Though not a professional translator, I would say that one of the hardest thing to translate is humor, because it depends a lot on culture. Thai people might not find American jokes funny and likewise. So when we were looking for something to translate for Thai to English Translation project, we chose this book.
ไทยจัง
This is how our introduction goes:
The three source texts are taken from Thaijang, a collection of articles about Thai lifestyle and popular culture. The articles deal with trivial matters and events in daily life, which reflect the habits and attitudes of Thai people. Unlike most books on Thai culture, this collection of articles does not present the culture with traditional heritages, such as Thai dance or ceremonies. Rather, it defines Thai culture in a more realistic, contemporary aspect. The book was published in October, 2009.
These articles were written by two young columnists, Nawapon Tamrongrattanarit and Chakorn Chaipreecha. Both are movie reviewers for Hamburger magazine. Nawapon also writes a column for A-Day. Sharing the same interest in Thai popular culture, the two writers decided to co-write a book to present “Thainess” in their unique point of view.
The language used is informal and conversational. Still in their twenties, the writers employ some teenage slang, such as เซ็งเป็ด, ขั้นเทพ, เมบขิงๆ. Since the writers intend to mock some of Thai habits which they find ridiculous or illogical, they adopt humorous and sarcastic tone. The tone not only renders the text more entertaining, but also makes their comments sound less harsh. The playfulness in the tone is indeed a main feature of this book.
And now that I’m holding the book in my hand again after all these years, I just realized I haven’t finished reading it. But anyway, we did selected three articles from the book to translate into English. We had so much fun working on it and apparently our professor enjoyed reading it as well. (I can’t remember which country he is from, but he’s a foreigner whose Thai is excellent.)
The following is my part of the translation, which is one of the three articles. And let me tell you, this is very true and very Thai.
Who Gives a Shit!
Stray dogs littering the front of houses have long been a chronic problem in Thai Buddhist society where people are supposedly kind and merciful. But really, how could anyone have fun sweeping and washing poop off the front of their house every single day? And sometimes it’s not only once a day either; the poop appears in the morning, at noon, at night after dinner, and one more time at midnight. It makes you wonder how many dogs poop there exactly. And the most important question is why MY house?
Thai society loves dogs. 90% of Thai people pay for products with dogs’ pictures. For example, there was a time when “The Dog” brand was so popular or buying pet dogs from Jatujak market became a trend. These mean dogs are preferred to cats. So, when suddenly there is a bunch of puppies born in one of the Soi, they are all pampered and cared for. Some old ladies in the neighborhood just adore them, especially the young ones. (Then why don’t they just adopt these dogs?) Some bring them rice and leftovers every day. These stray dogs, therefore, grow up healthily.
Then the time comes for them to rampage the Soi. The cute little puppies are gone, left are only mangy dogs, hovering about the Soi, and starting pooping in front of people’s houses. Since these dogs grow up in our neighborhood, and because of our Buddhist belief not to harm animals, no one ever dares calling the municipal officials to come pick these dogs up and turn them into hot dogs. We don’t want to be mean, yet we cannot accept responsibility for these dogs.
Therefore, we come up with our own Thai methods to solve the problem. We try to keep peace, though the way out is not setting aside a poop area for dogs. Our Thai methods, as follows, are various and way beyond imagination.
Setting up water-filled bottles: A method first invented by some unknown genius. Unknown also is the logic behind it. People today suggest that when the dogs see their own reflection on the water bottles, they’ll be frightened and come around no longer. Believing so, people line the bottles up as a border and eventually the dogs leave (though not because they see their own reflection or anything, but because there’s no room left to poop with all the bottles crowded the area). The vets, on the other hand, infer that once the dogs see through the bottle trick, they’ll go on and poop there anyway.
Hitting the dogs: Using this method is to turn your back on God and head for attack. So we go for “tit for tat” combined with “spare the rod and spoil the child.” Doggies, if you wanna shit here, you’d better be ready for some risks. Those who use this method believe that the dogs will learn their lesson and never come back. However, you may be condemned by your neighbors for hitting the dogs. Even if the method works, it should be done in secret.
Poisoning: Now this is an extreme, but it does happen. This method probably develops from hitting the dogs to another level of killing and destroying, combined with a desire to appear a good person at the same time. The result is to mix poison into the food given to those poopy dogs. After eating, they’ll walk away and die somewhere else and no one will know who’s done it. (This is a dangerous method. You may fall into the dark side. Consider carefully before taking action.)
Cleaning the front of your house: This method follows the Buddhist belief – extinguish your own resentment. Many vets suggest that cleaning the front of the house often enough till there’s no smell may stop the dogs from pooping there. This is probably the most peaceful method, but it certainly takes time to achieve the desired result and requires great patience in the process.
Obviously, each method is self-dependent and takes a lot of faith. Since we want to get rid of the dogs and still want to be goody-goodies as well, these methods turn out to be a bit odd. It is a surprise why government officials can do nothing about it. They can get rid of drugs but not stray dogs. What? Where is it harder? The whole burden then falls on us good and kind Buddhist people. Yes, kind, but not exactly. We love them, we feed them, we adore them, but once they poop in front of anybody’s house, we have nothing to do with them. We don’t want anyone to hit the dogs. We don’t want the municipal officials to take them away. So what the heck do we do now?
nacrelet 