I've recently applied for a job for Facebook.com and one of the first tasks assingned was translating a list of gift for a Facebook application. There were 33 phrases to be translated and I've selected some of them to comment on.
I have just chosen the ones which got me to some considerations. Here they are:
Gift - Heart | ||
Love under umbrella Lock your heart Love of the ring Soft heart | Devil's heart Lighten my Heart My love in music Cure for the hurt | Love is fluid Stitched Heart Warming Ice Be my valentine |
The translation:
Presentes - Coração | ||
Amor sob o guarda-chuvas Tranque seu coraçãoAnel do Amor Soft heart | Coração do Diabo Ilumine meu coração Meu coração na musica Cura para a mágoa | O amor é fluido Coração costurado Gelo que aquece Vamos namorar? |
Some of the words and phrases were really easy to translate whereas others would get me thinking carefully before submitting the translation. That happened especially due to the words "lighten", "fluid" and "soft" carry lots of meanings when translated.
In Portuguese, those words strongly depend on the context they are used in. If I have no extra information about them, I can not assure the best translation is taken. It means that, for this task, Gift - Heart, I would have to see the picture of the gift in order to choose the most appropriate word in Portuguese language.
Besides, "Vamos namorar?" was picked as the equivalent for "Be my valentine" beacuse "Valentine" refers to "Valentine's Day", which does not exist in Portuguese, although it has been translated and accepted as "Dia dos Namorados" (Boyfriend and Grilfriend's Day), which explains my decision. For this translation I also decided to turn the sentence into a question because that form in Portuguese would best mean "a proposal" rather than an affirmative sentence.
Another thing was about the "Love of the ring", which is probably referring to "Lord of the rings", I decided not to link the translation to the movie because "Amor do anel" or "O Amor dos aneis" sounded to me like a relationship between rings rather the movie.
"Sitched Heart" could be "Coração com pontos", but "ponto", which is the very used word for "stich", wouldn't sound well with the tranlation.
Overall, not seeing the "warming ice" or the "devil's heart" as well as the other gifts inplicated in picking a more neutral translation. This meas that not having a clear context, which could be given by the pictures of the gifts, will make the decisions of the translator harder or not so adequate.
If you would like to have a try, I would recommend the following phrases or feel free to pick other ones.
Lock your heart, Lighten my Heart, Love is fluid, Stitched Heart, Soft heart
Translate them and post your choices in the comment's box and remember you will not have any visual cues.
I'll be waiting for your hit.