Something funny from the Spanish translation of TAB:

http://inevitably-johnlocked.tumblr.com/post/144806682960/sherlock-spanish-translators-what-the-actual

I do think it was unintentional and doesn't have to read that way!
Anyhow, what do they know?

I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure what you mean.
I obviously can't question the Spanish, as I don' speak Spanish.
But it's obviously a mistranslation from the English, which I assume is in error.
But 2 men alone with sore knees, could mean any number of things...trying to wipe the image of Sally Donovan. 
In fact that's the difference, the joke about Sally was deliberate.

Well the Spanish one may appear to say the same thing, but Sherlock was written in English.
Do you think the team meant that joke in the original, in TAB?
I've not heard anyone mention this before and the thought had never crossed my mind.
But 2 men sitting together is totally innocuous.

But the sitting is already implicit - we can see them sitting there. And usually when they are together they are running around and often there are other people around or nearby.

Oh, that's really funny! (The mistranslation).  Especially if it's true that the Spanish translations usually try to avoid any innuendo!  Also kind of funny because the humour in the original comes from Sherlock's deliberate misunderstanding. 

(I see there's some difference of opinion on the meaning in the original - I take it to mean that John says they don't often sit together "like this", meaning alone, without distractions, man to man (John isn't in 221B at this point), and Sherlock probably deliberately misinterprets "like this" to mean "in this position" to try to deflect John from an intimate conversation.)

There is so much innuendo in the show that I really cannot believe that this is completely unintentional. (especially knowing Mark's other literary output). 

I don't know, I think the meaning is a little different ... if Sherlock is trying to avoid intimacy (I know it's his mind palace, but he's still uncomfortable about it), then the last thing he's going to do is imply that they have sex together.   And also the position they are in doesn't really lend itself to sex.  So while John's "sit together like this" suggests they have an intimate conversation, Sherlock answers as if it means "sit together like this" (i.e. uncomfortably).  It's deflection, not trying to imply a sexual relationship.   There's a double meaning, but it's not sexual (except perhaps for an extra giggle by viewers, but not intended by Sherlock). 

Whereas in the Spanish translation, they've missed out "sit", the word Sherlock is associating with "murder on the knees".  So he's saying that being alone together is bad for the knees, rather than that sitting uncomfortably is bad for the knees.  As John hasn't said anything about the sitting part, or even "like this" (in this way), it looks as if there's something that happens when they're alone that hurts their knees.  It's kind of difficult to avoid a sexual double meaning there.  What on earth could they do only when alone that's bad for their knees?  

Sorry, long-winded explanation, but I think what's so funny is that the Spanish translation (which according to the article usually tries to avoid any sexual references at all) has actually added in a sexual double entendre that wasn't there in the first place!

Last edited by Liberty (May 23, 2016 8:46 pm)

I don't know if it reflects cultural differences (me being pretty ignorant of other cultures!).   I've heard that double entendres are very British, despite the French name - do double meanings not work so well in other languages?  (Shakespeare used loads of double meanings!). 

The translation has replaced the double meaning in John's first comment with a single meaning (there's no way it can be construed as John implying that they are sitting uncomfortably).   Is it possible that the translator just missed that there was a double meaning? 

I was going to say that then the translator adds a double meaning to Sherlock's comment, as it now makes no sense for him to say that it hurts his knees to sit like this (as John hasn't mentioned anything about sitting like this, only about being alone together).   But actually, it's veering very closely to being a single meaning, because without John's comment, what can it possibly mean?   What was the translator thinking?  Did they really think Sherlock's knees comment just referred to them being alone?  And is that due to double meanings not working so well if not in English?