No no not at all anna . Laughed so much today reading the 2nd one . Thanks so much . LalithaSubramaniam
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: sundaram v.v. <[email protected]> Date: Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 10:15 PM Subject: Lost in Translation? To: [email protected], [email protected] * * Sivasubramanian ji, your reference to translation reminds me of *two* jokes: one on translation per se, and the other starting from it. Here they are. (1) A foreign dignitary was on a visit to India. He addressed a packed crowd and a local guy translated it into Hindi. To emphasize a particular point, the visitor narrated a joke. The chap translated it and the crowd went into peels of laughter. Later the dignitary asked the translator: “How come it took me five minutes to narrate the joke, and you translated it in two seconds, and the audience laughed so much?” “Easy, Sir.” I told them, “The visitor has narrated a joke, please laugh.” (2) *WC Story: *I heard this about forty years ago. I hope my memory serves me right to recapitulate it in the spirit I read it: Fascinated by Switzerland as a tourist, an English lady decided to settle down there permanently. She selected a small village to buy a house. The villagers spoke French; only one person could speak English. He took her around a house, and explained its features. She was impressed. Back in London, she realized she had missed checking the bathroom facility. So she wrote back: “Sir, is there a WC?” The poor villager did not know what WC (water closet) stood for. So he went to a Priest who was more conversant with English. He too did not know. Together they went to the Church Library in the basement. The Church dictionary said: WC - Wayside Chapel. Then the villager wrote back. “Madam, “Yes, there is a WC. It is four miles away. It opens only on Sundays. It is vast, and can accommodate 600 people at a time. Normally it is crowded. So I suggest you reach early; otherwise you may have to perform standing. “There is a band in attendance, which makes it all the more enjoyable. The acoustics are so good that even the slightest sound in the WC can be heard in a radius of five miles. It is so enchanting that people bring their lunch along and make a day of it as picnic. My daughter met her husband only in this very WC. They spent hours there. “I was very regular. But because of my arthritis, I now go only once in two months. “We look forward to your early move.” *Have I lost the joke in translation?* * * V.V. Sundaram Phoenic 20 October 2011
