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| General Sherlock Discussion » Silly pictures of associations only Sherlockians can understand » September 9, 2012 12:55 pm |
- Audrey Horne
- Replies: 914
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I went to London last week and as soon as I stepped out of the train, I was greeted by something that reminded me of Sherlock:
More associations:
| General Sherlock Discussion » Untranslatable puns » August 11, 2012 12:08 pm |
- Audrey Horne
- Replies: 51
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Pip has several meanings: 1. peep (the sound); 2. seed (as in orange or melon seed)
In the Sherlock Holmes story "The Five Orange Pips" people receive five (orange) pips/seeds as a warning. In "The Great Game" Sherlock knows that some societies used to send 5 pips. When he receives 5 (Greenwich) pips (the peeping sounds), he realizes that it is meant as a pun/reference to the 5 pips. This wouldn't work in translations because there is no connection between a peeping sound and orange seeds. The only connection is that both can be referred to as "pips" in English. At least this is how I understood the scene.
| General Sherlock Discussion » Untranslatable puns » August 11, 2012 10:56 am |
- Audrey Horne
- Replies: 51
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There's another untranslatable pun in "The Great Game": the five pips. In German you can't get a connection between the Greenwich pips ("Piepen") and the orange pips ("Orangenkerne"), so they had to make up a different line for Sherlock:
Original line: "Some secret societies used to send dried melon seeds, orange pips, things like that - five pips. They're warning us it's gonna happen again."
German dubbing: "Jemand will uns zu verstehen geben, dass unsere Zeit abläuft, dass uns irgendwas bevorsteht. Es ist fünf vor zwölf. Es ist eine Warnung, dass es wieder passieren wird." ("Someone wants to tell us that our time's running out - that something is about to happen. It's five minutes to twelve. It's a warning that it's going to happen again.")
The translation is very boring and the reference to "The Five Orange Pips" is lost.
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