by Tracy Fabre
Member since:
July 13, 2008

Lubaka & The Africa Queen

March 11, 2011 09:06 AM UTC
views: 0 | 18 people recommend this | comments: 71

When Daphne Du Maurier wrote Rebecca in 1937, I'm sure she had no idea that her novel would one day be turned into a movie, let alone that it would be released by a Japanese company on DVD to be sold back to English-speaking people.

She never could have expected to see this as the description of her work.



And while that "Lubaka" business is interesting, everyone knows the real title is...

 

 



At least that's what's on the spine!

 

Now we move on to The African Queen. or, as the photo shows it, The Africa Queen. Ah yes, Hepburn and Bogart -- but is this how you would have described the flick?



I love Engrish!
 
 
 

Comments: 71

Peter Joseph Swanson Mar 11, 2011, 9:33am UTC
Now that is some messed up stuff!
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 10:03am UTC
And it contains dint of a kind of fancy control!
JOHN BECK Mar 11, 2011, 9:37am UTC
What's lost in translation is recreated in retranslation. No wonder there's so much misunderstanding in the world!

African Queen is such a classic. I loved the scene with the leeches. The boat and especially the engine added so much character to the movie. OK, there was the relationship story as well.
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 10:02am UTC
Heh... yeah, that too.
Michael Fishman Mar 11, 2011, 10:25am UTC
I love the movie. Have either of you read the book?
JOHN BECK Mar 11, 2011, 10:49am UTC
Not I.
elizabeth evans Mar 11, 2011, 7:03pm UTC
Come on, John...it was a classic Chick movie....the love story is what made it a classic...not the leeches.
JOHN BECK Mar 11, 2011, 8:05pm UTC
I knew I was in trouble with that comment!
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 8:06pm UTC
Muahaha... cheer up, John, I haven't read it either. Or seen the movie from start to finish.
JOHN BECK Mar 11, 2011, 8:15pm UTC
A couple years ago Barbara insisted she had never seen it. Incredulous, I rented the DVD and we watched it--I enjoyed it all over again.
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 8:18pm UTC
My mother raised me on Greer Garson, My Fair Lady, and The Thin Man, not so much Ms. Hepburn. Nick & Nora Charles, they were my favorites.
JOHN BECK Mar 11, 2011, 8:29pm UTC
I saw My Fair Lady on stage at the Goodman in Chicago years ago. I love the movie as well. You're not old enough to remember the black & white movie Pygmalion, the same story but not as a musical.
Marianne K. Mar 11, 2011, 10:22pm UTC
1. I haven't read the African Queen, nor watched the movie.

2. I love My Fair Lady...the first movie G and I saw on our first date ( 1968 ).

3. I have never heard of The Thin Man.
JOHN BECK Mar 12, 2011, 12:27am UTC
My dad liked The Thin Man.

I recommend that you watch African Queen.
Tracy Fabre Mar 12, 2011, 8:39am UTC
John -- I have seen Pygmalion (again, thanks to my mom) as well as read the book!

Marianne -- The Thin Man was a series of whodunit movies featuring William Powell and Myrna Loy. Great dialogue. Here's a clip showcasing that.
Peter Joseph Swanson Mar 14, 2011, 2:45pm UTC
I saw My Fair Lady live on stage in Saint Louis and loved it so much. I love Audrey Hepburn but don't like the movie. I don't like African Queen but love old movies and leeches in movies, so go figure. The Thin Man movies are great.

My favorite Hepburn is The Lion in Winter & Suddenly Last Summer. Woot!
JOHN BECK Mar 14, 2011, 2:51pm UTC
Well, my friend Chuck said that if everybody liked the same thing, all the guys would want to sleep with Patricia.
Tracy Fabre Mar 14, 2011, 7:41pm UTC
And Patricia might have other plans.
Marianne K. Mar 15, 2011, 7:03pm UTC
THANK YOU, John and Tracy. I'll look into it for sure.
ann c. Mar 11, 2011, 9:49am UTC
Do you just attract funny stuff or do you go looking for it? Love the Mrs. Danfus!!!
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 10:02am UTC
From Mandli no less!

