LONDON: Thousands of fire safety leaflets in Scotland have been withdrawn because a wrong translation in the leaflet’s Urdu version for people of South Asian origin mixed ‘gadda’ (cushion) with a ‘gadha’ (donkey).
The leaflet, titled ‘Fire Kills – You Can Prevent It’, was produced by the Scottish Executive and has been made available to the public for five years. Its piquant mistranslation has only now been brought to the notice of the Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service.
The leaflet’s English version reads: “Never jump straight out of a window. Lower yourself on to cushions, etc.”
But language experts charged with putting the passage into Urdu – there is a large minority in Scotland speaking the language – translated it as “Never jump out of a window straight. Put yourself on a donkey.”
Reports reaching here from Glasgow say that the leaflets were produced in thousands, and now most of them have been destroyed.
Bashir Ahmad, a Scottish Nationalist Party councillor for Glasgow Shawlands, which has a high proportion of Urdu speakers, said: “How can you mix up cushions with a donkey? My constituents will be laughing that such a silly translation has been made.”
Urdu expert Bassneem Kareem, told the local media: “The Urdu word for donkey is ‘gadha’, while the word for cushion is ‘gadda’. It is a very big error – ridiculous and stupid.”
A Scottish Executive spokesperson apologised for the error and said: “Since this leaflet was translated in 2001, quality control on translated material has been improved by running a system that includes proof-reading.”
Rosemary Dale, founder of the Scottish Borders Donkey Sanctuary, remarked: “I would not let the people who made this translation anywhere near my donkeys.”
Source: Daily News & Analysis, 8 November 2006
5 comments
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12 November 2006 at 17:17
davidbdale
Hard to believe either method would help much. But think how many donkeys may have been injured since 2001! Oh, the animality!
13 November 2006 at 16:17
Percy Balemans
Which only goes to show how important it is to hire a professional translator: bad translations may be harmful to animals!
1 January 2007 at 12:36
Donna
Hmmm….donkey kind of makes sense.
:P
Yes…even with a minority language like Urdu, I´d say a good translator would be crucial. Think of all the poor donkeys!
;)
4 January 2007 at 12:03
ismael sheikh
very true …. translation is an art and urdu translation is a dream , these days its a nightmare!
1 May 2008 at 17:12
Aftab Ahmed
It is the agencies who are mainly responsible for such a cheap mistakes. They pay less and job is done by non-speaker of the language who simply use dictionary for their advantage.