Re: Cookbook

On Thu, 5 Jul 2001, Irina Rempt wrote:

>On Thu, 5 Jul 2001, Justin Mansfield wrote:
>
>>  Anyway, something to worry about when translating recipes: different
>> languages handle cooking instructions differently. English uses the
>> imperative, French I would imagine uses the infinitive. I'm told that German
>> uses the subjunctive in the impersonal (mann soll... excuse my terrible
>> German grammar and orthography, as I have the Yiddish me' zol in mind ;) ),
>> and that Hungarian uses the first person!
>
>Valdyan uses the second person singular in the present tense. Those
>forms are also used for the imperative but I prefer seeing it as
>descriptive: "you take... you put...".
Kerno uses the 2nd singular in the future tense (indicative).

>>  So... just keep all this mess in mind while you're translating your
>> recipes!
>
>Perhaps we shouldn't translate the recipe, but paraphrase it to carry
>over the meaning: to end up with the same dish when you're finished.
A literal translation. I think that would be the best way to
go. That way, we can taste not only the savor of the local
cuisine, but also the flavor of the language itself.

Padraic.

>   Irina

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