BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012.


You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?



June 13, 2013 5:51 pm  #1


Sherlock in other languages...

I just finished watching the Japanese dub of series 1 of Sherlock.  I was really impressed by how close they got the Japanese dialogue to the original English dialogue.  And I especially loved the Belarus scene in Japanese "Ugete ne...ugoite...ugoite nekatta...nakatta".  The VA decided to be less emotive in his speech, which was a little jarring at times...but then paid off big time with the fake crying scene and the scene in the pool.  Wish I could see season two in the dub...especially the scene at Irene Adler's house.

Of course, it will never be the same as watching in English, but it's fun none-the-less if you have the option.

Anyone else watch Sherlock in another language?


__________________________________________________________________Bigby: Will you shut up?
Colin: Well, maybe if my throat wasn’t so parched, I wouldn’t have to keep talking.
Bigby: Wait, that doesn’t make se-
Coline: Just give me a drink, please.
 

June 13, 2013 6:04 pm  #2


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

I watched it in German. The dubbing isn't bad but Sherlock's voice is higher than Benedict's. And they used the formal German form of address "Sie" instead of the informal "du" as a nod to canon. But in our time two men who are friends would never address each other that way. They kept it until the end, even during the roof scene and on the cemetery. There are some weaknesses or jokes they didn't get or couldn't translate but all in all it's quite well done. 


------------------------------
"To fake the death of one sibling may be regarded as a misfortune; to fake the death of both looks like carelessness." Oscar Wilde about Mycroft Holmes

"It is what it is says love." (Erich Fried)

“Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame. I’m also a great believer in treating others as you would like to be treated.” (Benedict Cumberbatch)



 
 

June 13, 2013 6:12 pm  #3


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

SusiGo wrote:

I watched it in German. The dubbing isn't bad but Sherlock's voice is higher than Benedict's. And they used the formal German form of address "Sie" instead of the informal "du" as a nod to canon. But in our time two men who are friends would never address each other that way. They kept it until the end, even during the roof scene and on the cemetery. There are some weaknesses or jokes they didn't get or couldn't translate but all in all it's quite well done. 

It's the same in Japanese- Sherlock has your typical "hero" voice, which is a tenor/baritone, and then John has this deep bass voice XD.  But I also realize that they did it to give John more "gravitas" and to make him sound like a soldier.  They are also not formal at all with each other from almost the beginning, which shows that they befriend each other pretty quickly...but they are formal to Mrs. Hudson (even Sherlock).

Last edited by sj4iy (June 13, 2013 6:13 pm)


__________________________________________________________________Bigby: Will you shut up?
Colin: Well, maybe if my throat wasn’t so parched, I wouldn’t have to keep talking.
Bigby: Wait, that doesn’t make se-
Coline: Just give me a drink, please.
     Thread Starter
 

June 13, 2013 7:42 pm  #4


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

sj4iy wrote:

"Ugete ne...ugoite...ugoite nekatta...nakatta".  

Could you tell me what that means, literally translated?

By the way, did anyone notice that in the German version Sherlock and John are saying "du" in the subtitles?
German subtitles are only available for series 2 unfortunately. It starts with:
"Was schreibst du da?“
"Blog."
"Worüber?"
"Uns."
"Du meinst mich."
"Wieso?"
"Naja, du schreibst ziemlich viel."

Sounds so much more personal.
 

Last edited by QuiteExtraordinary (June 13, 2013 7:42 pm)


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He’s got a dog. We go to the pub on weekends. I’ve met his mum and dad …

… and his friends and all his family and I’ve no idea why I’m telling you this.
 

June 14, 2013 4:31 am  #5


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

QuiteExtraordinary wrote:

sj4iy wrote:

"Ugete ne...ugoite...ugoite nekatta...nakatta".  

Could you tell me what that means, literally translated?