I think it's the former, btw -- people know I like this kinda stuff and bring it to me.
Marianne K. Mar 11, 2011, 10:17pm UTC
And I'm so glad you then bring it to us, Tracy...laughter is the best medicine !
Barb Carlson Mar 11, 2011, 10:07am UTC
Wow. Just ... wow. That is indeed one crazy translation. Maybe they used Babel Fish or something. :) I did hear a story of someone who was working on a computerized translation program (years ago). To test it, they would feed in an English phrase, the retranslate and see what they got. They fed in "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak", translated to Russian, and when they turned it back into English, the phrase had changed to "the wine is good but the meat is rotten".
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 10:09am UTC
Heheh I LIKE that.

Mostly I've just used the Encheferizer. Thus, "Zee spureet is veelling boot zee flesh is veek. Bork Bork Bork!"
Barb Carlson Mar 11, 2011, 10:09am UTC
Of course, we know that sayings don't translate well. Here at work, a guy from Peru (I think, I could be wrong) said in reply to something I said, "Like the babbling brook". It took a couple back and forths before I understood ... he'd used a saying translated into English that would be the equivalent of us saying "like water off a duck's back".
Barb Carlson Mar 11, 2011, 10:11am UTC
Encheferizer? LOL! I've always like that Muppet. Once I played a part of a Swedish airhead in one of the skits we wrote for the science fiction convention. The only way I could keep the accent was to bounce. Worked pretty well.
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 10:11am UTC
Then there are the ridiculous things people say which everyone understands but no one could possibly explain --

"I'm fixin' to..."
"Dad-gum it!"
Barb Carlson Mar 11, 2011, 10:13am UTC
I bet "red up the house" (however it's spelled) or "paint the town red" would give a foreigner pause, too.
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 10:16am UTC
There was a rather nice restaurant near work which printed a daily lunch special menu with some quirky offerings; I went with a friend who was raised in Poland, and when I started laughing at "fried bologna sandwich" she wanted to know what was so funny. Trying to explain that this was not something you would find on a menu in a nice restaurant, and why, was a bit challenging.
Barb Carlson Mar 11, 2011, 10:21am UTC
LOL. Maybe fried bologna has transcended poor and worked it's way up to chic. :) I can see where that might be a challenge. I'd just say "that's poor people food being served at a high class restaurant" :)
David W. Mar 11, 2011, 10:31am UTC
True TV guide blubs. I look to these for inspriation. In case i sm trapped in an elevator with and agent or publisher.

"My book lives in New Orleans. Max who not comes form there sees sexy, murder style killing. He gets almost mad and do revenge. Poor Max is drunkard but does not drink. The end, murderer catches Max. They both kill. You guess who win."
JOHN BECK Mar 11, 2011, 10:53am UTC
I'm glad the translator was not doing an assembly instruction manual. Those can be both hilarious and frustrating at the same time.
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 8:21pm UTC
David, I would SO sign you to a contract with a synopsis like that.
David W. Mar 11, 2011, 10:39pm UTC
Wow! I am headed to Romance Writer's of America meeting tomorrow. I'll just have to share that with them. A contract, wow!

