Tłumataczenia

Blog about some translation trivia. PL/EN

[tlumataczenia]

ExCELLent name change

[EN] If you have watched Dragon Ball Z, then you surely know this fella:

This is Cell, an incredibly powerful villain, genetic abomination of dr Giro. And when fighting, he... er... he...

Well, yes, he absorbs other people and their abilities. Basically he takes this idea:

to a truly lovecraftian level.

But I want to talk about his name change in the (in)famous Polish RTL7 dub. His name there is Komórczak. Cell is Komórka in Polish and if you are an avid reader of this blog, you can see right away why direct translation wouldn't have worked. Komórka ends with a, meaning it's a feminine noun. Not exactly fitting.

But what is Komórczak, then? Well, according to wikipedia, it is multinucleate cell, i.e. a cell with MULTIPLE nuclei... which is so idiosyncratic with Cell's style of fighting.

MORE importantly, the name just SOUNDS evil. It can be seen as an augumentative of komórka, and the suffix -czak implies it's a creepy creature (compare: pajęczak, mięczak, kurczak - arachnid, mollusk/molliusca, chicken wait chicken are not creepy they are delicious).

And that is an excellent example of creative translation imho, not only retaining the original, but including part of his evil nature to enhance the name.

In the manga, sticking very close to original, he is just Cell, though.

And, well, yes, one day I am doomed to talk about the beloved and/or simultaneously hated Polish and French dub of DB. Why? Well...

[PL] Wzmianka o Komórczaku z DBz, imho świetna zmiana nazwy.

[tlumataczenia]

[PL] A, wreszcie coś świeżego! Oto jak tłumacze wyszli obronną ręką z faktu, że u nas nie ma idiomu "słoń w pokoju".

...

Nie, Karo, pogrzebany pies jest niegłaskalny.

[EN] And here is something fresh, for a change! In Polish we don't have a phrase elephant in the room. Instead, translators used the phrase That's where the dog is buried, often meaning "That's where the problem is".

...

No, Kara, a buried dog is unpettable.

[tlumataczenia]

The secret of BRISBY (Brave Rodent Investigating Strange Behavioral Yearnings)

[EN] I'm sure most of you are aware of the movie Secret of NIMH, a tale of brave rodent exploring the strange world of rats exposed to psychological experiments, based on real-world events. And the movie draws you right from the title with the mysterious NIMH acronym. What is that?

Well, it is National Institute of Mental Health, which just happens to be abbreviated right into what could pass as a name from a tolkien-esque fantasy.

I wanted to know how that was translated into Polish. And right from the start, I ran into a problem: there are two different versions of it.

The old, voiceover-only, sold on VHSs one, completely bypasses NIMH and is titled Dzielna Panie Brisby - Brave Mrs Brisby. In that version, NIMH is PIP - Państwowy Instytut Psychiatrii- National Psychiatric Institute.

The second, imho, superior dubbed version, is called Tajemnica IZBY - The secret of IZBA. And here is the neat translated bit: The word izba actually means something. It's an old-fashion word for "room". And it is an acronym, for Instytut Zdrowia i Badań - Institute for Health and Research. In that version, they translated Brisby as Potulna - Docile.

So, what are you gonna do now with this pointless trivia?

[PL] Krótka notka o tym, jak przetłumaczono NIMH w dwóch polskich wersjach.

...okej i jeszcze jedno: na CDA oba ripy są źle podpisane. Tajemnica IZBY to Dzielna Pani Brisby i na odwrót ffgsddsdgdffsgdfs

[tlumataczenia]

[EN] okay, one tiny tidbit from Polish dub of Amphibia. The oddity of the names of Plantar and Leif, which originate from the same letter put upside-down, is preserved. Plantar became Motyka, meaning "a farmhoe", while Leif is now Witka, meaning "Withe". (and that is also by coincidence, the name of Willow from The Owl House).

I do wonder if it was accidental, or translator were told to use a name starting with a letter that has a rotated counterpart.

