p... !

[Paul Frank]

In an article in today's Le Monde about a video by Samuel L. Jackson
in support of Barack Obama, the English words "Wake the fuck up" and
"Go the fuck to sleep" are quoted in full in English but the French
translations are rendered as "Réveillez-vous, p... !" and "Allez au
lit, p... !", presumably because the word "putain" is too offensive
for the sensitive eyes of Le Monde readers. The English word "fuck" is
just a foreign word and therefore, presumably, inoffensive.

I've noticed a similar phenomenon on young people's T-shirts in
France, Switzerland and Spain, and I presume it's common in other
countries. An otherwise clean-cut looking girl or young woman walks
around clad in a T-shirt sporting a witticism (for want of a better
word) that contains the English word "fuck." The same clean-cut young
girl would not wear a T-shirt with the word "fuck" in her own
language.

Paul

Paul Frank
Translator
German, French, Chinese => English
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
paulfrank at post.harvard.edu

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