Nice episode, although the new format with shorter segments doesn't allow you to go too deep into any one part of the complexity of translation. For example, the last segment misses the most interesting aspect about translation in molecular biology: the fact that each of the 20 aminoacids that makes up a protein is codified by a particular set of codons (or sequences of 3 bases in the RNA). This is indeed the "genetic code" which is used by the ribosome to translate a sequence of bases in RNA to a sequence of aminoacids in a protein.

I'm a Project Manager in the Localization industry- since most people don't know what that means, it often gets boiled down to simply, "translation." People often ask just how difficult my job can possibly be, since it's "just translation." I think most would be quite surprised to know how complicated, time-consuming, and technology-laden this industry really is; it runs in the background of almost everything we do, without even having to think about it. Fantastic job displaying just how multi-faceted translation really is!

As a sign language interpreter, I think that you guys did a great job covering what we do on a daily basis. It would be really great if there was a transcript available, so deaf people could have the opportunity to take part in the fascinating world of Radiolab.

One of my long-time hobbies has been to collect musicals in foreign languages. Obviously, there is a lot of translation going on, and I've often wondered whether the sentiment comes across the same as it does for me in English.

Interestingly, I don't understand most of the languages for which I have foreign albums, but I enjoy listening to them nevertheless. By not paying attention to the words, I'm given the opportunity to pay attention to the underlying music itself, including the singing quality of the actors. To me, the music really comes out for a production that I am familiar with, if I don't understand the words that they are saying.

So much can be lost in translation. Context is changed, meanings can be confused, the tone isn't the same. In English we have crazy words that don't exist in other languages or added meanings to some words. Depending on context and tone words can take on so many different meanings that can often be confused when translating. In poetry the flow of a poem is completely off when translated because words that rhyme in Italian or French don't necessarily rhyme in English. When interpreting for a deaf person, the intention and tone is often changed due to personal judgment of what the interpreter thinks is best. That slight change takes away from the experience because it isn't the same for that one deaf person as it is for everyone else in the crowd.

This was a wonderful episode. There is a really interesting and fun youtube video that serves as a good companion. Hopefully most of us have used the Google Translate feature - or at least know about it. The youtube clip below features a young woman who took the lyrics to Frozen and ran them through google translate to a foreign language, and then back to english. She then re-records the song over the scene (she does a very talented reproduction). The woman reveals some major flaws in the translation process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bVAoVlFYf0&feature=youtu.be

Thanks,
MD

I really enjoyed this episode. Very well produced, interesting, and varied. I thought the old-style language lessons between the stories were cute, and the translated songs were surprising beautiful. Keep up the awesome work! You're my favorite talk show :-)

Those who think George Carlin is onto something should also check out the work of Robert Anton Wilson.

"I've learned more from Robert Anton Wilson than I have from any other source." - George Carlin

Loved the episode. Unfortunately, "Habari za asubuhi?" was mistranslated as "Good morning" in Swahili when it really translates to "How is your morning?", while "Asubuhi njema" would translate to "Good morning". Since I know that there will be much need for it in the future on Radiolab, "Habari za jioni?" will translate to "How is your evening?" while "Jiona njema" will translate to "Good evening".

I agree that translations can ignore the point of a piece. Each language emphasizes a certain "point". Translating the French poem into English decreases its significance. Translations aren't exactly word-for-word for that reason; its significance. One person may summarize or translate a paper differently from another person. This is when individuality comes into play. A certain person wrote that piece in a certain way to show its significance, but someone may not see it in the same way.

It is almost impossible to translate between languages and be 100% accurate. Especially when translating something such as a poem that is to convey some feeling or emotion, it will not work. When you have so many words and so many lines, there is no way to perfect a translation. The topic with the poem shows how this is true. The poem could be said with hundreds of possibilities. Yet, no one possibility would be the exact same and convey the same feels of the original text and language.

The multitude of possible translations certainly explains how often everything is misunderstood. I found the Ethiopian journalism topic very interesting, how particular words carry different, but potent meanings is something to be considered in conversation often. I am curious to know what happened to the woman on the other end of the line, or if anyone knew what happened to her.

It is very interesting to think that there could be hundreds of ways to translate a poem. You would think there would be one set translation. And even to keep the same form, 3 syllables and 28 lines, as you change the entire language. There are so many different word combinations in just one language. I think a translation doesn't necessarily have to have the exact literal words as long as it gets the feeling and meaning across.

