El agutí y el ciervo

20:50 Jul 12, 2020 

As said, no answer by Suttend99 whatever.
Don't answer anymore. Waist of time.
Gee!

16:03 Jul 6, 2020 

my own experience - at least when translating a book to be published abroad - is that the translator of the book also translates its title - even if this ends up being one of the last translation decisions you make regarding this book. Only very rarely is the target title a direct translation of the source title, and very often it isn't until you've read the whole text right through that you finally grasp what it is really about, and with a bit of luck can come up with something both pithy and apt.

15:54 Jul 6, 2020 

well I'm dashed, as my mum used to say. Anyway, well done!
I had already changed my Disagree...

14:29 Jul 6, 2020 

Collins say their translation is wrong and they'll change it.

23:59 Jul 2, 2020 

Just one other point about this. As it's a literary work, one could also feasibly ask whether "agutí" might be better off localized in the target language to a similar animal which which the readership would be familiar. That's certainly as debatable as the translation of any proverb or saying.

Juan: to your point about book titles being translated by an editor (publisher?), whilst that may certainly be standard practice, it's by no means the only scenario that exists for someone translating a literary text. It could simply be for the translator's own personal use, i.e., study, a personal project, etc.

Have a good evening, all of you!

18:01 Jul 2, 2020 

Vaya barullo (y todo en inglés) por un bicho.
Mis 2 centavos, como dicen:
a) el título de un libro traducido (incluso a veces en el idioma original) lo determina el editor, no el traductor. (Así como el de las películas);
b) llevo semanas por acá sin ver prácticamente ninguna propuesta validada por quien pregunta, ni siquiera interviniendo en el debate lo cual, mucho me temo, se repetirá en este caso. Muy desalentador... nos esforzamos en ayudar... por nada. Vaya, ni el "por favor" ni las gracias.

17:54 Jul 2, 2020 

I'm familiar with the word because it's a good way of dumping four vowels in Scrabble.

16:19 Jul 2, 2020 

USED to say! You WERE expected to use a dictionary. Otherwise it doesn't make much sense... Surely, it's the first step any professional translator would take if in any doubt whatsoever about any term. I certainly would before asking my busy friends!

16:15 Jul 2, 2020 

... mistake! We are expected to do some research before posting Pro questions, and I can't see how this cannot include dictionary work - however basic!

Regarding the "subjective view", I don't really see how this could ever be otherwise; I guess that's why it takes 3 people to vote a question Non-Pro - so it's not just one person's subjective view. If 3 or more people agree, then there must be something in it

15:59 Jul 2, 2020 

I always thought non-pro meant you could find the answer easily in a dictionary - so I obviously haven't been reading the instructions properly!! Duuh!! Will be more careful in the future. And I did just look the word up in a dictionary, and found it easily unlike an answer for another question which I have just put up which I have spent about 15 minutes researching.

15:55 Jul 2, 2020 

I guess the idea is that any "bilingual person" will have a fairly large vocabulary, but having to use a dictionary means that you can't answer the question without seeking a professional's help (the professional here being the dictionary's author).

15:52 Jul 2, 2020 

Hi Carol. I understand what you're saying, but that's not how the pro/non-pro categories are supposed to be decided. If you just base it on your own subjective view of what you consider to be difficult, then these debates are always going to happen. The idea of "without the aid of a dictionary" is a simple rule of thumb that's reasonably objective.

15:51 Jul 2, 2020 

I'm sure the rules used to say the opposite - i.e., that you WERE supposed to use a dictionary - , and have always assumed that the new (though not so new any more) phrasing was just a mistake. Otherwise I can't really see the point of having Pro/Non Pro at all...!

15:45 Jul 2, 2020 

Hi Jane, yes, but that's my point really. Questions like these are often not as easy as they look, and this is a great example of that IMO. The site guidelines just say: "without the aid of a dictionary".

15:44 Jul 2, 2020 

question, I would normally expect the Asker to have carried out some research pre-posting, and perhaps to have posted the results of this, and why they might find it problematic, as part of the Context - if only to save potential Answerers from duplicating any research already carried out, as all-too-often happens.
Regarding Non-Pro questions, I believe some busy ProZ members opt to receive exclusively Pro questions on the grounds that they are helping someone who has genuinely tried to help themselves to solve a knotty problem, which is why we have the two separate categories. And unless the rules have changed, Askers are also required to state up front if their question is for homework or coursework, as there is no way that either of these could logically be classed as professional.

15:37 Jul 2, 2020 

To be honest I just voted it non-pro because it seemed ridiculously easy ...

15:34 Jul 2, 2020 

When you want to make a question "non-pro", the dialog box asks you "Are you sure that this question could be answered by any bilingual person WITHOUT the aid of a dictionary?"

What am I missing here?

15:28 Jul 2, 2020 

Seems to me to be the very essence of a pro question if the dictionary is wrong, primarily because the agouti is not a very well-known species of animal for English speakers. And someone who does live in a country where they're found might not know that "Guinea pig" is a bad translation into English.

I honestly don't understand this obsession with making questions "non-Pro". Sure, if it's a question like "hola", etc., but "agouti"? Are you kidding?

15:27 Jul 2, 2020 

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Dasyprocta_punctata/
Not a stag either. The story is about a fawn (called deer in the title and little deer in the text).

14:37 Jul 2, 2020 

I shall be all ears :O))

14:32 Jul 2, 2020 

I think I might drop Collins a line and see what they say.

14:26 Jul 2, 2020 

and undo the Disagree, despite my Collins!
But I stand by the Non-pro, as just because there is or may be more than one way to translate something, that doesn't make it a Pro question. In fact, seeing the Asker's name, I wonder if this might even be a homework or coursework question...

13:42 Jul 2, 2020 

Agutí
"Mamífero roedor de una familia afín a la del conejillo de Indias, propio de América Central y América del Sur, que vive en regiones boscosas." So not a guinea pig. But surely Collins wouldn't make an error and leave it uncorrected.

13:38 Jul 2, 2020 

I think Carol's disagree, and perhaps even her dictionary, may be wrong. Collins does give "guinea pig", but if you look that up in the opposite language direction you get cobayo, conejillo de Indias, and cuy. The guinea pig is a relative of the agouti.

12:55 Jul 2, 2020 

The agouti mouse and the deer