[tlumataczenia]

Wolałbym Fallout (Roll out the Fallout) - tłumaczenie PL

[PL] To kolejny utwór, który od dwóch lat nucę pod nosem i miesiąc temu wreszcie siadłem, aby go przetłumaczyć. Oryginał ma mnóstwo językowych smaczków, które nie są możliwe do zgrabnego przetłumaczenia, więc dodałem sporo nawiązań zrozumiałych dla polskiego odbiorcy.

Aż ze szczęścia sam się śmieję chodząc ulicami miast; w przychodniach nie ma kolejek w Teslach latamy do gwiazd. Ogniem świata nie podpalę, miecz mój nad kominkiem tkwi. Dawno gazet nie czytałem, może coś umknęło mi? A teraz tak: Mamy nadwyżkę produkcji katastrof i klęsk; A.I. bardzo dobrze działa - nam na nerwy, w tym tkwi sęk. Polak głupszy jest po szkodzie, COVID nauczył nas nil, a już wkrótce przedstawimy wiadomość z ostatniej z chwil. Pozmieniajmy trochę granic, wojna znowu modna jest. Przerzucajmy się bombkami, ma to w duszy ONZ, bo haterów w bohaterów zamieniamy - gorszy sort. A ten, kto umarł - już nie żyje; koniec gry. A teraz - sport! Trochę to srogo, lecz czuję się błogo; ma kolekcja kapsli ma wreszcie jakiś sens. Więc wolałbym Fallout i by świat nas olał, ma przyszłość związana z Braterstwem Stali jest! (Czy on tak zawsze…? Ma bogate życie wewnętrzne.) Już wolał- -bym Fallout Ach, ta Nuka-Cola! Moja jest krypta numer dziewięćdziesiąt dwa. A gorsze niż wszystkie: wieczorki towarzyskie Wojna się nie zmienia, ale my już tak! Gospodarka nam się sypie tak jak na premierę gry. Z dobrych gestów nie ma nici system karmy zszedł na psy. Wytyczamy sobie cele, chcąc w nie trafić choćby raz, Ale na to przyjdzie pora kiedy V.A.T.S. powita was! Mody, kody nie pomogą - i planetę czeka zgon teraz tylko kwestią czasu, aż się zacznie dziki gon. Więc załóżmy nasze zbroje i Pipboye w pełni sił i pomóżmy Prestonowi, jakby jakiś wybór był. Wolał- -bym Fallout Ach, ta Nuka-Cola! Trochę zielona - co w tym złego może być? Już działa ten nowy makijaż ghoulowy zmarszczek już nie mam, bo skóry mi brak! Wolał- -bym Fallout Czas bym wywołał Potwora post-apo z paskudną japą swą. Już wolał- -bym Fallout, bo to nasza dola: a życie otwartą grą jest! (Wolał- -bym Fallout) (Wolał- -bym Fallout) Już wolał- -bym Fallout, bo to nasza dola: a życie otwartą grą jest! …którą ustawił ktoś…

Notki:

nawiązania do dwóch piosenek z falloutowych soundtracków zamieniłem na Ogniem i mieczem,

"bombki" to nawiązanie do legendarnego skeczu kabaretu TEY,

"A kto umarł, ten nie żyje" to cytat z Psów Pasikowskiego,

"V.A.T.S wita was" to nawiązane do sloganu "WARS wita was",

oryginalny "Oblivion with guns", dowcip nt. tego, że nowe Fallouty stoją (a raczej kuleją) na tym samym silniku gier Bethesdy zastąpiłem swojskim, wiedźmińskim Dzikim gonem.

[EN] my humble translation of "Roll out the Fallout" by The Chalkeaters.

[tlumataczenia]

A legend of The Legend

[EN] Some people are confused by the new Avatar movie being called "The Legend of Aang", mimicking Korra's series. Surely, the entire ATLA series is the legend of Aang, right...?

And I say...

...if you watched it in Poland.

Yup, in our country, there was no "airbender" in the title, as it might confuse the audience, and it would require a new word or translation. So, they went with Legenda Aanga.

