to pull sb.'s chain (ifml.)jmdn. aufziehen, auf den Arm nehmenPulling your chain
In diesem Jahr feiert das Fahrrad seinen 200. Geburtstag, und so mancher behauptet, seitdem habe sich technisch nicht mehr viel getan. Tatsächlich ist der Unterschied zwischen Automobilen aus den 1920er Jahren im Vergleich zu aktuellen Modellen gravierend, während Räder aus der damaligen Zeit auch heute noch halbwegs modern anmuten. In Wirklichkeit ist das Zweirad jedoch weder optisch noch technisch stehengeblieben ... und die Entwicklung geht weiter: Reifen sollen künftig ohne Luft auskommen und ohne Kette.
From FAZ, 5 June 2017
Translation offered by the translation software:
This year, the bike celebrates its 200th birthday, and some have claimed that since then, technically nothing has done much. In fact, the difference between cars from the 1920s compared to current models is serious, while wheels from that time still seem half-modern today. In reality, however, the two-wheeler did not remain either optically or technically … and the development goes on: tires are to get by without air and bicycles without chain.
(translation software: babelfish.de)
Spotlight translation:
This year, the bicycle celebrates its 200th birthday, and it is sometimes claimed that, on the technical side, nothing much has changed since its invention. It is true that if you compare cars from the 1920s with current models, the differences are significant, whereas bikes from that time might be seen as (only) halfway modern today. However, the two-wheeler has not remained unchanged, neither visually nor technically ... and its development will continue in the future, with tyres that won’t need air and bicycles that don’t have chains.
Analysis
- In past issues, we presented online translations that were barelykaumbarely comprehensibleverständlichcomprehensible. This month, our example works quite well. But there is always room for improvement.
- When translating, you tend to look at the original text more closely than you would normally — and often, you find that it is slightly ambiguousnicht eindeutigambiguous. What does seitdem refer to? Seit diesem Jahr? Seit seinem 200. Geburtstag? We’ve added “since its invention” to to clarifyverdeutlichen, klarstellenclarify the situation.
- The software didn’t recognize the phrase es hat sich nicht viel getan. In English, you would say “nothing much has happened”. As we are talking about progress rather than an event, we’ve written “nothing much has changed”.
- The start of the second sentence, “In fact...”, makes you expect a contradictionWiderspruchcontradiction of what was said before. Instead, the claim made in the first sentence is being supported. We therefore translated tatsächlich as “It is true...” — preparing the ground for the contradiction that follows in the next sentence (“However...”).
- “Serious” can be a good translation of gravierend, but it doesn’t collocate well with “difference”. “Significant difference” is a much better collocation.
- A human translator has no difficulty recognizing Rad as a short form of Fahrrad. But this option was obviously not the first entry in the translation software’s dictionary, so it chose “wheel” instead of “bike”.
- The situation described in the last sentence started in the past and extends into the present, so the present perfect (“has not remained unchanged”) is needed here rather thanund nicht, anstellerather than the simple past.
- “Remain” is a translation not of stehenbleiben but of bleiben. Stehenbleiben needs some more support: “unchanged” or “the same” must be added.
- The phrasal verb “get by” is most commonly used in connection with money. In the present context, not having air in your tyres or a chain on your bicycle is seen as progress, so the easiest translation is probably also the best: you won’t need/have them.
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