Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 86, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1903 — FUN IN MISTRANSLATIONS. [ARTICLE]

FUN IN MISTRANSLATIONS.

Strange Guise of a Literal Conversion of One Langnage to Another. A German cobbler In a Southwestern watering place affixed thl/ notice to a pair of boots exhibited In his window, “Scarcely creditable! 7s 6d,” although there was nothing In the appearance of the boots to suggest that they were anything but creditable footgear. Those who wandered through the last Paris exhibition in Its earliest days were amused to see the following legend wherever the paint was still wet: “Bevare of the picture!” I did not seem to occur to the bold translator that the French word “pelnture” and the English “picture” were not necessarily the same thing. “Ah!” wrote an enthusiastic Frenchman of a young lady who had roused his admiration, "she Is a of great mlzzen topmast.” What he meant to say wms that tho lady was very sprightly, but, unfortunately, the French “fougue” had a nautical equivalent In his dictionary as well as the word “sprightliness,” and It was his bad luck to choose Itj for the purpose of his description. The Hindu Is responsible for many amazing efforts of translation. A missionary, lately returned from India, tells how once, when he wished to have the beautiful hymn— Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee, —translated Into Hindu, he Intrusted the task to a clever young native student. To the missionary’s amazement the Hindu version, when translated Into English, ran thus: Very old stone, split for my benefit. Let me absent myself under one of your fragments, —which was not quite what the author of the hymn meant to convey. It was a well-known German clergyman, says London Tid-Bits, who threw his audience Into convulsions by fervently saying at the end of his speech: “God kipper your worthy pastor!” which reminds one of another gentleman of the same nationality—a professor in Berlin—who, when bidding "good-by” at the station to some English friends, startled them by saying: “Farewell! Good voyage! I expect you will be Jammed from de danger.” Of Course, the well-meaning man “hoped” his friends would be “preserved” from danger during their Journey; but his way of expressing this wish was not quite happy.