Friday, May 16, 2014

Translation Problem Week One: Slogan

The slogan that I found was in an advertisement for a financial information book. I can only imagine that this book deals with what seems to be difficult information. The slogan reads, in Italian: IMPOSTE
Offresi guida veloce alle nuove tasse, detrazioni e agevolazioni

Now, as I was doing some research about the words in the advertisement, I found that "imposte" could mean "to offer/to post" or "to impose," or even "tax." The rest of the sentence came to something like, "offering guidance quickly to new taxes, deductions and concessions." When I thought about translating this into something that English speakers would be more inclined to pick up, I skipped the first word, since it can mean so many different things, and chose to focus first on the second part: "offering guidance quickly to the new taxes, deductions and concessions."

First of all, it's really wordy in English. I feel like I need to keep the idea of the new tax concessions and deductions, since that seems to be the whole reason for the book, but the "offering guidance quickly" has too many syllables for anyone to be attracted quickly. So, instead, I thought about "quick guide."

This advertisement seems like one of those Craigslist ads for someone soliciting themselves for tax help. In these sorts of ads, the first line of the ad was in all caps and full of financial jargon. I think that a book definitely needs an advertisement that involves that jargon to prove that it is legitimate.

So a smoother translation could be: "quick guide to the new tax deductions and concessions." But this doesn't capture the bottom of the advertisement which says "rivolgersi a: CORRIERE DELLA SERA." This translates to "turn to the Evening Courier." This conveys the sense of solicitation that "quick guide" doesn't convey. The "imposte" might help with this issue.

Imposte: I came to the conclusion, from the context of the "offering guidance" underneath it, that this word was in the verb form, thus meaning "posted." This then tackles the issue of being an advertisement. So: "POSTED: need quick guidance to new tax deductions and concessions? Turn to the Evening Courier." But this seems really long. Even though it combines the idea of offering services and the financial jargon.

POSTED:
Evening Courier provides the quickest guide to new taxes, deductions and concessions.

I switched "offers" with "provides" because it has the connotation that this is attainable for everyone, which, to me, is the point of the book: to provide accessible information regarding taxes. Plus, when I read "provides," for some reason I get the thought that only this book can give me this information. It connotes a sense of singularity to me.

I also got rid of the "turn to" before "Evening Courier," because the idea that the advertisement wants the viewer to pick their product is inherent without having to say "turn to." Instead, I made "quick" "quickest," in order to help the product stand out even more against any other books that might discuss the new taxes.

1 comment:

  1. Offresi = si offre = the impersonal way of saying "this is being offered." Anytime you see a verb conjugated in the third person singular with "si" attached, it's like a passive voice = THIS IS OFFERED.

    Affittasi = this is for rent (affittare)
    Vendesi = this is for sale (vendere)
    Cercasi = "this is being searched for (cercare)

    So "offresi" in this context carries a kind of "services rendered" sense, just like "cercasi" means something similar to "wanted" (i.e. searched for).

    It's important here I think to capture that feel and rhetoric of the want ad. So that "rivolgersi" is not just "turn to" but more like "contact."

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