[blml] "board" vs. "deal" (opinion poll)

[John (MadDog) Probst]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Geller" <geller at nifty.com>

> Q2. What is your opinion of the proposed change?
> A. Strictly forbidden.  "Deal" may not be replaced by "board"
> even where the meaning is unchanged.
> B. No problem.  Such minor commonsense alterations are OK.
> C. Other (please specify.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
So I stroll over to mrs Suzuki who has limited but some English and find out 
the problem. It's ok, I work out what needs to be done. You don't need a 
common language for that. I  give the ruling in English (sometimes in 
pidgin) as I'm required to do in a EBU sponsored game  and show her the 
translation (which is how I do it with the Japanese ladies circle, and it 
works well). Even though I'm confident that the translation expresses the 
intent I have a problem because the phrase which I use in English  does not 
translate as my customer expects.

This is not a criticism of your translation - it may well be that "deal" is 
so stretched that it jars on the Japanese mind and as such IS a poor 
translation. We have this problem for all translations, given that the 
definitive and only acceptable version of the Law is English, the 
translation is what the player knows and yet has no force in Law. It is 
without doubt a cause of problems in International matches.

My view is that if "deal" can be understood in Japanese it should remain as 
deal, but if it is truly a stretch then it should be translated as "board". 
I am minded of the notes at the beginning of Nakatani's 1997 translation 
where he sets out "must" "may" "may not" etc with specific Japanese 
translations and explanation. My Japanese friends comment that this passage 
is very useful, and clearly Nakatani must have strayed from the English in 
order for him to have thought to _add_ to the law with this clarification. 
It may well be the case that another such note/notes regarding board/deal 
and other quirks would be the best resolution of the problems.

When I was translating for a living, I used to write TNs (translator's 
notes) occasionally when I felt the translation completely failed the 
writer's intent and I would then translate the intent, commenting on what 
the object language actually said.

I noted pack/deck some while ago here, although no-one picked up the thread. 
It would be another example. Pack is British English; deck is American 
English. Which language is in use? :)  John


> Cheers,
> Bob
>
> -----------------------------------------------------
> Robert (Bob) Geller,     Tokyo, Japan        geller at nifty.com
>


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