Sure can, "ugoku" means "to move" in Japanese...just like in the English version, he's saying "She weren't moving", saying "ugete ne" is also not proper Japanese.  He keeps using an "e" sound where he should be using an "a" sound, as well as improper conjugation.

The Japanese version also keeps mixing up "-reru" and "-rareru", which are also distinct conjugations.  When he says "I'll get hung for this", he says "kubi o tsureru"...and then Sherlock corrects him with "tsurareru" (ie: being hanged against your will, kind of meaning).  Very much like the common misuse of "hung" vs "hanged" in English.

Sorry for the Japanese grammar lesson, but I hope that clears it up a bit XD


__________________________________________________________________Bigby: Will you shut up?
Colin: Well, maybe if my throat wasn’t so parched, I wouldn’t have to keep talking.
Bigby: Wait, that doesn’t make se-
Coline: Just give me a drink, please.
     Thread Starter
 

June 14, 2013 12:37 pm  #6


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

Thank you! I took some Japanese lessons a couple of years ago, that's why I'm interested. It is a fascinating language, but rather difficult to learn of course.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He’s got a dog. We go to the pub on weekends. I’ve met his mum and dad …

… and his friends and all his family and I’ve no idea why I’m telling you this.
 

June 14, 2013 12:44 pm  #7


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

QuiteExtraordinary wrote:

Thank you! I took some Japanese lessons a couple of years ago, that's why I'm interested. It is a fascinating language, but rather difficult to learn of course.

I'm definitely not fluent, but I am rusty, lol.  But I can still understand a lot of what I listen to and read pretty well (unless it's quantum physics...but then I don't even understand it in English), and have a decent conversation in it, although I'll definitely make mistakes with the more humble verb forms.  It was my major in college and I lived there for a year.  I'm actually thinking of taking German at one point- my dad could speak it because his grandparents immigrated from Germany, but he never taught us.

(yay, run-on sentences! lol)

Last edited by sj4iy (June 14, 2013 12:58 pm)


__________________________________________________________________Bigby: Will you shut up?
Colin: Well, maybe if my throat wasn’t so parched, I wouldn’t have to keep talking.
Bigby: Wait, that doesn’t make se-
Coline: Just give me a drink, please.
     Thread Starter
 

June 14, 2013 1:02 pm  #8


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

In Sherlock there are obviously some puns and hints and jokes that only work if you listen to the english version. The queen joke for example with the double meaning.
I wonder whether the writers gave some instructions how to translate the original. What do you think? I don't know whether it works like that.

For example the joke at the end of Hounds. Sherlock: I have to see a man about a dog.
Literally speaking: I must talk to the landlord about his dog. Why was he unable to kill it. To learn something? Because Sherlock has no idea about the sentiment. Or the double meaning?

The german dubbing was about "Kalter Hund" which is some kind of cake in Germany and also refers literally to a cold dog.
This is a very good translation, IMO because both, the dead dog and the joke were in it.

 

June 14, 2013 1:09 pm  #9


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

QuiteExtraordinary wrote:

sj4iy wrote:

"Ugete ne...ugoite...ugoite nekatta...nakatta".  

Could you tell me what that means, literally translated?

By the way, did anyone notice that in the German version Sherlock and John are saying "du" in the subtitles?
German subtitles are only available for series 2 unfortunately. It starts with:
"Was schreibst du da?“
"Blog."
"Worüber?"
"Uns."
"Du meinst mich."
"Wieso?"
"Naja, du schreibst ziemlich viel."

Sounds so much more personal.
 

I never saw that. Strange, isn't it? To do it in the subtitles and not in the dubbing. Sounds much more convincing to me. 


------------------------------
"To fake the death of one sibling may be regarded as a misfortune; to fake the death of both looks like carelessness." Oscar Wilde about Mycroft Holmes

"It is what it is says love." (Erich Fried)

“Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame. I’m also a great believer in treating others as you would like to be treated.” (Benedict Cumberbatch)



 
 

June 14, 2013 1:34 pm  #10


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

I think the translation for the subtitles was done by different people who hadn't heard the German dubbing before. Almost every sentence is different. They also made a couple of mistakes. For example, when Moriarty says, "Jim Moriarty! Hi!" the German subtitle is "Jim Moriarty! Bye!"