Listening to the 1st piece, thinking about the translation of poetry, I fondly remembered this story John Cage told about translating a haiku from Japanese to English:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNzVQ8wRCB0

For everyone asking about the music, we've just posted a page with all of the songs and some backstory into how (and why) they came to be. http://www.radiolab.org/story/musical-translations/

I never thought about how complicated translation is before and how many things must be considered. It seems like truly accurate translations are impossible. This shows how different languages are. It's great that there is so much variety in languages around the world.

Amazing as always. I loved the music, especially the German "I've Been Working on the Railroad." VERY German.

Is there any way to share the music from this episode? I really, really enjoyed all of the talented singers and translations. Maybe offer it up as a download for $1 or three?

Another real great one, thanks so much, Radiolabbers :)

I'm being very pedantic now and just say, playing Satie when talking about Chopin...? :D

Was the music behind Douglas Hofstadter from Indiana University reading his poem a David Minnick composition? He's the guy that takes peoples speaking voices and turns it into music. It sound like that word jazz that he does.

Huge fan of radiolab. As a bilingual person and a scientist, I immensely enjoyed this episode because it touched upon so many aspects of my own life, living in two, sometimes three, languages. I understand that the discussion about the ASL interpreter was about the spirit of translation. However, I was disturbed by how the discussion was so heavily focused on whether the woman did her job as opposed to what she was asked to do. The radio hosts didn't at any point raise the question whether it was appropriate for the comedian to incorporate the interpreter into the bit in the way he did. Instead, the question becomes how the interpreter was doing her job affects her audience. It seems to me that the discussion puts an undue responsibility on the interpreter: should she have tone it down vs. should the comedian have toned it down.

Frankly, I am disappointed with the direction of that segment.

P. S. As mentioned in a previous comment, the omission of Rosalind Franklin in talking about the discovery of the double helix strand is yet another unnerving failure to include women in the dialogue.

I am curious what the piano solo from the end of the DNA/RNA segment is. I thought that it was great!

Finnish is sertainly the most effective language for dirty words.

I was moved by the original story of Emily and this episode has made me think about what senses in my life overlap with others. I am a carpenter and cabinet maker who is very near sighted. My sense of touch has replaced my vision in much of my work and I can quite literally see what I'm touching in my mind. This is not to say I'm exceptional, many, if not most, carpenters rely more upon their hands than their eyes to guide their way through space. I wonder what other trades and professions have this sort of sense-crossover. Bakers kneading dough? Potters making...pots. A musician translating the feel of a trumpet valve from the fingertips to the brain. Is this mild form of synesthesia perhaps something that makes us human?

The Translation podcast is one of your best! It was captivating. I was impressed how many different ways you were able to address the concept of translation. Thanks.

Good job.

Love this episode!!! but I don't really appreciate the last part where everybody was insulting in many languages! you should have said something before trowing the bomb! Some of the insults I didn't understand, but the ones in Spanish and Portuguese I did clearly. Just think about listeners of other countries who listen to the podcast with their little ones around, like me for example!.

Translation is for written materials going from one language to another, and for live, oral language it's interpretation. There are translators and interpreters and they are different positions for different skill sets.

Loved this episode (despite the Satie-for-Chopin substitution others have mentioned, too). I thought that the song translations were fascinating, not so much for the language but for the "translation" of many of them from major to minor. From a musical standpoint, that's actually a mis-translation, but fun to hear what it does to the mood of the songs.

Also, a quick note to the person who translated "I've Been Working on the Railroad" into German: Well done, though "Seilbahn" means "gondola" (as in "aerial tramway"), not "railway".

Can I just say Id like a download of all the songs sung in this piece? They were beautiful!!!!

Wait a minute! Thats not Chopin

Great language! One quick question: What language was Robert speaking during the spaces between segments? (Or was it just gibberish?)

A great episode but please break out the stories into the 8 distinct chunks w annotation. I have a science writer friend with synesthesia who would be particularly interested in that one segment and I would love to find out more about the "tongue eye"!

Here is a good article on the glasses used to help the mouth to help the brain see

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/device-lets-blind-see-with-tongues/

Only half-way through the episode, but the first segment bothered me. It seems at a certain point, he was interpreting the poem, and no longer translating it. Anyone else feel that way?

