Talk:B.U.G. Mafia
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User:Bogdangiusca made three changes recently; one is certainly a correction of my mistranslation; one I think is just a case of less colloquial English; one is somewhere between. Just trying to make sure we do the best we can on this; here's the scoop:
- "Deasupra Tuturor" - I had "Above All". Bogdan changed that to "Above Everyone". Yes; I mistranslated
- "Întotdeauna pentru totdeauna" - I had "For ever and ever". Bogdan changed that to "Always for ever". I agree that is more literal, but it's very uncolloquial and, as far as I can tell, means the same. I'd rather restore this to a wording a native speaker would actually use.
- Yes. I think you're right in here.
- OK, I'll restore. Jmabel 07:00, 29 Jan 2004 (UTC)
- "După Blocuri" - I had "Beyond the Projects" Bogdan changed that to "Behind the Buildings". This one is trickier. Two issues.
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- Bogdan, am I wrong in understanding that "după can as easily mean "after" "după puţin" as "behind"? I was assuming the former meaning, but figured "beyond" would express that better in English. I haven't heard the album. Is it clearly "behind" rather than "after" in this context?
- I translated "blocuri" as "the projects". I know that isn't literal. Literal would be "apartment blocks" (in UK usage) or "apartment houses" (in US usage), but in the hip-hop context, I figured "the projects" was the best equivalent, because it connotes large areas of more-or-less identical government built medium- or high-rise low-income apartment buildings, exactly what I presume a group from Pantelimon would connote by "blocuri". Similarly, in another title, I translated "Cartier" as "'Hood", rather than the more literal "quarter", "neighborhood", or "district".
Bogdan: the only one of these I'd really like to revert is to translate "Blocuri" by the more evocative "Projects" rather than "Buildings". Is that OK with you? -- Jmabel
- I don't know. The first thing you think when you hear the word "project" is a plan, not a building.Bogdan | Talk 09:37, 28 Jan 2004 (UTC)
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- Not the first thing if you are a native English speaker and it's in a hip-hop context. "The projects" is common American English, and universal African-American English, for large-scale government-built low-income housing. The UK equivalent is "council flats". See, for example http://www.mtv.com/bands/123/1994/news_feature_010504/: "His body may have been in the projects, but his soul was in the music." In fact, see http://www.hipmama.com/node/view/197, which uses this very phrase "beyond the projects" (hadn't seen it before I wrote the article) in exactly the context I presumed. (which still leaves the "behind" vs. "after" question). -- Jmabel 07:00, 29 Jan 2004 (UTC)
I don't know the lyrics (I don't like hip-hop), but I think that "Dupa Blocuri" would be translated the best as "Behind Projects". Joe, you really know romanian well :), as you were very right about the meaning of "Blocuri". As for "Dupa" I guess that is refering in the sense of "in the back of".MihaiC
[edit] "Dupa Blocuri" translation
Its more like "In the Projects", cause that's what it is beyond the buildings in here. (anon 29 March 2005)
- But how can dupa be "in" rather than "beyond" or some such? -- Jmabel | Talk 16:42, Mar 29, 2005 (UTC)
Bold text —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.81.254.41 (talk) 17:57, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
