|
Kurt Sansone
It is yet another dismal translation of the EU Constitution into Maltese with ‘ligijiet kwadru Ewropej,’ whatever that means, replacing the atrocious ‘igsma tal-pariri’ that was etched into the initial translation that caused so much furore last year.
MaltaToday took a cursory look at the officially translated version of the EU Constitution printed by the EU Commission this week and found a number of howlers. Each page randomly opened by this newspaper revealed gross mistakes, indeed making the Constitution a book of surprises.
The most atrocious mistake, mentioned already above, is the translation of the word ‘framework,’ which is translated as ‘kwadru’ (square) rather than ‘qafas.’ There are various instances in the 338-page book where the word ‘kwadru’ is used.
On page 21 ‘Institutional framework’ is translated as ‘Il-Kwadru istituzzjonali’. Similar atrocious occurrences of the same mistake were found on pages 108 and 110 where ‘legal framework’ was translated as ‘ligi kwadru’ and ‘ligijiet kwadru’ respectively.
A similar horrendous example can be found on page 113 in the translation of the phrase ‘economic policies.’ Instead of ‘il-politika ekonomika,’ the person who translated the Constitution decided to invent a new term: ‘il-politiki ekonomiçi’.
Another invented verb is to be found on page 299 where the ‘weighting’ of votes in the Council of Ministers is translated as ‘l-ippeΩar’ rather than ‘il-piΩ’ or ‘is-sa??a.’
The ‘establishment’ of the Union on page 9 has taken on a totally new meaning in the Maltese version of the Constitution. ‘The establishment of the Union’ is translated as ‘Stabbiliment ta’ l-Unjoni,’ instead of ‘It-Twaqqif ta’ l-Unjoni.’ The Maltese word ‘stabbiliment’ is normally used to describe a commercial or entertainment premises.
And it seems the person or persons who translated the Constitution had many an Italian influence with ‘Title,’ ‘Article’ and ‘Chapter’ translated as ‘Titolu,’ ‘Artikolu’ and ‘Kapitolu’ respectively when these should be written without the ‘o.’ The proper translation should be ‘Titlu,’ ‘Artiklu’ and ‘Kapitlu.’
Another mistake found in various sections of the Constitution is the translation of the word ‘functioning.’ This is translated literally into ‘funzjonament’ when the proper translation should have been ‘operat’ or ‘t?addim.’
And if you thought translation errors are found only within the legal text of the Constitution, you’d be amazed at the translation of the word ‘chlorine’ on the first page which contains the book’s reference information.
‘Chlorine-free paper’ is translated as ‘Karta ?ielsa mill-klorur’ when the Maltese word for chlorine is ‘kloru.’
The exercise undertaken by MaltaToday is anything but a comprehensive one and it seems that no lesson was learnt from last year’s outrage at the way the Constitution was translated by a young female lawyer with little knowledge of how the Maltese language is written.
The Maltese proverb ‘Min jitwieled tond ma jmutx kwadru’ (You cannot teach a dog new tricks) is an apt description of the repeated translation fiasco at the Commission.
kurt@newsworksltd.com
|