The whole "-bending" bit was also problematic. In Book 1 and 2, it simply became "magic". So Katara is a "water mage" (mag wody), Aang is Air mage (mag powietrza), and Sokka is... also there.

And by the way, that worked out great. I've watched Avatar in Polish originally, and it sounded well.

However, in delayed Book 3, the translation was changed. And Magia was replaced by...tkanie. Which means "weaving".

And it is awkward as flip. Katara is magicking, not weaving!

The Netflix series is titled Awatar: Ostatni władca wiatru - Avatar: The last Master of Wind.

To start with, Avatar is spelled Awatar, because we don't actually have letter 'v' in Polish alphabet. 'W' takes its role and is pronounced thusly.

The Netflix series goes back-and-forth between the two, calling benders "mages", but bending "weaving". Furthermore it uses a term magiczka, to describe female mages (like Katara), a word which I have never seen before. Yeah, making new variants of nouns of different gender can be weird in Polish...

Oh, and the "master of wind" was also in the title of the 2010 movie WHICH WAS NEVER MADE HAS NEVER EXISTED AND CONTINUES TO BASK IN ITS NONEXISTENCE. THERE IS NO AVATAR MOVIE EXCEPT THE ANIMATED ONE WHICH IS NOT OUT YET AND IT IS NOT 3.4 GIGABYTES IN SIZE. ALL GLORY TO THE CACTUS JUICE.

[tlumataczenia]

Flowery fortune-telling

[EN] Okay, so I fell into a bit of rabbit hole. I think most of you are familiar with children's game "X loves me/X loves me not", where one person plucks the petals of a flower, trying to determine if their crush reciprocates said feelings.

Except, the English version is... boring.

There are only two options. Love exists on a broader spectrum, come on, guys, it's [current year]!

Well, it turns out other languages have better variants.

French: Elle m’aime un peu, beaucoup, passionnément, à la folie, pas du tout

which means: he likes me a little, a lot, he loves me passionately, madly, not at all - that gives 5 options! (source)

Then comes...

Russian: Любит - не любит, плюнет - поцелует, к сердцу прижмет - к черту унесет.

Which means: Loves or doesn't love, will spit (upon me) or will kiss (me), will clasp (me) to breast or will ~make (me) to go to hell - so that is 6 options! (source)

But the winner with most regional DLCs is...

Polish: Kocha, lubi, szanuje; nie chce, nie dba, żartuje; w myśli, w mowie, w sercu, na ślubnym kobiercu.

Which means: Loves, likes, respects; doesn't want, doesn't care, mocks; in mind, in speech, in the heart, and on the wedding carpet (aisle runner). - that is 10! Ten options!

Now, I say "winner", because of course, again, I am limited by what I can altavista, and Polish wikipedia has a whole list of these variants... with very few citations. So if you can find a better one - feel free to comment! And the boring, binary vanilla version is present in aforementioned languages.

[PL] Notka na temat wierszyka "Kocha, nie kocha". Okazuje się, że nudna angielska wersja ma tylko dwie opcje. Francuska - pięć, rosyjska - sześć, a polska wygrywa z dziesięcioma możliwościami! Polska gurom!

[tlumataczenia]

Legenda Vox Machiny (Czas na twój ruch) - The Legend of Vox Machina (Your turn to roll) wersja polska

[PL] Youtube podrzuciło mi wczoraj w rekomendowanych filmach animowane promo Legendy Vox Machiny do piosenki przewodniej drużyny Critical Role i przypomniałem sobie, że dawno temu chciałem ten żwawy kawałek przetłumaczyć, bo aż się oto prosił. No i to zrobiłem.

Uwaga: jestem spod Częstochowy, więc mam wrodzone +5 do częstochowskich rymów.

