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July 12, 2006
Language
Nie ("No") is a weekly current affairs magazine, edited by Jerzy Urban. The magazine is known for, among other things, its unparliamentary language and its attacks on "good taste." The language is one of its strongest points, though. Reading the main daily newspapers here can be a real struggle. The younger journalists (e.g. in Dziennik) are palatable enough but have nothing to say. Legible but unreadable, you might say. The older journalists get bogged down in qualifications and complications. In Nie there is life in the lines. Here they are on the subject of PiS (Law and "Justice")'s TV ad campaign:
?miech te? wywo?uje emitowana w telewizjach reklamówka PiSuaru. Zer?ni?ta z zamierzch?ej reklamy Reagana....That doesn't do justice to the original. "W telewizjach" (on televisions) is difficult to translate: it is a little like the way some write "the internets" when they want to satirise a politican's limited knowledge of the technology. ("Telewizja" means "television" and is not supposed to be used in the plural as it is in this case.)
Pissoir's ad on the tellybox is also getting a few laughs. Ripped off from an ancient Reagan ad....
Now here is the more "serious" Gazeta Wyborcza on the same subject:
Oba materia?y maj? niemal identyczn? konstrukcj?. Odwo?uj? si? do pracy, rodziny, mi?o?ci. W obu mo?na obejrze? zadowolone rodziny wracaj?ce z zakupów, szcz??liwe m?ode ma??e?stwa, rolnika pracuj?cego na traktorze, a nawet ludzi nios?cych dywan....
The material in both cases is almost identical in construction. They refer to work, the family and love. In both one can see happy families returning with the shopping, happy young couples, a farmer working in his tractor and even people carrying a carpet....
It's worth noting that the high brow, serious, weighty etc. GW gives this trivial item far more space (including six photos) than the scurrilous, low brow, muck raking etc. Nie.
The irony of all this is that Jerzy Urban was spokesman for a communist regime which was famous for "dr?twa mowa" (literally: "numb talk") or, in other words, newspeak.
Posted by hgrodsk at July 12, 2006 08:06 PM
Comments
The language of NIE is part of its assault on Polish tradition – as most of its contents are. I remember when they used to give brothels a kind of Michelin restaurant guide 5 star rating…again a real wind up of everything traditional in the form and content of Polish media.
Though you translate the NIE’s slangy language brilliantly, for those of us who struggle it can seem incomprehensible most of the time.
The problem I have with gazeta etc is the structure of the stories. They seem to bury the best quotes at the end of pieces sometimes, whereas western journalism is all about putting your best stuff at the top, etc.
But like you say, clarity is not Polish traditional journalism’s strong point.
Posted by: beatroot at July 13, 2006 11:43 AM
The old cliche about answering "who, what, where, when and why" in the first sentence or two is still good advice.
Posted by: Henry Grodsk at July 13, 2006 09:07 PM