TRANSLATING THE MANTRA | 2011-12-08
As a very cynical old man, I am not as impressed by translations of the Mantra as I'm supposed to be.
I AM impressed when a Norwegian gets ten thousand on a youtube he made in Norwegian.
I put the Mantra into English many, many years ago and no one USED it. So putting it into Lapp or Basque, by itself, is no great gain.
In professional advertising, translation involves tens of millions of dollars. The American motto for Coca-Cola, which cost millions, was "The pause that refreshes." No one in our leadership seems to notice that a book is one hell of a lot cheaper than an advertising slogan.
Several tens of millions of dollars later, in the giant German Coke market, they came up with "Mach mal Pause" for Coca-Cola. "The pause that refreshes"Â doesn't translate.
Those of you who complain that translation is not easy would be the object of screaming ridicule if you whined that to seven-figure professional advertisers.
Or if you went to the other side to talk to a professional propagandist.
I don't think we have any.
But we WILL have some pros:
YOU.