Zanim wyruszysz w bój, musisz zebrać drużynę: przyjaciół po grób - dobrze zgraną machinę. A słuchając ich przygód aż jeży się włos; drżyjcie złoczyńcy, bo marny wasz los! Mają ogień i miecz, lisi spryt, piękne oczy, ale nie widzą, że ktoś ich zaraz zaskoczy. Nie masz czasu, by czekać, Ni knować, ni knuć. Więc weź los w swoje ręce, Raz-dwa! Kością rzuć! Czy jest w Tobie duch, abyś walczył za dwóch? Jeśliś jest taki zuch… To już czas na (czas na) (czas na)… Twój ruch!

Dalsze uwagi:

początek jest inspirowany nieśmiertelnym Przed wyruszeniem w drogę, należy zebrać drużynę z gry Baldur's Gate,

ogień i miecz to oczywiste nawiązanie do Ogniem i mieczem, takiego filmu z Żebrowskim,

ostatnia zwrotka to nawiązanie do Przygód Rycerza Szaławiły Jana Brzechwy, wedle którego... Miał rycerz zbroję podłą I niewygodne siodło, Do tego uprząż biedną I strzemię tylko jedno, Lecz za to żył w nim duch, Co starczyłby za dwóch.

[EN] my attempt at translating Critical Role's catchy theme song :p

[tlumataczenia]

Going nuclear

[EN] Okay, so I was lying in bed doing nothing but existing, and I suddenly remembered how well-chosen names were in Polish dub of Powerpuff Girls.

First of all, the title: Atomówki. This word (atomówka), already in diminutive form, no less, is a colloquial term for... an atom bomb. So, perfect right from the start. Then the girls: Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup are Bójka, Bajka and Brawurka.

And I love these names, they just roll off your tongue, especially first two. Bójka is "a fight", bajka (just one letter off) means "a fairy tale", perfectly encapsulating their personalities Brawurka is not a word, but it is just a made-up diminutive of brawura - "recklessness" or "bravado", also perfect fit.

prof Utonium is Atomus, btw. And Mojo Jojo is... Mojo Jojo, no need to reinvent the wheel.

One other villain's name is just too good not to mention: Fuzzy Lumpkins, who became Feler Lumpeks.

Feler means "flaw", "defect" or "bad luck", it is an old-fashioned word. Lumpeks is a semi-derogatory name for second-hand used, usually quite ugly, clothes store. And again, very good choice.

I sadly don't have much to say, because, believe it or not, I saw PG first when I was in college, I didn't have Cartoon Network before I moved to a bigger city :p

[bugeyedfreaks]

I love it!

[tlumataczenia]

#finding out what the girls and the others characters are named in other languages is always so interesting #also I love that mojo’s still mojo lmao

[tlumataczenia]

Going nuclear

[EN] Okay, so I was lying in bed doing nothing but existing, and I suddenly remembered how well-chosen names were in Polish dub of Powerpuff Girls.

First of all, the title: Atomówki. This word (atomówka), already in diminutive form, no less, is a colloquial term for... an atom bomb. So, perfect right from the start. Then the girls: Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup are Bójka, Bajka and Brawurka.

And I love these names, they just roll off your tongue, especially first two. Bójka is "a fight", bajka (just one letter off) means "a fairy tale", perfectly encapsulating their personalities Brawurka is not a word, but it is just a made-up diminutive of brawura - "recklessness" or "bravado", also perfect fit.

prof Utonium is Atomus, btw. And Mojo Jojo is... Mojo Jojo, no need to reinvent the wheel.

One other villain's name is just too good not to mention: Fuzzy Lumpkins, who became Feler Lumpeks.

Feler means "flaw", "defect" or "bad luck", it is an old-fashioned word. Lumpeks is a semi-derogatory name for second-hand used, usually quite ugly, clothes store. And again, very good choice.

I sadly don't have much to say, because, believe it or not, I saw PG first when I was in college, I didn't have Cartoon Network before I moved to a bigger city :p

[typhlonectes]

"Whale and Cat" by Boris Zachoder.

[tlumataczenia]

[EN] here is a ;little tidbit from TS5's Polish trailer, and sometimes stars just align for a joke to work.

The line

I pronounce you husband... and knife!

became

Ogłaszam was mężem... i nożą!

