BEING READY TO REWRITE WHATEVER WOULD BE THROWN MY WAY

Read the title again. It is my understanding that an ability/readiness to rewrite whatever is
thrown your way is a skill worth mastering when it comes to translating. I mean, if you’re
serious about getting the tone, nuances etc. right. Consider that.
Anyway, let’s begin with some explanation…
This is an episode of Toucan Tecs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT_hMOdzIvI
Toucan Tecs was a children’s cartoon series – probably originally Welsh, from what I’ve
read on Wikipedia about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toucan_Tecs . That page will tell
you the names of the characters. Basically it’s about a couple of toucans, Zippi and Zac, who
travel the world solving crimes as detectives (that’s what “tecs” is short for, apparently). I
grew up in the 1990s and I remember watching many episodes of it, even if the details of
what I remember about it today are very scant (pretty much nothing more than the names of
the main characters). As it is, I watched this particular episode again recently, during a
moment of nostalgia, which was enough to remind me that it was full of “silly little” jokes (in
this case, there are many double entendres related to trees in particular). Which gave me this
(admittedly very far-fetched) idea:
During this moment of nostalgia, I came across this other episode of it, dubbed in Finnish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl-k8jvnuu8 , which I never could have expected, and for
which I was unable to find an original version in English. It is definitely Finnish: Google
Translate will translate “Puhuttu Suomeksi” as “Spoken in Finnish” if you use the “Detect
Language” feature, and even I know that “Anteeksi” (at 2:32) is Finnish for “excuse me” and
“Kiitos” (at 3:09) is Finnish for “thank you”. I thought: what if I got someone to translate this
from Finnish back into English? Why? Well, my plan was to scrutinise the English output
and, where possible, maybe reproduce at least to some extent the silly little jokes that may
have been there in the original English version of this episode of the cartoon (because I can –
it was all a challenge for my own imagination, really). How well did I really manage this?
Until such time as I should get the chance to see the original English version of this episode
again (not the one I was prepared to pay someone in Finland for), I will never truly know. But
at the time it seemed unlikely that someone from Finland could reasonably be expected to
think of any of these silly little jokes in English themselves, even if, were they provided with
an example, they could be trusted to understand what makes them what they are. At any rate,
Finnish is very, very different from English; if you insist on corroboration, I think of that
YouTube video posted by Sara Forsberg (“Learn Finnish with Sara”).
So… I succeeded in hiring someone from Finland who speaks fluent English to do this work
rather than a native English speaker (and, quite frankly, I’m sure there are more Finns who
speak fluent English than people whose mother tongue is English who are fluent in Finnish).
As irregular as this may sound, I would say that, in terms of what the content of this article is
supposed to be (coming from the very person who wrote it), it was actually all the better that
it was done by a native Finnish speaker who is fluent in English. But I did what I did, and
they did what they did, and this is their English translation of the cartoon dubbed in Finnish
above (with some very slight changes on my part):
[Starting at 1:18]
Mad Duck 1: This is really cosy. Much better in here than in the cold snow.
Mad Duck 2: I'm surprised we didn't figure this out before.

Mad Duck 3: This feels good.
[Change of scene; starting at 1:46]
Zac: What does it say?
Zippi: It's a request for assistance sent by Shammy the Mountain Goat. He's asking us to
solve a mysterious case. Hey, Samson! Samson, where are you?
Samson: Ah, so the message got through. The toolbox is ready for the Alps.
Zac: Where is the Alps?
Samson: The Alps are not a place. The Alps are mountains, you are going to Switzerland.
Hurry up now; Fifi is waiting.
Zippi: Our international airline, Fifi, will not let us down.
Fifi: [Laughs] Whoopsie-daisy Zac, you could have been more careful.
Zac: Pardon me!
Fifi: It's OK.
Zippi: OK, so please show us what you have for us.
Fifi: It's a big balloon. And it indeed is a great balloon. Nice colours… all very nice. Now,
help me pull it down.
[…]
Fifi: And off you go!
Zippi: Thank you, Fifi!
Fifi: It floats in the wind as light as a feather.
[Change of scene; starting at 3:18]
Zac: So what exactly is this case?
Zippi: Shammy the Mountain Goat says that all the Swiss cuckoo clocks have, for some
strange reason, stopped working. No one there knows the time.
Zac: …A hot lowland with tropical rainforests.
Zippi: That's right… No, search again!
Zac: Cold mountainous country in central Europe. Famous for its ski resorts, chocolate, and
cuckoo clocks and hey… hey… what's that word?
Zippi: Yodeling.
Zac: Yodeling?
[Yodeling]
Shammy: Hey, over here!
Zippi: That was yodeling. You must be Shammy the Mountain goat? [..] You were supposed
to let go of the anchor!
Zac: Yes, I was supposed to, but I forgot.
[Change of scene; starting at 4:16]
Shammy: Welcome to Switzerland, friends.
Zippi: Zippi and Zac at your service.
Shammy: [Says “Bitte” in German i.e. “Thank you!”] I'll take you right to where things have
gone all cuckoo [as in looney/mad/crazy].
[Change of scene; starting at 4:29]
Shammy: This is my home village.
Zippi: It's beautiful here.
Shammy: Yeah, but we don't have time.
Zac: Why, are you in a hurry?