Personaly, I think you should take a contract out on me.
Donna Tinus Mar 11, 2011, 10:52am UTC
I lufe-a thees pust!
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 8:06pm UTC
Bork! Bork! Bork!
A. F. Stewart Mar 11, 2011, 1:02pm UTC
Okay, that's different.
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 8:06pm UTC
It's a cinematic masterpiece of a different color.
JustMe ~I'm happy to be~ Mar 11, 2011, 1:17pm UTC
Goodness gracious.
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 8:06pm UTC
Sounds about right!
Patricia J. Mar 11, 2011, 2:17pm UTC
Speaking of fried bologna sandwiches, in boot camp they greased the griddle before they fried the bologna. I always thought bologna was greasy enough but I guess not! I think the Japanese are creating a new language or is that rangrage? At reast the ones who did that description are!
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 8:07pm UTC
Rangrage, yes... heheh. I know, we shouldn't mock. But Engrish has been a treasure-trove of goodies for a long time, and the gift just keeps on giving.
Angela A. Mar 11, 2011, 3:45pm UTC
He, hee. What a silly description!
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 8:07pm UTC
It gobsmacked me. :-)
Angela A. Mar 12, 2011, 10:09pm UTC
Good one.
Granny Janny Mar 11, 2011, 6:01pm UTC
The translations are crazy but my heart goes out to Japan in a big way now. Very interesting post. I had no idea. Love the graphics.
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 8:44pm UTC
I had to redo this comment because it sounded like I was in disagreement about sympathy for the Japanese right now... and of course I have plenty of that. Terrible situation.
Granny Janny Mar 11, 2011, 8:56pm UTC
I didn't take it that way at all...but I understand. I love how English and other languages get contorted...even by native speakers. Always funny...and BTW, I love "gobsmacked"!
Mike Firesmith Mar 11, 2011, 6:46pm UTC
I hope something I write gets reviewed like this some day. When they so totally screw up your work that everyone laughs you know you've done something right.
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 8:09pm UTC
Those of us who are left will pledge to hold a seance to call up your spirit (I know you love that sort of thing) to let you know when you have achieved literary immortality in this way.
Mike Firesmith Mar 11, 2011, 8:53pm UTC
I have to be dead?
Tracy Fabre Mar 11, 2011, 8:58pm UTC
"Dafne du Moler" is. So....
Mike Firesmith Mar 11, 2011, 10:14pm UTC
dammit
Marianne K. Mar 11, 2011, 10:30pm UTC
Posthumous success is the best...you'll be forever revered and make lots of money, Mike.
David W. Mar 11, 2011, 10:41pm UTC
Hmmm, in that case consider me dead sometime last year. :-(
JustMe ~I'm happy to be~ Mar 11, 2011, 10:56pm UTC
All of you have me dying with laughter.
Mike Firesmith Mar 12, 2011, 5:48am UTC
I was being dead serious Michelle!
Tracy Fabre Mar 12, 2011, 8:40am UTC
There is a No Corpse rule on this post. (The flies, you know.)
JustMe ~I'm happy to be~ Mar 12, 2011, 10:06am UTC
Tracy - too funny!

Mike - I never knew you were such a grave man. Oh, those skeletons in the closet..........
Mike Firesmith Mar 12, 2011, 11:12am UTC
I have been coffin a lot lately.
Tracy Fabre Mar 12, 2011, 2:05pm UTC
Y'all keep this up and I'm turning comments off. :P
Marianne K. Mar 16, 2011, 7:01pm UTC
I'm dead against THAT, Tracy !
Ryan Reid Mar 12, 2011, 6:06pm UTC
hahaha, i worked at a dollar store for 2 years, you can only imagine all the "engrish" i encountered there!
Tracy Fabre Mar 13, 2011, 9:23pm UTC
It should be immortalized! Lubaka would want it that way.
Mustafa Demiri Mar 12, 2011, 7:27pm UTC
I wonder what they might do with James Joyce’s “Urysses”... And, Oh, just imagine the soliloquy of "Morry Broom" at the very end...

"I was a Frower of the mountain yes when I put the L-ose in my hair rike the Andarusian girls used or shall I wear a Led (the colour) yes and how he kissed me under the Mooish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain frower and first I put my aLms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my bLeasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will... with a dint of a kind of fancy control.”
~ Morry Broom
Tracy Fabre Mar 13, 2011, 9:23pm UTC
I had to lie down to recover, after laughing my way through this.
Kathryn Flynn Mar 14, 2011, 2:04am UTC
OH MY broken engrish. reminds me of the packages of tea all the way from china i had.
William Dotani Mar 15, 2011, 2:13am UTC
The Japanese sound system is not exactly the same as English. L, R and D sounds are often viewed the same mixture of a sound in Japanese with variants acceptable. Of course in written script English would be Engrish because the sould ri is more common than li. We use commonality in sounding out words in English too. In Japanese n sometimes sounds like m.
Marianne K. Mar 16, 2011, 2:38am UTC
Tracy, thank you so much for the link to 'The Thin Man'...hilarious !~!
Tracy Fabre Mar 16, 2011, 9:00am UTC
This weekend I caught the last half hour of After The Thin Man and realized it's time for to watch them all again - clever, clever dialogue. :-)
Marianne K. Mar 16, 2011, 7:00pm UTC
YEP ! A must see.

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