This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Swedish to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
Swedish term or phrase:neger
I have come to a point in the text I am translating from the 1880s where I have come up against a somewhat sensitive issue in the form of racist terminology and phrases.
"Kan hända en gång vi kommer hem och helsar på som ett par rigtiga Texas Bönder. Vi äro så svartta som ett par negrar. Det mesta är negrar som bor här omkring."
So far I have been reluctant to translate this as 'nigger', opting for the SLIGHTLY more acceptable 'Negro', but I wonder if this is a bit too weak? I realise I have to tailor this text to an audience, and so is using 'nigger' just too strong, or does it simply convey the sentiments of the time.
I would appreciate your thoughts on this difficult topic.
Since intuitions about sensitive language change over time, I'll provide a personal example. I was born in 1978 and grew up in a rural area in Sweden. There were no people of African heritage around but the word 'neger' was used when talking about them. This was without any pejorative or condescending connotations. I did not become aware of any such connotations until my late teens when I started going to secondary school in a bigger city. Around the same time there was a debate about 'negerboll’, which is the traditional name of a type of chocolate sweet. Today I would never use either word, but I know some people that still do, many of them as a protest against what they feel is overly politically correct language. So, based on my own experience, and the textual context, I don’t think the writer wanted to be derogatory. “Negro” is an appropriate translation because it captures the spirit of the time, but of course it evokes a different response among us, readers in 2012, than it would have from the writer’s correspondent. I would also consider ‘black people’. The overwhelming majority of Europeans that I've met use it as a value-neutral expression.
I'm closing the question now. Thank you all for your comments, responses, and contributions. In translation, there will always be times when we come up against sensitive issues, and when we have to write about topics that are so distanced from our own opinions that it becomes difficult to know what the most appropriate solution is. While translating this book, it has been a very fine balance between remembering the historical context of the letters, and tailoring the content to a contemporary audience. Fascinating, but challenging. Thank you once again.
The discourse in question is from the 1880's. It's a literary text. We could debate endlessly the propriety of using the language of the time in a translation, but's it's a closed question for me.
As of 2011, I think "African-American" (more forma
17:15 Aug 22, 2012
As of 2011, I think "African-American" (more formal) and "black" (less formal) were deemed the only politically correct terms in ordinary discourse. --- See the following reference and numerous others from a search black African-American politically correct: --- http://grammarist.com/usage/african-american-black/
Thank you both. I think it will be 'Negro', then. It's difficult to know what to do for the best, but I agree that this is the best solution.
If I insisted on being PC in my translation, of course 'African-American' would be my choice as TechLaw proposes, but this is a literary translation where I really do have to justify not conveying the full tone of the source text.
I just wanted to get your opinions on the use of 'neger' in Swedish, and the extent of its use as a derogatory term.
As regards your second example, "Negro" was used by all kinds of "polite" racists at the time in such utterances. One might almost say that using "Negro" in such a sentence was a class distinction, as "nigger" would have been regarded as too common by many.
Yes, I think you have a good reason to use "negro" even if the overall context is disparaging. Winston Churchill used this very tone to describe the native tribesmen in Sudan at about the same time period concerning their general improvidence when comparing them with the Arabs in Omdurman.
Yes, I think it does depend on the manner in which the term is used. In the context I have given, 'Negro' is the most appropriate term, I agree. However I have just arrived at this section:
"Negern är, hvad jag tror, af den lägsta rasen. Han är mycket trög i sin natur, ja, rent av viljelös, lefver endast för dagen. Sällan får man se en neger som är välbärgad."
I would be inclined to go for 'Negro' here too, but the overall context here seems to be more derogatory.
I think you need more evidence in the source before using "nigger". If this is from the immigrant Swede community in the U.S., it is conceivable that the term would have been used at that time, but not always. The tone of the text you've provided suggests to me that "Negro" was intended.
I will refrain from offering a definitive answer since I am totally out of the loop as to what sort of things offend people these days and Proz has its share of touchy types. I will say that "neger" in Swedish, as a word, is not offensive, but the tone in which it is sometimes used can be. I don't think it is meant in any bad way in the example you gave. "Nigger" is always rude, so I think that would be most inappropriate.
Also we should not jump to conclusions about "sentiments of the time". People were to no greater degree all of the same mind about any issue than they are now.
In short, I think you should consider a non-offensive suggestion like "negro" and certainly not "nigger".
Automatic update in 00:
Answers
48 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +7
negro
Explanation: As it would have been translated in 1880.
Sven Petersson Sweden Local time: 16:49 Native speaker of: Swedish, English PRO pts in category: 118