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He’s got a dog. We go to the pub on weekends. I’ve met his mum and dad …

… and his friends and all his family and I’ve no idea why I’m telling you this.
 

June 14, 2013 1:58 pm  #11


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

QuiteExtraordinary wrote:

I think the translation for the subtitles was done by different people who hadn't heard the German dubbing before. Almost every sentence is different. They also made a couple of mistakes. For example, when Moriarty says, "Jim Moriarty! Hi!" the German subtitle is "Jim Moriarty! Bye!"

What a lovely introduction. There he came and there he goes...
 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Falling is just like flying, except there’s a more permanent destination."

"Sherlock Holmes is a great man, and I think one day—if we’re very very lucky—he might even be a good one."

"Would you like to-"
"-have dinner?"
"-solve crimes?"
"Oh"



 

June 14, 2013 2:17 pm  #12


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

He's so changeable.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He’s got a dog. We go to the pub on weekends. I’ve met his mum and dad …

… and his friends and all his family and I’ve no idea why I’m telling you this.
 

June 14, 2013 2:44 pm  #13


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

Be wrote:

In Sherlock there are obviously some puns and hints and jokes that only work if you listen to the english version. The queen joke for example with the double meaning.
I wonder whether the writers gave some instructions how to translate the original. What do you think? I don't know whether it works like that.

For example the joke at the end of Hounds. Sherlock: I have to see a man about a dog.
Literally speaking: I must talk to the landlord about his dog. Why was he unable to kill it. To learn something? Because Sherlock has no idea about the sentiment. Or the double meaning?

The german dubbing was about "Kalter Hund" which is some kind of cake in Germany and also refers literally to a cold dog.
This is a very good translation, IMO because both, the dead dog and the joke were in it.

I don't know how you can give someone instructions on how to translate it unless you yourself are familiar with the language.  There will always be puns that can't be exactly translated- but you try your best.  I used to translate some light novels from Japanese to English and I would always run across something that was hard to translate because there's not and exact English equivalent- natsukashii is one of those words, because there's not a a word for word equivalent in English.  It means "feeling nostalgic", but if you were to say "natsukashii hana", you wouldn't say, in English "nostalgic flower", you'd probably say "that flower brings back memories".  You always go for meaning more than exact translation- but puns are very difficult to impossible to translate the same way.  In Japanese, they have many, many, many synonyms- so puns really aren't funny, they are just plays on words.  Like "Nashi wa nashi"- there is no pear.  Or "Kanchou ga kanchou ni kanchou shimasu"- The spy is giving an enema to the captain (sorry, a little dirty, but it proves my point).  So, in order to translate "Queen" in Japanese, you have to use a word with double meaning...which there are many.  It may not exactly translate to the same thing as English, but it can still work.  Wish I had the next season, and I could tell you exactly what they did

Last edited by sj4iy (June 14, 2013 2:45 pm)


__________________________________________________________________Bigby: Will you shut up?
Colin: Well, maybe if my throat wasn’t so parched, I wouldn’t have to keep talking.
Bigby: Wait, that doesn’t make se-
Coline: Just give me a drink, please.
     Thread Starter
 

June 15, 2013 8:39 am  #14


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

I watched the show in English as I always prefer original versions.

But now I've converted my mother and as she only knows a couple of English words, when I come to her place, I take my dvds and we watch them in French. I'm at hers for the weekend, tonight's gonna be the Great Game.

The dub is well done, and they used Martin's usual "french voice" so it's nice. Sherlock's voice not bad either. But some jokes etc are not really translated. I have to explain them to my mum.


