# Slovene: marshy swamp



## *cat*

Pozdravljeni,

Kako torej prevedemo "marshy swamp"?

Nimam težav z "marshy" (močvirnato, močvirno) in ne s "swamp" (močvirje, barje), ampak "marshy swamp"?! 

Help!


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## reka

Well, English is a much more juicy and rich language as far as vocabulary is concerned, and on many occasions, Slovene cannot follow that.

I would keep it simple: just "močvirje", maybe "črno močvirje" if you want to keep the adjective for "poetic reasons"

In fact, translating actually means "making it slovene", "posloveniti". And sometimes you need to be creative and also disregard the need to have technically pure translation. 

That's why translating is, in fact, art - you need to find creative solutions and come as close as possible to your native language. When a native reads the translation, (s)he should find no clues that this in fact was translated from a foreign language.

In some translations you can clearly see "anglizicme" or "kroatizme"...a good translation is a translation which sounds totally slovene, sometimes even at the expense of purity. The degree to which you allow this depends, of course, also on the type of the text - if it is litterature, your creative input is much more needed and also welcomed as if your were translating some technical or legal text, for instance.

Just go with "what sounds Slovene" We don't have "močvirnata močvirja"

Just my humble opinion, of course


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## *cat*

*reka*, najlepše ti hvala za tvoj prispevek.

Ampak prosim, kako bi pa prevedla tole:
_"Marshy Swamp is a Stream in the state of Virginia."
_
Vir


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## reka

Sure, just have the *courage* to "keep it Slovene" - yes, this takes guts, because we feel we should not alter the original text and we tremble if we need to omit something or change some phrase...then we force some terms, just to be as close as possible to the original. 

This is not good translating. You need to be creative - allow yourself to be it! The criteria is: if a slovene native person reads this, will (s)he sense the foreign syntaxe, terms, phrases which sneaked into the slovene translation? This should never be felt, even if you need to make some changes. Of course, keep the original sense but "make it Slovene".
Old books didn't have "prevedel" writen, but "poslovenil". And this is a beautiful term. 

That's why translation is an art


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## reka

*cat* said:


> *reka*, najlepše ti hvala za tvoj prispevek.
> 
> Ampak prosim, kako bi pa prevedla tole:
> _"Marshy Swamp is a Stream in the state of Virginia."_
> 
> Vir


 
A, ok, this is a more technical-geographical term. As far as I can see, this is a name, so leave it like this, maybe you can put Slovene translation in parenthesis. But names are not translated. 

Perhaps like this: Marshy Swamp ("Globoko, Črno(?) Močvirje) je potok v državi Virginia. 

maybe you can play with: močvirnata močava

Perhaps some Slovene will propose something else, but I would probaly use "močvornata močava", as "močava" is in fact, also "močvirje", so you can in fact use both, the adjective (močvirnat, which would go with "marshy") and the substantive (močava, which is a good substitute for "swamp", basically the same thing).

*močáva*  -e ž (ȃ) knjiž. _z vodo zelo prepojen svet:_ rjave močave so se širile do obzorja / močava poleg gnojišča / tam je bila prej močava _močviren svet, močvirje_ ♪


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## *cat*

*reka*, hvala še enkrat.
In vse kar si napisala zgoraj ... tako dobre in hkrati lepe lekcije mi ni dal še nihče - res se bom velikokrat spomnila nate in ti bom hvaležna, da si si vzela čas in mi dala res dobre nasvete.


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## reka

Hej, z veseljem in kar pogumno! Dovoli si začutiti jezik in občutek boš razvijala vse bolj.


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## reka

And of course - if you have some very specific terms which cannot be translated, you can make a remarque as a translator, say "neprevedljiva besedna igra, fraza" and explain what it means. 
Stay pure, but also be creative! This sometimes very subtle mixture makes a good translator!

In pure technical/legal/medical language, of course, "creativity" is not allowed. There you just spend hours and hours looking for EXACT slovene terms in specific dictionnaries

But litterature, it takes an artist to translate it.


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## *cat*

You should write a book: Umetnost prevajanja / Prevajanje je umetnost.
What you have written above would make a good prologue.
I would surely buy it!


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## reka

Hey, thanks!

 I am really glad that this was helpful to you! Good luck with your project!


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