So very much British: slovní hrátky a hříčky

Hra se slovy má v britské angličtině velkou tradici, počínaje cockney až po odlehčený "společenský slang" absolventů Etonu, Oxfordu a Cambridge, protkaný literárními a kulturními narážkami.
Například lord Petr Wimsey, hrdina detektivek Dorothy L. Sayersové, je typickým příkladem literárního hrdiny charakterizovaného (mimo jiné) také velmi specifickým způsobem řeči.

1. Vyhledejte si informace o autorce, hrdinovi, a synopsiníže citovaného díla.
2. Pomalu a v klidu si přečtěte úryvek (případně celou kapitolu nebo knihu) a přemýšlejte. Kdo jsou lidé, kteří spolu hovoří? V jakém prostředí? Které prvky v promluvách je odlišují nebo spojují? S čím budou při překládání potíže?
3. Pokuste se o překlad vyznačeného dialogu.
4. Ve spolupráci s dalším spolužákem či přítelem přečtěte přeložený text nahlas jako živý dialog. Vyznačte si místa, která jsou nelogická, nebo kde text vázne.
5. Upravte překlad.

DOROTHY L. SAVERS

Murder Must Advertise

CHAPTER I

Death Comes to Pym's Publicity

"And by the way," said Mr. Hankin, arresting Miss Rossiter as she rose

to go, "there is a new copy-writer coming in today."

"Oh, yes, Mr. Hankin?"

"His name is Bredon. I can't tell you much about him; Mr. Pym engaged

him himself; but you will see that he is looked after."

"Yes, Mr. Hankin."

"He will have Mr. Dean's room."

 "Yes, Mr. Hankin."

"I should think Mr. Ingleby could take him in hand and show him what

to do. You might send Mr. Ingleby along if he can spare me a moment."

"Yes, Mr. Hankin."

"That's all. And, oh, yes! Ask Mr. Smayle to let me have the Dairyfields

guard-book."

"Yes, Mr. Hankin."

Miss Rossiter tucked her note-book under her arm, closed the

glass-panelled door noiselessly after her and tripped smartly down the

corridor. Peeping through another glass-panelled door, she observed

Mr. Ingleby seated on a revolving chair with his feet on the cold radiator,

and talking with great animation to a young woman in green, perched

on the corner of the writing-table.

"Excuse me," said Miss Rossiter, with perfunctory civility, "but Mr.

Hankin says can you spare him a moment, Mr. Ingleby?"

"If it's Tomboy Toffee," replied Mr. Ingleby defensively, "it's being typed. Here! you'd better take these two bits along and

make it so. That will lend an air of verisimilitude to an otherwise—"

"It isn't Tomboy. It's a new copy-writer."

"What, already?" exclaimed the young woman. "Before those shoes were

old! Why, they only buried little Dean on Friday."

"Part of the modern system of push and go," said Mr. Ingleby. "All very

distressing in an old-fashioned, gentlemanly firm. Suppose I've got

to put this blighter through his paces. Why am I always left with the

baby?"

"Oh, rot!" said the young woman, "you've only got to warn him not to

use the directors' lav., and not to tumble down the iron staircase."

"You are the most callous woman, Miss Meteyard. Well, as long as they

don't put the fellow in with me—"

"It's all right, Mr. Ingleby. He's having Mr. Dean's room."

"Oh! What's he like?"

"Mr. Hankin said he didn't know, Mr. Pym took him on."

"Oh, gosh! friend of the management." Mr. Ingleby groaned.

"Then I think I've seen him," said Miss Meteyard. "Tow-coloured,

supercilious-looking blighter. I ran into him coming out of Pymmie's

room yesterday. Horn-rims. Cross between Ralph Lynn and Bertie

Wooster."

"Death, where is thy sting? Well, I suppose I'd better push off and

see about it."

Mr. Ingleby lowered his feet from the radiator, prised up his slow length

from the revolving chair, and prowled unhappily away.

"Oh, well, it makes a little excitement," said Miss Meteyard.

"Oh, don't you think we've had rather too much of that lately? By the

way, could I have your subscription for the wreath? You told me to remind

you."

"Yes, rather. What is it? A bob? Here's half-a-crown, and you'd better

take the sweep-money out of it as well."

Science or Fiction?

I překladatel krásné literatury musí mít jisté odborné znalosti z oblastí, kterých se děj dotýká - přinejmenším takové, aby svévolně nekomolil sdělení autora a nevytvářel překladatelské perličky.
Typickým příkladem jsou některá díla z oblasti science fiction, zejména "technologického proudu" osmdesátých a devadesátých let dvacátého století. Za všechny připomeňme trojici králů sci-fi: Clark, Asimov, Bradbury. Vždyť A.C.Clark byl vzděláním matematik a fyzik, a mezi jeho "scifistické" vynálezy patří například satelitní navigační síť (tj. základ dnešního telekomunikčního systému), solární plachta nebo iontový pohon meziplanetárních sond.

Dokážete rozluštit kvalifikovaně přeložit následující úryvek z Pohlovy série o Heechee?

F.Pohl, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon

"I'm sorry, Henrietta, dear. If you want me to learn some astrophysics I will."

            "Damn right you will!" Pause. "It's terribly important, Tom!" Pause. And then: "We go back to the Big Bang. Are you listening, Tom?"

            "Of course I am, dear," said the program in its humblest and most endearing way.

            "All right! It goes back to how the universe got started, and we know that pretty well-with one little hazy transition point that's a little obscure. Call it Point X."

            "Are you going to tell me what `Point X' is, dear?"

            "Shut up, Tom! Listen! Before Point X, essentially the whole universe was packed into a tiny glob, no more than a matter of kilometers through, super-dense, super hot, so squeezed it had no structure. Then it exploded. It began to expand-up to Point X, and that part is pretty clear. Do you follow me so far, Tom?"

            "Yes, dear. That's basically simple cosmology, isn't it?"

            Pause. "Just pay attention," Henrietta's voice said at last. "Then, after Point X, it continued to expand. As it expanded, little bits of `matter' began to condense out of it. First came nuclear particles, hadrons and pious, electrons and protons, neutrons and quarks. Then `real' matter. Real hydrogen atoms, then even helium atoms. The exploding volume of gas began to slow. Turbulence broke it into immense clouds. Gravity pulled the clouds into clumps. As they shrank the heat of contraction set nuclear reactions going. They glowed. The first stars were born. The rest," she finished, "is what we can see going on now."

            The program picked up its cue. "I see that, Henrietta, yes. How long are we talking about, now?"

            "Ah, good question," she said, in a voice not at all complimentary. "From the beginning of the Big Bang to Point X, three seconds. From Point X to right now, about eighteen billion years. And there we have it."

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