************************
Just like old times...



 
 

June 18, 2013 4:32 am  #15


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

Just got Sherlock series 2 in Japanese today (yay, amazon).  I'm just utterly impressed by the quality of it.  There's nothing that I hear that I think "hmm, not really the best way to say it".  I was laughing so hard at the fight scene and Sherlock pretending to be a priest because he's actually less emotive in the Japanese version than in the English, so those scenes stand out a lot more.  Still have "Hounds of Baskerville" left (of course I had to watch ASIB and TRF first, lol).  But I'm looking forward to his big deduction there.


__________________________________________________________________Bigby: Will you shut up?
Colin: Well, maybe if my throat wasn’t so parched, I wouldn’t have to keep talking.
Bigby: Wait, that doesn’t make se-
Coline: Just give me a drink, please.
     Thread Starter
 

June 19, 2013 3:18 pm  #16


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

 I watched in Polish and it's great, but of course I prefer English version. I watched two versions of Polish version: one with dub and one with lyrics (it's not as complicated as it looks). The version with lyrics was almost perfect, but version with dub was... Hmm... Actors had really great voices (especially Sherlock, John and Moriarty), but some quotes weren't as wonderful as in the original version. ;)


I'm sorry that the only think I talk about anymore is BBC Sherlock, but not sorry enough to stop.
 

June 19, 2013 10:04 pm  #17


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

By the way, Irene starts saying "du" after she has drugged Sherlock.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He’s got a dog. We go to the pub on weekends. I’ve met his mum and dad …

… and his friends and all his family and I’ve no idea why I’m telling you this.
 

June 19, 2013 10:08 pm  #18


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

I finished the Japanese dubbed version yesterday.  Loved it.  Like others have said, the English is the best, but I think (at least in Japanese) they did an absolutely perfect job (and I've seen my fair share of terrible dubs).


__________________________________________________________________Bigby: Will you shut up?
Colin: Well, maybe if my throat wasn’t so parched, I wouldn’t have to keep talking.
Bigby: Wait, that doesn’t make se-
Coline: Just give me a drink, please.
     Thread Starter
 

June 19, 2013 10:23 pm  #19


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

sj4iy wrote:

I finished the Japanese dubbed version yesterday.  Loved it.  Like others have said, the English is the best, but I think (at least in Japanese) they did an absolutely perfect job (and I've seen my fair share of terrible dubs).

I would have expected a Japanese dubbing to be terrible. Nice to hear they did a good job there!

I'm having fun watching the whole SiB episode with German subtitles at the moment.
I had a laugh when I misread this a little bit at first:



And these are just cute:


Good job, translators.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He’s got a dog. We go to the pub on weekends. I’ve met his mum and dad …

… and his friends and all his family and I’ve no idea why I’m telling you this.
 

June 20, 2013 12:44 pm  #20


Re: Sherlock in other languages...

So I finished watching the whole episode without audio, subtitles only. It was interesting how much little differences in the translation can change the whole ... feeling.
Just so you get a general Impression:



German dubbing: "Haben Sie irgendwas drunter?" "Nein." "Okay."



Dubbing: "Das ist einem langen Mantel und einem kurzen Freund geschuldet."







Dubbing: "Was ist das für ein Ton da auf Ihrem Handy? (…) Bisher ist das ein anderer Ton gewesen."
"Nun, da hat jemand anscheinend das Telefon in den Fingern gehabt und den SMS-Ton personalisiert. Ein kleiner Scherz."
"57." "Faszinierend, dass Sie mitgezählt haben."



Dubbing: "Hatten Sie schonmal jemanden?"



Dubbing: "Sagen Sie denen, was hier los war?" "Aber ja doch, und jetzt gehen Sie."

Last edited by QuiteExtraordinary (June 20, 2013 12:55 pm)


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He’s got a dog. We go to the pub on weekends. I’ve met his mum and dad …

… and his friends and all his family and I’ve no idea why I’m telling you this.
 

Board footera

 

Powered by Boardhost. Create a Free Forum