Translation - Swedish-English - Tänk dig ett liv i tårar när man blivit sårad ..

Suggestion: ... when you have been hurt

Hello Maribel,

Yes, that is the way most people would express it if you refer to a more specific personal experience and it can also be used in general terms as well.

However, that is not the case here!
Here the chosen expression is translated correctly from Swedish to English.

If yo would change it to your suggestion it would mean two things:

1. The translation of the phrase would be incorrect.
2. You suggest an alternative way of expressing the sentence that reflects how you yourself would express it - meaning that you alter the subtle nuance of the Swedish phrase to your own preference of the expression in English that does not contain these subtle nuances.

In translating we have to put our own ego and choices of expressions to the side as long as the customers choice of expression is correct in the language to be translated - which is the case here.

Both the Swedish and the English sentences are correct in both languages in my translation.

If you change it the translation will be incorrect.

................................................

While we are at it, I will adress an earlier discussion that I had with Caspar that resembles this one (adressing the administrator not you!):

I'll take it as I remember it (I don´t have the translation in front of me).

Caspar once questioned the translation of the word 'bild' in Swedish. He wanted it to be translated as 'photo' in English and I explained briefly that his suggestion that time was incorrect as well...

The reason is that 'bild' in Swedish encompass much more than the word 'photo' in English.
'Bild' encompass all of the following English words: 'photo'; 'illustration'; 'picture'; 'a painting'; 'drawing' etc. I can just keep going from there...

So, 'photo' is an incorrect translation.
The word in the English vocabulary that is the best choice for this translation would be 'image'.

I will have an administrator have a look at this since I am rated 7/9 in Swedish which is my first native language which I master better than most Swedes. My second native language is American English in which I am rated 8/9..?

This is more than surprising (understatement)..!
I therefore welcome an administrator to have a look at this correspondence with you and Caspar to review it and come back to me with an explanation why my ratings in my two NATIVE languages are not 9/9.

Kind regards,

Mats Fondelius "figge2001"

Hi figge2001

My rating for English is also not as high as it should be - read my profile - I think it's a fluke of the rating system.

I am an administrator, but I don't know what message from "Caspar" you're referring to - it's not on this page - but several people have voted against this translation (although I don't know why). I will make maribel's suggested change and re-set the voting.

I'm going to take off your administrator request, though.

I have one more question: Why is it "imagine yourself" instead of just "imagine"?

Hello 'kafetzou',

The Swedish sentence starts with: "Tänk dej.." (the correct Swedish spelling in writing should be: "Tänk dig...", by the way.)

The answer to your question is easily explained:
"Tänk dig" - contains the nuance that you yourself specifically should imagine this - if you take away 'yourself' you'll loose this in the translation.

Furthermore, my ego is of no importance I am just utterly surprised about the ratings.

Also, I do not "buy" Maribel's suggestion because it is completely wrong - I therefore have voted against the change. My ego is totally put to the side when I translate as well in my daily tasks..! - but I cannot accept a translation that is wrong as long as I know that this will alter the subtle meaning of the translation even if others claim otherwise.

Kind regards,

Mats Fondelius "figge2001"

1) In English, when we say "Imagine yourself", it's usually followed by a place or a situation. , such as "Imagine yourself in my situation." In other words, it means "Picture yourself" - have an image of yourself. Is that what this means? If so, maybe it should be "Imagine yourself in a life in tears ..." Otherwise, because "imagine" is an imperative, it already implies 2nd person.

2) Why don't you like Maribel's suggestion? "you" is often used instead of "one" (which is very formal) in English.

3) Why are you talking about your ego? Did somebody say something about that?

Casper

That was not in english, figge. That was portuguese (photo).
I knew what I was saying, that's why I am expert on it.
I have nothing to do with english rating.

"for yourself" would also be possible.

Could we please concentrate on the translation at hand and not whatever happened previously on some other translation?

I tried to translate this before Mats, then I gave up because I was not sure...
Thank you Mats for your Swe lessons.
Why do I often see "dej" intead of "dig"?

Hi again,

1. I "buy" - "in a life in tears".

2. As I already said I know "you" is more often used both in Swedish and English - the thing here is that our 'customer' has chosed not to use this phrase, instead the more 'formal' one.
So even if I, you or Meribel would express ourselves differently - the fact remains that the 'customer' preferred not to express it this way. Our 'job' is to translate what the customer express (if it is a correct expression in the language adressed - which it is here...) with all its intentions etc.
If we translate THE CUSTOMERS sentence and intentions correctly, my translation stands whether WE like it or not..!

3. Ego... I just want to make it completely clear that I am not the kind of person that always have to 'be right/get the last word' - on the contrary I am a humble person and have easy to admit when I'm wrong - that doesn't 'hurt' me.

I felt that this was important to clarify - so no one believes that THIS is the reason that I stand by my statements on this issue.

Kind regards,

Mats Fondelius "figge2001"

Hello Xini,

Nice to meet a new 'collegue' on this site and many thanks for your kind words!

The reason that you more and more see "dej" instead of "dig" is due to two things:

1. "Dej" is spelled the way you pronounce it in Swedish.

2. The younger generation in Sweden are tending more and more to write just as the words are pronounced - this has become much more common due to the 'chatting' on the web, where you can find all kinds of 'new' words 'popping' up.

Finally, there is a big debate in Sweden to actually change the spellings of a whole lot of words so they will be more in line with the way they are pronounced.
I am convinced that this revolutionary change of spelling will occur during the decade to come.

Kind regards,

Mats Fondelius "figge2001"

Thanks for the other explanations, Mats, but you didn't get back to me about "imagine yourself". Could you please re-read my last two posts on this page and post your opinion on this?

Hi again,

This simple sentence shouldn't take this much work - it's a waste of time for us all. Just close 'the case' the way you prefer I have shared my expertise but honestly I don't really care whatever you decide - too much energy on an issue of minor importance...

The answers to your questions are already posted above at 17:16.

Please, don't come back again on this issue - just do what you like. Thanks.

Kind regards,

Mats Fondelius "figge2001"

This is not helpful figge2001 - I cannot read Swedish, so I'm asking for your help to understand this. I have changed it to "imagine for yourself" - does this capture the meaning you were talking about?

OK! Here we go,

A correct translation is as follows:

"Imagine yourself a life in tears when one has been hurt..."

This capture the full meaning from Swedish to English; "for" is not necessary nor is it good English.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Mats Fondelius "figge2001"

Hallå Mats,

thank you, I'm always interested in learning more, esp. Swedish.
I don't think this revolutions is so good. In italy it's happening the same, young generations are always writing K instead of CH, for they save 1 space in sms...I really hate it...
I don't know what's the situation in Sweden...

The figge translation is a good one , but the dativ form is more o less untranslatable.

Tänk dej ett... This is just an idiosyncrasy of Swedish. It’s just a dativ! It adds a subtle – maybe untranslatable – denotation.

We have a similar expression in Spanish, for example:

Imagina... Tänk...
Imagínate... Tänk dej...


Think/imagine a life in/of tears when a person has been wounded.

Lycka till!

pirulito, your version flows a lot better in English. I'm going to change it but not reject it. figge2001's version is not technically wrong - it just doesn't sound like English.