Found in Translation

To Translate One ’s Long ing
Many believe that one of the most beautiful words in Portuguese is saudade, which refers to
something loved and lost. The world-famous Fado music, known for its mournful singing, is linked
to saudade. There is no exact word for the term in English, although some would liken it to a
yearning or a longing for something that is no longer attainable—more intense than nostalgia. Others
have called it the love that remains after someone (or something) is gone. The word has been used
to express the sadness of those who disappeared in shipwrecks as well as the longing for home the
many Portuguese sailors experienced. While no perfect equivalent exists in English, the Bosnian
word sevdah has the same complex meaning and comes from the same root.

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It’s a Dirty Job, but…
Everyone knows that sex sells, but few people know that translation often plays
a part. Because of the social taboos surrounding adult entertainment, you won’t
find many translators who proudly display the words porn translator on their
business cards. We interviewed several translators of adult content during the
course of doing research for this book. All of them insisted that they had no
ethical or moral issues with translating pornography whatsoever, but tellingly,
none of them wanted to be personally identified. Yet they’re out there
translating XXX-rated content each and every day.
Knowing that porn consists mostly of images, you might be asking yourself,
“How difficult can it be?” Rest assured, the translator ’s job consists of a lot
more than just translating “¡Sí! ¡Sí! ¡Sí!” or “Ja! Ja! Ja!” into another
language. Because a great deal of adult content is now provided on the Internet,
one important area of porn translation is perhaps one of the unsexiest topics
you can imagine—search engine optimization.
Yes, it’s actually someone’s job to translate sex-related keywords, so that
when users type those words into their favorite search engine, they’ll be able to
find whatever fetish or scenario tickles their fancy. It might sound like fun to
try to figure out how to render racy terms and phrases for a living, but it can
be quite difficult. The terminology is constantly evolving, and many languages
lack perfect linguistic equivalents—as in many terms from Japanese adult
manga and anime.
However, use the wrong word, one that has a silly connotation or is overly
euphemistic, and the meaning is lost. Like porn itself, the translation comes in
various forms. Some translators get a spreadsheet with a list of keywords to
translate. Others have to watch video content to subtitle or write scripts that will
later be used for multilingual voice talent to overdub. And others translate the
html files that appear on web pages, carefully skipping over the tags that affect
the display and replacing the captions with equivalents in another language.
Because porn is so diverse, translators may feel comfortable with some
types of content but not others. For example, a translator might have no qualms
about subtitling hard-core films, but may refuse to translate animated
pornography out of concern that it is designed for children. Other translators
may feel happy to translate content related to heterosexual encounters, but not
homosexual ones. Some are happy to deal with words, so long as they don’t
have to look at the accompanying images.
It isn’t always easy to find translators willing to accept these projects, but
regardless of one’s own thoughts on the morality of adult content, the need to

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translate it isn’t going to go away anytime soon.