Lost in translation. Cheerful experiment Bashny.Net

This polushutochny-poluserёzny experiment was conducted 40 years ago, were attracted to him professional translators, teachers and students of a number of institutions of higher education.

Each of the guests, perfectly knowing two adjacent language, had to take from his colleagues and the text, shifting his native language, convey the following.
For the original text has been taken from the works of passage NV Gogol & lt; A Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich & gt ;.
Phrase as a phrase, the famous Russian writer described the character story Agafea Fedoseyevna "She gossiped and ate boiled beetroot in the morning and swore perfectly well - and all these different classes her face for a moment did not change his expression that usually can show alone women. "
Translators received the text started to work. If the English version, little has changed, what has kept his word in the German & lt; gossiped & gt; turned into an expressive & lt; & gt ;, ruffled and his face - it was & lt; completely without expression, as it is able to every woman & gt ;.
The next link in the chain turned Japanese. Its inherent elegance prompted to replace professional emotional & lt; ruffled & gt; more neutral & lt; & gt ;, chatted and energetic & lt; cursing & gt; soft & lt; backbiting & gt ;.
In Arabic, Gogol's character is not just & lt; & gt ;, chatted but & lt; chatted language & gt ;, and not just & lt; & gt ;, cursed and was, of course, & lt; spewing horrible curses & gt ;.
Take over the Frenchman concluded the first stage of linguistic experience as: & lt; She had a habit of scratching your tongue when eating beet broth; from her mouth flew stream selected catchwords, and all this without the slightest expression on his face. So tutte & gt ;.
Although the embodiment of this fragment has differed significantly from the original translation mishaps really just beginning.
After passing through the Indonesian language in which personal pronouns & lt; he & gt; and & lt; she & gt; denoted by the same word, then through the Dutch and Turkish, the phrase was transformed so: & lt; Whereas, as a woman, eating beet liquid concoction, let go of curses, the man engaged in chatter. They did it, without expressing their feelings, as it is for women & gt ;.
In the Spanish translation, nothing has changed, except that instead of the word & lt; let go & gt; used the & lt; & gt ;. threw Spanish to translate the language of Yoruba resident Sudan: he treated the case creatively reinterpret specific & lt; a concoction of beet & gt; the total & lt; a concoction of fruits of the earth & gt ;, and the total & lt; engaged chatter & gt; a specific & lt; boasted of his imaginary exploits & gt ;.
Next-language translators Yoruba, returned the text to the English language, bringing its lexical amendment. K & lt; fruits of the earth & gt; he made a clarification - & lt; fruit & gt ;, & lt; threw curses & gt; adjusted as & lt; threw out the bad stuff & gt ;, the expression & lt; boasted of his imaginary exploits & gt; passed the English idiom & lt; beat the drums & gt ;.

A new interpretation of Gogol's passage was subsequently translated into the language of the African Bambara tribe with him again in French, where & lt; pieces & gt; transformed into & lt; & gt ;, things and then into Italian: & lt; She drank fruit compote and thrown out of the house unnecessary things, and he beat a tom-tom, expressing almost feminine delight & gt ;.
Development of a new line of thought was going absolutely logical. In Czech & lt; unnecessary things & gt; were transferred easier - & lt; & gt ;, junk under the influence of tom-toms & lt; house & gt; decreased to & lt; & gt ;, huts and & lt; female delight & gt; replaced the short and comprehensive & lt; & gt ;. enthusiastically Norwegian Czech emphatically corrected version: not & lt; & gt ;, enthusiastically and & lt; & gt ;. happily The Swede made a stylistic harmony verbal participle phrases: & lt; drank juice, it ... & gt; etc.
And then came the final phase of the experiment - the return passage to the language of the original. Now, after diligent efforts of the two dozen translators, passing through the traditions, laws, nature and characteristics of different languages, Gogol phrase transformed into absurd to the ridiculous lines: "After drinking the juice, she threw junk out of the hut, and he happily scored tomtom».
Vartanian EA, & lt; Journey to the word & gt ;. M., & lt; Owls. Russia & gt;