truckloads of junk mail on us where we are always addressed as você - although,
when we go to the bank, our account manager may address each of us as o senhor or a
senhora as applicable, among other things because she could easily be our daughter.
Você is also a wonderful solution when the name of the addressee does not tell us
whether we are dealing with someone in the macho or distaff side of this world.
So, that matter is settled. Você it
will be - unless we have some very good reason to use o senhor. Meaning it is not
settled at all, but unsettled matters are an integral part of the translation game:
nothing is ever settled. That, at least, is settled.
A
question of number
Then we have the question of number. You
is both singular and plural. One can say you all or you guys, but
that is very colloquial and not often found in texts to be translated. In most of the
stuff we translate, you has to do for both singular and plural.
The frequent use of you all, you
guys and you people and similar forms in the spoken language may be good
indication that native speakers of English now may be regretting the day when they dumped thou
on the grounds that one second-person pronoun would be quite enough. But, of course,
correct as this observation may be, it does not lighten the burden of the translators, who
must still find for themselves how many yous the writer had in mind.
We do not want to go into the matter of
hermeneutics now and expound rules concerning the logical number of you, but we
must remember that Portuguese has a plural for both você and o senhor and
both can and should be used as required.
We can now proceed with the business at
hand.
The
demands of English grammar and current stylistic
fashion
English grammar is adverse to ellipsis of
the subject, or, in less unctuous terms, most English sentences require a clear and
visible subject. Vejo uma vela ao longe, is I see a sail
yonder, but the Portuguese needs no pronoun and in fact omitting the pronoun is
considered a contribution to style, whereas the English would look odd without the
"I". Portuguese cannot simply drop the pronoun in all cases, but when writing we
tend to prefer sentences where the pronoun can be done without.
In addition we have the fact that many of
the documents translated nowadays avoid impersonal sentences and insist
"second-person" wording. However a text with too many yous in Portuguese
will give readers/listeners the idea that we are referring to them in very pointed way and
may be considered a bit rude.
Mix all of this together and you will see
that translating all the yous in a text will usually make it quite unpalatable in
Portuguese and, if you turn all of the above inside out, you may derive a few suggestions
on how to deal with the problem.
- Do
not translate all of them, but...
All yous are candidates
for Translation Procedure # 0, that
is, nontranslation. When in doubt, do not
translate. In fact, we recommend searching
the whole text for você and
vocês and considering deletion
of each instance.
However,
there is no doubt that a few of the yous
should be preserved in translation. In some
cases for no clear reason at all. One of
the frequent explanations is "because
it is demanded by Portuguese rhythm",
which does not explain much, in the absence
of any good definition of what Portuguese
rhythm may be or may require. In any case,
a you-less text would look strange. However,
there is no rule as to which of the yous
should be kept and different people would
keep different instances: it is a matter
of taste. Not really a problem, unless you
are dealing with editors who strike off
half of your pronouns only to add them back
somewhere else for no purpose other than
convincing a naïve PM that the agency would
be dead without their precious help.
- Do
not translate the second consecutive you
When
you appears as the subject of two
consecutive sentences, drop the second instance:
•
You don't have to return the book today;
you can return it tomorrow.
•
Você não precisa devolver o
livro hoje. Pode devolver amanhã.
In
fact, both instances could be dropped, but
dropping the second is certainly more necessary.
Incidentally, notice that we do not have
to translate the it in the second
sentence. Pode devolve-lo amanhãis
correct, but a bit too affected in the context.
Many translations from English into Portuguese
are longer than the original because people
insist on translating every translatable
word, including stuff that English requires
and Portuguese can do very well without.
- Better
translate literally
However, in other cases,
translation is almost mandatory: for example,
where the pronoun is used emphatically,
something that the original often indicates
with italics:
•
You have to wash the dishes, not
me.
•
Você tem que lavar a louça,
não eu.
- Translate
literally, with a bit of added emphasis
Emphasis
in Portuguese, however, would be better
expressed by splitting the original sentence
into two:
•
É você quem tem que lavar a
louça, não eu.
As
a side comment, we might point out that
in both cases the first-person object pronoun
of the original (me) must be translated
as a subject pronoun in Portuguese (eu),
a procedure that renders the translated
sentence a bit less ambiguous, we believe.
An
alternative would be:
•
É a você que compete lavar
a louça, não eu.
The
construction is absolutely correct, but
a bit too formal for dish-washing. Could
fit in a legal environment, though:
•
You must buy ...
•
Compete a você comprar
...but
it is not very likely that a lawyer would
use você without being
forced to. The average lawyer would probably
say
•
Compete-lhe adquirir
Notice
that the comprar became adquirir,
to go with the higher level of formality
of the sentence. Lhe is rather formal
in Brazilian Portuguese and should not associate
itself with simple words.
