Three Monkeys Online

A Curious, Alternative Magazine

A Question of Translation

“Zakłócenia w ruchu powodują zmiany w czasów odjazdu” reads the sign pinned immediately below the summer bus timetables in the Polish town where I have been spending the holidays. Now some old sticks in the mud may tell you this means “Traffic disruption will cause changes in departure times” but there are more efficient, informative ways to translate it. For instance:
“Ignore the above timetable”
“Screw you”
“We give up”
In accordance with Skopostheorie I examined the surrounding context and this is what I found: in small print below nearly but not all of the “summer timetables” is written “Valid till January 1st 2008.” Either they’re expecting a long hot summer or translation #2 (Screw you) is in fact the correct answer.

Also, the coalition government has finally fallen apart.

Comments are closed.