If Jessie said żoną, that would mean wife. Meanwhile, nóż means knife, and by stretching the declinated form as if it was feminine noun (it's masculine), we get a perfect żoną to nożą swap. 10/10, no notes.

also hi im not ded

[tlumataczenia]

Happy Sylvester!

[EN] ... cos that's how we call New Year's Eve in Polish. Cos it's Sylvester's name day in catholic calendar. He was also a pope!

New Year is New Year, though. So, happy soon to be 2026!

[nautiscarader]

Okay, since some you seemed interested in titbits like these, let me tell you about one modern Christmas tradition in Poland. and by modern I mean starting around 2003. 

And that tradition is… 

Home Alone.

In Poland, it is known as “Kevin Home Alone”, and it has gained such ubiquitous status of a Christmas movie, that people pretty much refer to it as “Kevin”.

This movie is shown EVERY YEAR, on Christmas Eve (since in Poland, we celebrate Christmas Eve with a feast that starts around 8pm), on one lucky private station called Polsat. I mean, it is possible that other stations air it now, but it has pretty much became synonymous with that station’s Christmas line-up. 

It airs every year, at roughly the same hour, and in many modern, less-traditional households, it is a staple of the Christmas Eve feast. 

How popular is this movie?

Well, we’re not quite up to people dressing up like characters from “Christmas Story” or buying silly leg lamps, but when in 2010 the said TV network Polsat announced that they will NOT air Home Alone on Christmas Eve THERE WAS A PETITION ON-LINE to bring it back. Sources: (1) (2) (3)

To quote the above articles some poor underpaid journalists had to write:

“It is difficult to imagine Christmas without cultivating its many traditions: Christmas tree, presents, carols, carp [we don’t do turkey], and… a screening of ‘Kevin Home Alone’. For many years this family block-buster has been a staple of Christmas Eve feasts.”

“Kevin is our Christmas companion almost every year. When Polsat announced its Christmas schedule, Internauts immediately created the ‘Polsat is killing Christmas - no <<Kevin>> this year [protest]’ Facebook profile that amassed 46 thousand people”

“The Internauts have won (…) [they] have accused Polsat that ‘It is killing Christmas’ (…)”

And I know that nowadays writing angry petitions about corporate decisions is kinda a joke, but a) it was 2010, and b) remember, Poland. 40 million people, vodka, polar bears and witchers on the streets, y’all. And by the way, IT WORKED. They have shown the damn thing again.

Now, I should of course say, that this is not universal by any mean. We are deeply traditional country (steering more to the right with each year, may I say…), and in many households, watching TV (or at least anything different that some christmas carols show) during a deeply religious feast is kinda sacrilegious.

 And we are nowhere near Germany’s level of obsession about “Dinner for One”, a short sketch that has been airing on New Year’s Eve since 1972, apparently, on more than one channel at the same time. 

By the way, I know for the fact that Home Alone’s been on the Polsat’s air since 2003, since there is a wiki dedicated to collecting old TV schedules. I am dead fucking serious. I should also point out that there have been airings of “Home Alone” in prior years, but on different stations, so presumable Polsat have strangled somebody to amass the rights to it. 2003 is as far as I am aware when the ‘tradition’ has started. 

Also, The New York sequel is usually shown the day after or around New Year’s Eve.

[tlumataczenia]

We don't talk about Polish case system

[EN] So I don't know if you have heard, there was this really popular Disney song a few years ago - We don't talk about Bruno. It was everywhere, sung by everyone, total ear-worm. Absolutely impossible to let it go.

And of course Encanto had a Polish version, and our version of song about Bruno was popular as heck too. But it does contain a grammatical error... or maybe it doesn't. It exist in weird quantum superposition, at least for me. But first, let's talk about... sigh... Polish cases.

If you are simping for Language Simp, you know how much of a pain they are. But for the blissfully uninitiated, Polish has cases, seven of them, meaning that our nouns, including names, as well certain other words can have up to seven different forms (14 if you count plurals). And it's not a simple act of adding a suffix, like with forms of Alcremie:

Same shape, minor differences. Oh no. Polish nouns can be like cocking Zygarde:

Is it a dog? A snake? A gundam? A sperm? all the above.

