Tag Archives: mistranslation

True Love? To Blave. – Another Unfortunate Tattoo

Uncategorized, , , , , ,

If you’ve ever seen my news feed setup for anything Aramaic you’d think I was obsessed. Well, in a word: Yes. 🙂 I’m always constantly crawling the internet looking for new stuff posted about the language, and today I came across a very unfortunate tattoo on deviantArt whose owner I am trying very hard to contact.

Update (March 12, 2008): Since I’ve published this article, the author has contacted me and requested that I take the image down, so I have done so to respect his wishes. You can still view the image through his deviantArt Profile here.

The tattoo reads:

ܚܘܒܟܘܢ ܒܫܪܝܪܐ
khûvkûn b-shrîrâ’

The owner was told that it reads “True Love” which it is very close to but sloppy. There is a bit of grammar that doesn’t make too terribly much sense to me so allow me to break it down and go over it:

ܚܘܒܟܘܢ
khûvkûn

Comes from the root word khûbâ which means “love”
The suffix -kûn means “your” in the masculine plural. This is awkward.

ܒܫܪܝܪܐ
b-shrîrâ’

Comes from the root word shrîrâ’ which should mean “truth” but is generally found in the feminine form ܫܪܝܪܬܐ shrîrtâ’ otherwise it should be in the form ܫܪܪܐ shrârâ’. It’s possible that whoever translated this was trying to work from an adjectival form (ܫܪܝܪ shrîr) which would make it technically correct, but a bit awkward.
The prefix be- means “in,” “within” or “among” depending on context (here it’s certainly “in”).

Despite the misspellings this literally translates to:

“Your (masc. pl.) love in truth.”

Not really “True Love,” but not incomprehensible. Although the tattoo came out beautifully, the actual translation was very sloppy.

Please don’t let this happen to you! Trust a professional.

-Steve

Two More Tattoos For the Road

Uncategorized, , , , ,

If you’ve been regularly reading this blog, you will know how much I emphasize proper research in obtaining a tattoo in a language of which you are not familiar. I always implore my readers to trust a professional translator or native speaker and then double-check the hell out of what they give you with other professionals or native speakers. With that said, this is once again what can happen if you do not.

The first example today is one that I’ve shown many examples of before. Native speakers of English (and other languages where aspects of grammatical gender have ceased to play a large part in the language) tend not to take the gender of a Hebrew or Aramaic phrase into account. Because of that we end up with problems such as this:

This image is being used under the doctrine of Fair Use.

It reads:

אני לדודי
ani ledodi
I am my beloved’s

ודודי לי
udodi li
And my beloved is mine.

This tattoo was found on the back of a man as a tribute to his wife. Unfortunately, the word דודי dodi (“my beloved”) is in the masculine form: “I am my beloved’s (masculine) and my beloved (masculine) is mine.”

This kind of mistake is one of the most pervasive one that I have seen because the translation is so readily available from any Hebrew edition of the Song of Songs and in English the word “beloved” has no gender.

Now this second one completely broke my heart. According to the owner, his grandfather knew Hebrew, so it was a large part of hearing him speak it during his childhood, so when his grandfather passed away, he wished to have the Hebrew word for “Grandad” tattooed across his back in big large letters. Take a look:

(© Dan O. This portion of the image utilized under Fair Use for criticism and educational purposes.)

In Hebrew… it is jibberish. To someone who speaks English, but knows the Hebrew alphabet, it’s horrifying: It is the English word “Grandad” transliterated backwards in the Hebrew/Aramaic alphabet.

דאדנארג
d-(a)-d-n-(a)-r-g
(g-r-a-n-d-a-d)

Allow me to leave you with the following thoughts:
  1. Don’t trust what you happen to come across on the web. – A professional (preferably fluent with languages that are not dead or near-dead) translator with a good, strong record is the only way to go. That way, you can trust that you are getting something appropriate.
  2. Get an image of the text. – Don’t rely upon your computer to display a font properly. What had probably happened with the above examples is that their computer did not display Hebrew Unicode in the proper right-to-left format. Also, other problems with encoding can happen, such as mojibake.
  3. Always get a second opinion. – “Measure twice, cut once” the old proverb goes (and for a reason). Always take the time to double-check the text before getting things inked. With things such as dead or nearly-dead languages this can be difficult but not impossible. For Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic, check your local synagogue. For Syriac, track down a Syrian or Assyrian church. For Sanskrit, a Hindu temple or Buddhist monestary. If all else fails, go to your local College or University, and poke around the religion and linguistics departments. If you explain why you want your translation doublechecked, they will sympathize. 🙂 Lastly, AramaicDesigns will double-check Aramaic tattoo translations for you pro bono, so simply email them in.

Peace,
-Steve

Another Spectacular Tattoo Goof

Uncategorized, , , ,

Why do these keep happening? It pains me every time that I see it and I feel that I have a moral obligation to hunt these people down and inform them of their tragic mistake. The following tattoo I found using the new PanImages service (which is really neat if you have some time to try it):

[source: BME Zine]
(For the purposes of this Blog, I am using this image under the doctrine of Fair Use.)

A gorgeous tattoo. Love the lilies. However from the original webpage, the anonymous owner of this tattoo believes that their text says “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.”

