Monday, August 11, 2003
Amphibious Ambiguity
The August 10, 2003 Washington Post Magazine tells of a Peruvian shaman's speech at the University of Maryland losing something in translation:
During one of the few instances Don Nazario spoke, regarding the use of cocoa leaves in offerings to the spirits, the English translator confused the word "apu" [spirit(s)] with the Spanish word "sapo," which means toad. So the word toad kept coming up at crucial moments of the discussion instead of the word spirit. As an observer, I wondered what the students were able to make out of this belief system based on reverence for, and communication with, toads.
|posted by Jim on 3:17 PM|
Link
. . .
|
. . .
|