- Use
an Impersonal Construction with se
Because you often
means you and everybody else as well,
it may be translated by se in an
impersonal sentence.
•
You should not use grease to...
•
Não se deve usar graxa...
The
problem here is the endless discussion about
whether the se should come before
or after the verb and whether the verb should
be singular or plural. There are rules about
those things, but they are often unclear
and misunderstood and, besides, we are not
sure all grammarians agree on this - and
many other things, for that matter. So that
you and the client may end up brandishing
grammar books with opposite opinions and
this is not good for either of you. In addition,
the language in Brazil is changing so fast
that grammar books cannot keep the pace
and what they recommend is not what sounds
acceptable to many. This is especially true
in connection with the use of se.
A bit of care is thus required.
- Translate
it by the First-person Plural Pronoun
Also
because you often means you and
everybody else as well, believe it or
not, one of the best translations for you
is nós, which in theory means we.
The point is that you is often
used just as a rhetorical tool to draw the
reader near the writer, whereas Portuguese
goes one step further in the same direction,
by creating a unity between both:
•
You can achieve a similar effect ...
•
Nós podemos também obter um efeito similar
...
Since
subject pronouns can usually be omitted,
this can be further reduced to
•
Podemos também obter um efeito similar ...
- Translate
by a Gente
We are now entering the
realm of very informal language. A gente
is really part of the spoken language and,
when used in writing, it is either in a
very informal and personal note, such as
an e-mail to a close friend or in a text
that purports to reflect spoken language,
such as an add or dialog in a novel. But
it is so prevalent in Brazil that it deserves
a bit of attention here.
A
gente is a very interesting quasi-pronoun
which really deserves more attention than
it can receive here. For instance, it can
be used as a "pronoun of modesty":
A gente já é tradutor há
mais de 30 anos, meaning I have been
a translator for more than 30 years. But
what interests us here is the use of a
gente as a translation for you and
we must adhere to the subject. So,
•
You can achieve a similar effect ...
can
be translated as
•
A gente também pode conseguir um efeito
parecido ...
A
gente takes a third-person singular
verb, although its meaning is first person
plural. Also notice that similar became
parecido and obter was replaced
with conseguir, which are more informal
choices. A gente também poderia obter
um efeito similar is perfectly correct
from a grammatical point of view, but would
be like wearing a top hat with sneakers.
- Use
an Imperative
Often the indicative with
you is used to disguise an order,
principally when must is used as
an auxiliary and
•
You must oil this machine once a week.
may
be translated as
•
Lubrifique esta máquina uma vez por semana.
The
imperative may be mitigated by the addition
of a por favor in these cases.
•
Por favor, lubrifique esta máquina uma vez
por semana.
Both
are literal translations of
•
(Please) lubricate this machine once a week.
and
should be set aside to translate this pattern,
but the fact is that they can be very handy
in difficult situations.
- Drop
the Pronoun, Move the Meaning of the Auxiliary
Verb to an Adjective
This
seems a very complicated operation, but
it is very simple in practice, as the example
will show.
•
You must oil this machine once a week
•
É necessário lubrificar esta máquina uma
vez por semana
Notice
this is more precise than translating must
as deve, because deve also
means should.
•
You should oil this machine once a week
•
É recomendável lubrificar esta máquina pelo
menos uma vez por semana
Because
there are more adjectives than modal auxiliaries,
this construction affords a better chance
of fine-tuning the sentence to suit our
needs.
- Use
the Passive Voice
This is exactly what the
writer of the original was warned against
by messrs Strunk & White, but it is
OK in Portuguese, even in informal contexts:
•
You must oil this machine once a week
•
Esta máquina precisa ser lubrificada uma
vez por semana
or,
more informally
•
Esta máquina tem que ser lubrificada uma
vez por semana
This
is not recommended, however if the you
is used emphatically. One can say
•
Esta máquina tem que ser lubrificada por
você uma vez por semana
...
but the sentence is too convoluted. Here,
the possible options include:
•
É você quem tem que lubrificar
Curiously,
we can translate the emphasized you
by replacing it with an impersonal sentence:
•
É sua obrigação lubrificar
...
where the subject pronoun is actually replaced
by a possessive.
- Replace
You+Verb with a Past Participle
This is often a good suggestion when the you
is the subject of a subordinate that functions as an adjective:
• Enter the percentage you want ...
• Digite a porcentagem desejada ...
This approach has the additional
advantage of eliminating one que from the literal digite a porcentagem que você
desejar. You will perhaps agree with us that Portuguese translations from English
often have too many ques and des and eliminating a few of them usually helps
improving style. In fact we have a little something to say about that point, but it will
have to wait till the next publication.
This article was originally
published at Translation Journal (http://accurapid.com/journal).
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