Translating swearwords in literature

[Litcrit]

I have been hired to translate a novel about redemption through love for animals found in the French criminal underground. Or something like that. It’s a brutal, but powerful and moving book.

The characters and situations are presented very realistically. They use graphic language. I’m not offended by it and don’t personally find it inappropriately and gratuitously used.

I don’t personally use swearwords and definitely believe using them in anger towards another person is a sin. But I’m not sure where the line of sin for usage is.

Is there anything sinful about typing out swearwords as I translate them from one language into another in a literary work?

 

[Jermosh]

I would think it would be a sin to wrongly translate. But Europeans tend to have a differant meaning to swearing then the US, try as we like we have a hard time shaking our puritan roots.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

I think your fine.

I would worry if there were some blasphemous phrases, but other than that it should be fine.

Also, literature needs to be moralistic (is that the correct way to say it) meaning it’s fine to portray real life, even with swear words, as long as it fits the story line and it isn’t gratuitous.

A villain would speak like a villain, , a crude person would speak like a crude person.

Translating a novel seems like very satisfying work! How many languages have you mastered?

 

[puzzleannie]

I Is there anything sinful about typing out swearwords as I translate them from one language into another in a literary work?

do you have intent to use the words as curses or demeaning epithets? then no it is not a sin. French swear words are unique to the language, and don’t translate well, my advice is simply to use them as written in the original, which will make the dialogue more pungent (pun intended) and authentic to the characters. That is probably true of other languages as well.

 

[Phemie]

do you have intent to use the words as curses or demeaning epithets? then no it is not a sin. French swear words are unique to the language, and don’t translate well, my advice is simply to use them as written in the original, which will make the dialogue more pungent (pun intended) and authentic to the characters. That is probably true of other languages as well.

Certainly if you were translating Québecois novels, most of the swearwords would be sacred vessels and have to do with Mass. Translating those into English would lose the effect, in fact, it would just confuse.

 

[Litcrit]

I think your fine.

I would worry if there were some blasphemous phrases, but other than that it should be fine.

Also, literature needs to be moralistic (is that the correct way to say it) meaning it’s fine to portray real life, even with swear words, as long as it fits the story line and it isn’t gratuitous.

A villain would speak like a villain, , a crude person would speak like a crude person.

Translating a novel seems like very satisfying work! How many languages have you mastered?

Thanks for your view!

Other than my native Serbian, I know English and some French and that’s it. I’ve taken Greek and Hebrew too, but got lazy and quit quickly.

do you have intent to use the words as curses or demeaning epithets? then no it is not a sin. French swear words are unique to the language, and don’t translate well, my advice is simply to use them as written in the original, which will make the dialogue more pungent (pun intended) and authentic to the characters. That is probably true of other languages as well.

No, no such intent at all. Thank you for setting my mind at ease.

I’m actually translating from my native Serbian into English (the author is a Serb who has been living in Paris for decades and writes about his - very sordid - experiences there). The swearwords *will *pose a problem - my language is much more graphic and imaginative than English when it comes to obscenities . No blasphemy, though, as far as I’ve seen.

 

[centurionguard]

Certainly if you were translating Québecois novels, most of the swearwords would be sacred vessels and have to do with Mass. Translating those into English would lose the effect, in fact, it would just confuse.

Such swear words in the face of a English speaking person would sound nonsense.
However; Québécois French speaking Canadians who swear words against the Tabernacle go much, much farther than that of speaking about a sacred object.

Tabernac is one of the worst curse words you can use in French Canada. French Canada has a strong tradition of Roman Catholicism and this sacrilegious word takes the word “tabernacle” in vain.

So much so that it is even considered a mortal sin.

Part of my French heritage is being a Québécois. Never such profanity was used in my Catholic home.

Would you damn the Holy Presence of Jesus inside the Tabernacle? Not me!

 

[TheQuestioner]

Do your job. As far as I can tell you are not hindering the Christian mission on earth or your soul by doing it.

 

[centurionguard]

Do your job. As far as I can tell you are not hindering the Christian mission on earth or your soul by doing it.

If your referring to my last post I’m What do you imply by Do Your Job?

As far as I can tell you are not hindering the Christian mission on earth or your soul by doing it.

Guess I’m still confused…Please elaborate.

**Language spoken here at Catholic Answers is spoken in a English American vernacular. However; does this imply that people of other foreign languages who indiscriminately use swear words that people here have no clue what is being said that it shouldn’t be of precedence? Many members here at CAF write and speak numerous languages other than English. **

 

[jmcrae]

Is there anything sinful about typing out swearwords as I translate them from one language into another in a literary work?

Make a good translation, so that when the person reading it in the second language gets the same impact as the person who reads it in the first language. Don’t worry about the swearing. It’s not a sin to make a good translation.