(Post III) The so-called Untranslatables (to English, mostly). EN + PT

Let's check these many illustrated by Anjana Iyer, for the Found in Translation project. 
Backpfeifengesicht – DE – A face badly in need of a fist. (Em PT, somos negativos e depreciativos, a pessoa nem tem cara para levar um estalo / um soco.)
Iktsuarpok – Inuit – The frustration of waiting for someone to turn up. (We have seen this one before, but with another translation: “The sense of anticipation as you wait for someone to visit.”)
Tingo – Pascuense / Rapa Nui – To gradually steal all the possessions out of a neighbour's house by borrowing and not returning. (We have seen this one before, but with another translation: “The act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them.”)
Ilunga (Tshiluba) – A person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time. (Em PT, Luba é uma das línguas bantas.)
Hanyauku – KWN – The act of walking on tiptoes across warm sand. (Em PT, cuangali, ou rucuangali, é uma das línguas bantas.)
Istoriesmearkoudes – EL – Literally “stories with bears” – refers to narrated events so wild and crazy it seems that they can't possibly be true. (Are there bears in Greece?)
Cúbóg – IR – A collective noun for easter eggs.
Friolero – ES – A person who is especially sensitive to cold weather and temperatures. (Em PT, temos «friorento/a/os/as»; a espanhola também é língua de género e, como a ilustração mostra uma figura feminina, deveria ser «friorenta».)
Gattara – IT – A woman, often old and lonely, who devotes herself to stray cats. (Isn’t it universal, wherever cats are found? Em PT, precisamos de uma perífrase.)
Prozvonit – CZ – To call a mobile phone only to have it ring once so that the other person would call back allowing the caller not to spend money on minutes. (Em PT, enviamos ou damos um toque.)
Radioukacz – PL – A telegraphist for the resistance movements on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain. (What a delightful historical tidbit!)
Pochemuchka – RU – A person who asks too many questions. (Em PT, não faltam «perguntadores» nem «perguntadeiros».)













 

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