For example, let's compare a word dziobak (a platypus) vs. pies (a dog). the proper forms are as follows:

dziobak/dziobaka/dziobakowi/dziobaka/dziobakiem/dziobaku/dziobaku!

Pretty straightforward, just suffix change. After all, they don't do much. But now:

pies/psa/psu/psa/psem/psie/psie!

The root of the word can also change, leaving usually the first letter intact. Oh, and yeah, the last case - vocative - this is how you are supposed to address someone. It's going extinct, btw.

So why am I bringing this up with song about Bruno? Because the title, Nie mówimy o Brunie, has a mistake, and should read Nie mówimy o Brunonie... except... maybe... not. O, mój bobrze...

I have talked how in cartoons, in many cases, translators change names if said names have Polish equivalents: Anne Boonchuy became Anna Zaradna, Amity Blight is Anita Plaga and Phineas Flynn is Fineasz Flynn, while his sister, Candace became Fretka, because krkrkrkrkrkr the logic.

Bruno has a Polish equivalent - Brunon, and sadly these two declinate in a slightly different way

Brunon/Brunona/Brunonowi/Brunona/Brunonem/Brunonie/Brunonie!

Bruno/Bruna/Brunowi/Bruna/Brunem/Brunie/Brunie!

Except... According to PWN, the distributor of largest Polish dictionary and de-facto authority on all things grammatical, the second declination is bonkers, and people using the name Bruno should follow the declination of Brunon. Which sadly would mess the song, since Bru-no-nie has one more syllable.

Except... to the exception... shouldn't people called Bruno have saying in this? Because on this website with spelling advice, the first (1st) comment is from someone called Bruno:

Sorry, but I think I know what's my name. I am Bruno, not Brunon. Hence the declination is Bruno, Bruna, Brunowi, Bruna, Brunem, Brunie. And I think any other Bruno would agree.

This is of course, anecdotal evidence at most. Furthermore, the problem comes from the fact of the added "-n". In Polish, we also have... sigh... gendered nouns. And most masculine nouns end with a consonant (dziobak, aptekarz - a platypus, a pharmacist), though not always (stażysta - an intern). Other typically masculine names, like Hugo also have their counterpart (Hugon) and they definitely follow the other variant's pattern. But... Bruno already has an "n", so chopping off "-o" opens up a root word our brains can deal with. Compare it with declination of wino - wine.

wino/wina/winu/wino/winem/winie/wino!

So... does it matter? I mean it's not like professor Miodek is gonna invade your house if you don't follow the rules...

(I've been waiting sooo long to use this reaction image)

So, I have homework for you: if you know any Polish-speaking folks called Bruno, ask them how they declinate their name,

I mean, you've got talk about something over the Holidays!

Also, YT recommended me this video which is neat:

Oh! And the line Abuella, get an umbrella became Ej, hola, mam parasola! (Tally-ho, I have an umbrella!), which is not grammatical either (should be Mam parasol), but I will... let it go.

[PL] Notatka o (potencjalnie) niepoprawnej gramatycznie piosence Disneya - Nie mówimy o Brunie...

Mam również pracę domową: jeżeli znacie osoby o imieniu Bruno, zapytajcie się ich, jak oni preferują odmieniać ich imię.

W końcu musicie o czymś pogadać przez Święta.

[tlumataczenia]

[PL] Na Święta kilka przetłumaczonych anglosaskich kolęd od studia Accantus - specjalizują się w śpiewaniu polskich wersji piosenek, głównie z musicali i filmów Disneya.

[EN] A couple of English Christmassy songs, sung in Polish by Studio Accantus, most well known for singing covers of Polish versions of musical songs or Disney movies hits.

[tlumataczenia]

You're an indyk-head.

[EN] Since Chrysler Crisis Christmas is near, I wanted to share a video about etymology of turkey, which are not from Turkey. And yes, in Polish, it is indyk, implying it originates from India.