I don't know if this was originally in Wilbour or if it's Fahnestock and MacAfee's fault, but "Orestes Fasting and Pylades Drunk" is a fucking shitty translation. Seriously, I want to slap whoever's responsible for that. How many people reading the book have gone "...bwuh? What the fuck is 'Orestes Fasting' supposed to mean?"
The original French is "Oreste à jeun et Pylade ivre," which, fuck you Charles Wilbour, is more appropriately translated as "Orestes Sober and Pylades Drunk." At least, if à jeun corresponds as closely to nüchtern as I think it does, it very technically means 'fasting' as in not having eaten, but more idiomatically, sober, clearheaded, or matter-of-fact. Yes, the pun is lost if you translate it as 'sober.' But at least it fucking makes sense.
This post brought to you by the ire of an amateur linguist and the incestuousness of European languages. I'll drink to that.
(And yes, in case you were wondering, that does mean my screen name is a translative brainfart.)
The original French is "Oreste à jeun et Pylade ivre," which, fuck you Charles Wilbour, is more appropriately translated as "Orestes Sober and Pylades Drunk." At least, if à jeun corresponds as closely to nüchtern as I think it does, it very technically means 'fasting' as in not having eaten, but more idiomatically, sober, clearheaded, or matter-of-fact. Yes, the pun is lost if you translate it as 'sober.' But at least it fucking makes sense.
This post brought to you by the ire of an amateur linguist and the incestuousness of European languages. I'll drink to that.
(And yes, in case you were wondering, that does mean my screen name is a translative brainfart.)
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