This kills me…

…In reality it is jibberish.

The “inscription” reads:
ܕ
d
(jibberish)
ܨ
ts
(jibberish)
ܐ
‘
(jibberish)
ܟܕ
kad
(= “when”)
ܕ
d
(jibberish)
ܙ
z
(jibberish)
ܥܐ
`a’
(jibberish)
ܟܐ
ka
(jibberish)
ܣܐ
sa
(jibberish)
ܓܣܕ
gasad
(jibberish)
ܓܣܕ
gasad
(jibberish)

You can see why I am distraught…

Please please please please please, before getting an Aramaic tattoo, send it into Information@AramaicDesigns.com so it can be double-checked for accuracy. It’s an anonymous public service that we offer completely pro-bono, and is also a personal legacy of mine to stop things like this from happening.

Peace,
-Steve

Spiral Lord’s Prayer Tattoo Kit

Uncategorized, , , ,

In the next few days, Aramaic Designs.com will be releasing a Spiral Lord’s Prayer Tattoo Kit, which will be made up of the following:

  • A tattoo stencil of The Lord’s Prayer in Spiral (in the correct form and order!)
  • A translation key and pronunciation guide of the Prayer so you know what it says, where it says it, and how to say it.
  • Instructions for you and the tattoo artist for how to size the tattoo stencil properly for your arm.

And we’re still working on some of the details. If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to post them in the comments section here, or email them in to Information@AramaicDesigns.com.

Peace,
-Steve

Ricky Martin’s Mistaken Assyrian Aramaic Tattoo

Uncategorized, , , , ,

UPDATE: Since the publishing of this article, Aramaic Designs now offers a Spiral Lord’s Prayer Tattoo Kit. 🙂

Well, it just goes to show you that when you take your time and look over something carefully that you do a better job at spotting things that are out of place. Thus is my plight with Ricky Martin.

Just the other day, a potential client asked if Aramaic Designs could completely replicate Mr. Martin’s Aramaic tattoo of the Lord’s Prayer. I furnished a quote and sent it over for approval, but in the meantime I went to work to research this particular design to see what it was all about (as preemptive research is one of my favorite hobbies). I, like many people, have seen pictures of it before, and whenever I gave it a cursory look over it seemed very well done and I could easily read snippets of the prayer around the spiral.

I’ve enhanced the above image to make it more readable.
Also this image, as a subject of criticism, is being used under the doctrine of Fair Use.

Then I tried to read over all of it from start to finish… Which is where things started to get weird.

This is what I was able to read from the above image after I enhanced it, starting at the bottom left and winding all the way to the “Yah” ligature in the center:

‘aykanâ‘ d’âf hnan (this portion I could not make out) : hav lan lahma’ dsuwnqânân yaumanâ‘ : malkuwthâkh nehwâ‘ çevyânâkh ‘aykanâ‘ dvashmayâ‘ : ‘abwun dvashmayâ‘ nethqadash shmakh te’the‘

This translates into the following and I kid you not:

Also as we (the same portion I could not make out) : Give us bread of our need today : Your kingdom may your will be done like which is in heaven : Our father who is in heaven may your name be holy she will come.


Although the individual chunks of text came verbatim from the Syriac Peshitta, they are completely out of order and using a bit of forensics (“source criticism” if you will 😉 ), I can immediately see what caused this tragedy: Whoever arranged this tattoo did not take into account that Aramaic is read from right to left.

Argh!!

Allow me to illustrate exactly what happened. Let us say that our tattoo designer came across the following text in this format:

Our Father who art in heaven hallowed by thy name thy kingdom
come thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our trespasses …

They then took each line of text and connected them in the wrong direction, resulting in:

And forgive us our trespasses as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread come thy will be done on earth our Father who art in heaven hallowed by thy name thy kingdom

The bigger tragedy is that this could have been completely avoided.

Several notes to go over:

  • The symbol in the center is a Yod-He ligature (“Yah“) which in the Syriac tradition is a shortened form of the Tetragrammaton that symbolizes the Trinity (hence the three dots on top, one on the bottom).
  • The reason the spiral trails off in “she will come” is because the Aramaic word te’the‘ (i.e. the “she will come” in question) is referring to “your kingdom” or malkuwthâkh whose grammatical gender is feminine. If it were not obvious what the subject of the clause was, due to ambiguities in Syriac grammar, te’the‘ could also translate as “you (masc.) will come.”
  • This only proves once more that if you are going to get a translation done, please trust a professional for both layout and the actual translation, itself. I’ve already done a few posts here (1 2) on The Aramaic Blog about mistaken tattoos, and if you don’t believe me, there are other websites that have examples as well. In fact, don’t just trust a professional, once you’ve obtained a translation have it double-checked with another professional source for accuracy before you even think about permanently affixing it on your skin. (For example Aramaic Designs will double-check translations pro bono.) Laser removal procedures are extremely unpleasant.
=============================

UPDATE November 2012:
For those of you who are interested in how The Lord’s Prayer looked like and sounded like back in Jesus’ time, I have posted my reconstruction of The Lord’s Prayer here:

The Lord’s Prayer in Galilean Aramaic on AramaicNT.org.

=============================