Any chance you have a list of titles for the 8 features that you could post?

This was a great podcast, up there with the Beethoven accelerated podcast, and I'd like to share it with a little structure.

Especially appreciated the inclusion of Hofstadter (his wife's and his mother's translations reminded me of Dr. Suess) and George Carlin's euphemism translations and, in that segment, that you brought in a counterintuitive argument instead of settling for easy agreement with George (much as I love him, RIP).

This link has the poem and a couple of variants, incl. Hofstadter's bad attempts.
http://www.clementmarot.com/MaMignonne.htm

Are the translated songs availablle somewhere, or where they made for the show? Awesome, tho. Great show. tnx

"Translation" could be the best episode ever of Radiolab. Each segment was meaningfully related to the theme and was profound and interesting in its own context.

You get an A for effort on that last song sung in Korean!
Your Korean listener loved it ;)

This was a fascinating podcast! And it was refreshing to hear some new stories about translation. As someone who works in the field, I must say, I loved it. Thanks so much for covering a profession that many people don't know about. One thing I did want to specify though, is that translators work with the written word, and interpreters work with the spoken word. An interpreter isn't necessarily a translators and vice-versa. They are actually very different professions, requiring very different skill-sets. There were some instances in the podcast when there seemed to be some confusion between the two. Here's an article that explains the differences:

http://theatacompass.org/2013/06/20/what-is-the-difference-between-translation-and-interpreting/

I really appreciated how clearly the first segment showed that in translation, particularly of literature such as poems, there is no correct answer and the product can take on many different forms depending on the translator.

Regarding the segment about the sign language interpreter, I was surprised that you kept referring to her as a "translator" and that she was "translating" the performance. Perhaps you were simply unaware of the distinction? Translation refers to written language and interpretation refers to spoken language. I feel it is important to recognize that distinction, because they are two very, very different professions and it is more respectful to the professionals involved to acknowledge that.

I found it intriguing, the search for an adequate translation of a French poem. I have a book of sonnets by Albert Mérat called L'Idole, in which he dedicates each writing to a specific portion of his lover's body. I imagine it's quite beautiful, but I have had the darnedest time getting it translated properly for the same reasons.
(fun tidbit side note: Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine spoofed this work with another sonnet about a specific body part that was left out of L'ldole)

When David Eagelman speaks about "the vest" his possible uses are soul-drainingly banal. Stock prices? The weather? Please tell me that if science invents a sixth sense it will be something we couldn't do on Prodigy in 1994.

How about sonar, IR vision, air quality, proximity to points of interest, or more realistically, celebrities or potential Tinder hookups?

Although it was a small comment I feel that something is lost when Rosalind Franklin is omitted from the discussion of DNA's discovery and understanding. Her stolen research is what Watson and Crick based all of their discoveries on. Rosalind Franklin lost her life for science and deserves at least some mention.

Thanks for reading!

Really enjoyed the musical translations in this episode, particularly the Arabic translation of "Amazing Grace".

The role of an interpreter, whether it be sign language or spoken language, is to convey the information without judgement or your own ideas of what is best for the client. If the sign language interpreter would have toned it down (therefore not matching the comedian's intention or tone), she would have been making a decision for the client based on what she thought was best for her. Then the client would have not been given the same experience as the other 14,000 people. It would ave been patronizing to the deaf person had the interpreter decided what the client could or could not handle instead of the client being able to make that decision for herself.

The role of an interpreter, whether it be sign language or spoken language, is to convey the information without judgement or your own ideas of what is best for the client. If the sign language interpreter would have toned it down (therefore not matching the comedian's intention or tone), she would have been making a decision for the client based on what she thought was best for her. Then the client would have not been given the same experience as the other 14,000 people. It would ave been patronizing to the deaf person had the interpreter decided what the client could or could not handle instead of the client being able to make that decision for herself.

Can you credit some of the translated american folk songs you played? Loved "You are my Sunshine" best! Thanks.

Please give us info on the website. I wanted to see that video that her mom made of her walking with the device.

keep up the good work.

Great episode!

(Quick note: when you introduce the part about "Chopin" at 13:38, that's Satie's Gymnopèdie no. 3 playing in the background...)

Wouldn't an episode on translation be the most difficult to translate?

Talk about first step is always the hardest.

Well I really like these guys.