Shammy: We don't have time because all the cuckoo clocks have stopped. There's only one
left.
Zac: Oh, Zippi started the investigation. I should be there ready to help him – which is only to
be expected, after all, right?
Zippi: So I guess that these are the cuckoos?
Shammy: One morning we woke up to find the cuckoos lying in front of their houses.
Nobody knows why.
Zippi: A-ha. A clue. I think that this is a serious case. Where is the working clock?
Shammy: It's over there!
[…]
Zippi: Just as I thought. The Mad Ducks are to blame.
[Change of scene; starting at 5:32]
Mad Duck 1: It's lovely and warm in my clock.
Mad Duck 2: And so much space.
Mad Duck 3: Too fancy a place for a stupid wooden cuckoo.
Mad Duck 4: Our boss The Red Leader is so smart.
Red Leader: Ain’t that so?
[Change of scene; starting at 5:49]
Shammy: Help me! Without a cuckoo clock, we don't know when it's time for bed or supper.
Zac: It’s time for supper?
Zippi: There are two ways to approach the problem, soft or hard.
Shammy: What is the soft way?
Zippi: We ask the Ducks to leave. We appeal to their better selves. Go on, Zac!
Zac: Me?
[falls down from the tree]
[Change of scene; starting at 6:16]
Zac: You!
[knocks on the door]
Red Leader: Yes?
Zac: Excuse me!
Red Leader: NOT today thank you!
Zac: Is that the soft way?
Zippi: That sure was!
[Change of scene; starting at 6:36]
Zippi: There must be something in the toolbox. […] Since The Mad Ducks don't listen to
reason, I think I've come up with a nice idea.
[Change of scene; starting at 6:50]
Zac: So, Zippi, now what?
Zippi: Put them in the designated place. Look out! Don't fall or you'll turn into a snowball.
[Change of scene; starting at 7:06]
Shammy: There’s no point! Even if you wind the bells, no cuckoo will come out saying
"cuckoo".
Zippi: Let's not fret over this; let's get a couple of ducks saying "cuckoo".
Zac: Why did you set all the clocks to one minute to twelve?

Zippi: You'll see. In a minute.
Zac: But I still don't understand what's happening.
Mad Duck: What is this?
Zac: Now that's a real snowball!
[…]
Mad Duck 1: I'm freezing!
Mad Duck 2: My bum is freezing!
Red Leader: Let's get out of here! Let them cuckoos keep their Switzerland. Let's fly to a
warm country.
Zippi: Cuckoos are back where they belong. Now you've got all the time in the world.
[Says “Danke, Danke” (which is “Thank you” in German, of course.]
Zac: [Sneezes] Zippi, it's awfully cold here. [Sneezes again] Let's go home and sit by a warm
fireplace.
Zippi: Hey, what time is it?
[Change of scene; starting at 8:53]
Samson: My new photo collection. Did you have a pleasant stay in Switzerland?
Zac: Yes, but the sound of the cuckoo clocks still echoes in my ears when those cuckoos say
cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo…
Zippi: Ah, it's three o'clock, teatime!
And now, the customary evaluation comments:
I have no idea who the Finnish person who translated this carton was (the task was given to
them through a translation agency) but, to their credit, what they wrote here indeed suggests
that they really did have an ability to understand when something in English is meant as a
double entendre, and that they could seemingly even create them in English; this is most
obvious at the bit where they wrote “I'll take you right to where things have gone all cuckoo
[as in looney/mad/crazy].” They clearly knew here that “cuckoo” can be an adjective
meaning “crazy”; it’s not just the name of a kind of bird.
But what about “my thing” here? Consider these two ideas:
One: I would suggest that “Oh, Zippi started the investigation” could be changed to “Oh,
well at least Zippi has lost no time, starting the investigation!”
Two: near the end, where a cold Zac says “Let's go home and sit by a warm fireplace” – what
do you think of the idea of changing “Let’s go home” to “Let’s pop out of here”? For
everyone knows that cuckoos pop out of clocks, just as the cartoon shows.
That’s the end.