A Mis-Translation

I told myself that one thing that I would not do on a blog that focused on my encounters with the Khmer language was make fun of local translations. If I want them, they are not difficult to find, but reveal nothing except idiosyncratic inadequacy or simple misunderstanding. However, last weekend I found an example at an old temple that I cannot resist posting though it does not appear at first glance to be very illuminating in general.

Some mis-translations (Is that the right term to use? We will have to see if it sticks) are revealing, especially if they tend to recur.

A common one is the shop house sign. They will very often say in English: 'Selling Gemstones' or 'Selling Cakes'.

'Selling' as it is used here is clearly not a gerund, its use rather aims to translate the business description into the present continuous tense. When I read the English, I have this feeling that the owner is trying to communicate the existence of an on-going activity, rooted in the past, continuing even as we look, and which will optimistically continue in the future. Kind of nice. But that may just be me because the accompanying Khmer is usually the simple verb and direct object: something you would find no good reason to translate as other than: 'Sell Gemstones.' (In Khmer it is not a given that an unstated but understood 'we' is included.) In the Khmer no direct evidence that continuity of the business is being communicated.

An adverbal phrase is available in the Khmer language to indicate continuous action (there is no conjugation of verb forms! Hurray!) but since it is not used on signs, it appears that the Khmer preference is simply to indicate, for a store, something like: 'Sell Chicken Feet'.

I'll see if I can take a picture. Shouldn't be too hard. And that would not be making fun. We need to figure out why they do not simply say: 'Gemstones' or 'Cakes'.

But with that over-long introduction, here is the recent find, the one I could not resist posting. At a Chenla-era temple (circa 700 A.D.) on whose inside door frame is painted the Khmer admonishment to take off one's shoes before entering, we find an English translation (or mis-translation) painted.

They had to physically shut my mouth. :) I can't even begin to speculate about that word choice: shoes, sandles, saucers: the synonym progression does not work, even if you take 'saucer's as inventively metaphorical or poetic (same thing?).

The ancient temple towers are beautiful (there are two, the site is named Prey Nokor) and typical of their sort. A more modern Khmer Buddhist ediface has grown up around it. As is often the case in Cambodia, next door to the modern temple is a school. Kids wandered onto the grounds to buy fruit and candy from the sellers there. (No 'Selling Candy' signs :) Two old ladies who sold incense sticks to the visitors, visitors who were expected to put aside their saucers as they entered the small sanctuary to offer the burning sticks,chatted with me, and is so typical that it can't be offensive, explained how poor and old they were (angling for a contribution, even if I bought no sticks).

I visited this temple during a recent trip to Kampong Cham Province (where I got my motorcycle repaired :). I had seen the sign to the temple many times from National Route 7, north of Kampong Cham town and across the Mekong bridge on my many trips to Ratanakiri, but had never stopped in. I was glad that this time I did, though the road was deeply rutted after the long rainy season, which meant that the dusty and bumpy 15 kilometers took about 45 minutes on my newly repaired motocycle. But I left with that unsolved puzzle: 'saucers' for 'foot-gear'. I do love Cambodia.