It recently dawned on me why I often stumble into translation conundrums and over words or phrases that seem at first quite trivial, but are in fact tricky to translate into the target language. The short answer is that some words or expressions are culture-specific and that striving to find an equivalent at all costs will, more often than not, bear no fruit.
In an extract from Thinking Italian translation that I used in my translation class last week, the authors present a ST advertising text in which the first line reads: “Complimenti! Lei ha scelto le calzature X…” and the (awkwardly) attempted TT translation: “Compliments! You choosed the X shoes…”. The book does not offer any suggestions on how the ST ought to be translated, but uses it instead as an example to broach the wider subject of translation loss and cultural transposition. A fascinating area of translation studies.
As I set about translating the Italian text into English, I immediately came to a screeching halt: Compliments? Congratulations? Good job? Surely purchasing a pair of shoes – no matter how expensive or finely crafted – does not warrant such brouhaha. It is simply not expected in English. It sounds excessive. And it might even have other implications. Finally! You can now afford a pair of shoes. You’ve got it made, Jack!
Congratulations on your purchase! may be heard when buying a house or an expensive car. Still, it reeks of insincere pat-on-the-back small talk that adds very little to communication. And, in any case, no one would dream of congratulating a customer on buying a head of lettuce at the local market or a pair of shoes in a department store.
In English a “thank you for your purchase’ is all you need, really. I checked with a German friend and he said ‘gute Wahl’ would be in order but ‘ohne Kompliment’. When I asked my Finnish colleague, I could hear her have an inner chuckle when she blurted a ‘Grattis till dina nya Ecco skor’ in attempting a Swedish translation.
So why complimenti is all right in Italian? Perhaps because it is the land of flattery and of la bella figura. Perhaps because it goes hand in hand with the level of formality and variety of honorifics commonly used in everyday speech. Modern English has done away with grammar-based honorifics. Italian, on the other hand, is a language in love with its navel-gazing superlatives and academic and professional titles. After all, if an Italian professor – but only a full professor, or ordinario – is styled as ‘Chiarissimo’ , then it stands to reason that Complimenti vivissimi is the least you can expect when purchasing a pair of Ferragamo shoes.