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Glossary entry

Dutch term or phrase:

Narrigheden en narigheden

English translation:

jests and jolts

Added to glossary by Charline Helsmoortel
Feb 16, 2012 08:45
12 yrs ago
Dutch term

Narrigheden en narigheden

Dutch to English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature Till Eulenspiegel
Title of an article about the film Till Eulenspiegel (by Ivens and Philipe).
It tells about how difficult it was to produce the film (all the troubles and problems they encountered)

"The troubles with Till
Narrigheden en narigheden, the film production of Till d’ Espiègle"
Proposed translations (English)
3 +2 jests and jolts
4 +1 Woes and whoas; Nags and nuisances; Annoyances and aggravations; Pains and peeves
4 Irritations and problems/troubles
4 Trials and tribulations
3 Witticisms or wretchedisms; droll or dreary
3 Witty or Woebegone

Discussion

Barend van Zadelhoff Feb 16, 2012:
I see what you mean, but this is exactly what I tried to find out about in my first question to Charline. I wasn't perfectly sure about this either.
However, she confirmed this was about the utterings of Till Eulenspiegel and indeed this may very well be case, given the whole context (and I would like it if it does :-)

I summarized this in:

So (this is about) all the different problems they encountered in trying to make a succes of the film about Till Eulenspiegel's 'narrigheden'


Further, I think 'narrigheden' may very well refer to 'narachtige fratsen' or something, that is, to 'jests' (and in Till's case these may have a deeper layer).
Tina Vonhof (X) Feb 16, 2012:
The way I looked at the question was that "narrigheden and narigheded" both refer to what the crew experienced during the making of the film. Narrigheden is a word play that only sideways refers to Till (and like most word plays is hard to translate into English).
Barend van Zadelhoff Feb 16, 2012:
This would imply that Till Eulenspiegel produced 'bloopers' and the crew 'blunders'
Not very likely that the crew would say that about themselves. Besides, I understood from the information we have, it concerned unforeseen/unexpected setbacks.
Also, I don't think that what Till Eulenspiegel was doing concerned 'bloopers'. I always understood he was more like a jester who brought the truth in the form of buffoonery. Some kind of popular sage.
Tina Vonhof (X) Feb 16, 2012:
@Talitha I think 'bloopers and blunders' would work quite well and preserves the alliteration. If you would post that as an answer, I would agree.
Barend van Zadelhoff Feb 16, 2012:
So all the different problems they encountered in trying to make a succes of the film about Till Eulenspiegel's 'narrigheden'
Charline Helsmoortel (asker) Feb 16, 2012:
Problems with the script, problems they encountered when shooting the film (weather), one of producers backed out of the project, film was not received well by the press, etc.
Barend van Zadelhoff Feb 16, 2012:
Thank you, I just asked for sake of clarity
So it is kind of about the problems they encountered in representing the 'narrigheden'
Charline Helsmoortel (asker) Feb 16, 2012:
I thought that the word narrigheden referred to Till Eulenspiegel and narigheden to the problems they encountered...
Barend van Zadelhoff Feb 16, 2012:
You tell us: "It tells about how difficult it was to produce the film (all the troubles and problems they encountered)"

Could it be that 'narrigheden' refers to things like 'weerbarstigheden' 'neteligheden', 'heikeligheden' or are you sure it refers to 'hansworsterij', etc.?
Talitha Wilsnagh Feb 16, 2012:
How about buffoonery and bloopers/blunders?
Bryan Crumpler Feb 16, 2012:
botheration neologism for bothersome aggravation, in case you're looking for another "b" word. Isn't commonly used, but we'd all know what it meant in context.
Charline Helsmoortel (asker) Feb 16, 2012:
And I have to admit, it's fun, but not that much fun if you still have about 7000 words to go and a tight deadline :-)
Charline Helsmoortel (asker) Feb 16, 2012:
Well, I wanted to incorporate the word buffoonery, was now looking for a synonym of troubles/problems, starting with a "b"...
writeaway Feb 16, 2012:
it's the fun of such translations what do you have so far? what have you already rejected as unsuitable?
Charline Helsmoortel (asker) Feb 16, 2012:
Finding an English title that covers every aspect of the Dutch one is...
writeaway Feb 16, 2012:
is the NL the prob or is it finding the English? Narren krijgen nu eenmaal narigheid wanneer ze zonder narrigheden de waarheid spreken.
http://www.toneelgroepdeappel.nl/page/540

Proposed translations

+2
1 hr
Selected

jests and jolts

Jests (as in jester/nar) can be funny, jolts not so much.

Amongst others, Collins gives these synonyms for jolt: reversal, setback, shock, surprise.
Peer comment(s):
agree Barend van Zadelhoff : I like this one. See discussion.
6 hrs
agree Petro Ebersöhn (X)
4 days
Something went wrong...
3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "This one was my favourite, I used it in the text and sent the client another option (e.g. Buffoonish and Bothersome)"
25 mins

Irritations and problems/troubles

Eulenspiegel was always up to no good, if I remember correctly. Clever, but he used to make people very cross.
Something went wrong...
+1
39 mins

Woes and whoas; Nags and nuisances; Annoyances and aggravations; Pains and peeves

Trying to do some alliteration here, but the closest match in terms of both alliteration and homophony is probably "woes and whoas".

"woe" reflects the sense of distress and misery associated with narigheid.

"whoa" is a special interjection here used as a noun. People tend to blurt out "whoa" when something comes as surprising or unexpected or when they want something to stop. So, "whoas" used here as a plural noun would be referring "events that might provoke one to say 'Whoa!'" This can be either positive or negative, such as "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!!! What's going on here?" when a teacher discovers two students arguing back and forth. Or "Whoa! That was really cool." -- I suspect you'd want it always to be referring to the negative things, which is more clearly expressed (save the homophony) by the other suggestions.

HTH
Peer comment(s):
agree F Scott Ophof (X) : Pains and peeves
13 hrs
Something went wrong...
1 hr

Witticisms or wretchedisms; droll or dreary

Wretchedisms = wretchedness adapted to go with Eulenspiegel's character

Something went wrong...
1 hr

Witty or Woebegone

Witty = Funny things
Woebegone = refers to things one laughs at but aren't really funny

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2012-02-16 10:26:48 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

What about 'Witticisms and Wretchedisms' (wretchedness adapted to fit in with Eulenspiegel's character). Or even 'Droll and Dreary.'
Something went wrong...
2 days 10 hrs

Trials and tribulations

Does this fit?
Something went wrong...
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