09-16-2007, 01:25 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: West Hollywood, CA
Posts: 2,775
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 Quote:
Originally Posted by rogerspeed
...I like fast, it makes me hungry. Seriously, quick and fast are good descriptive words, however rapid may have a better association with veloce, quick is associated with a very short period of time, such as a quick bat, a quick meal, etc. Whereas rapid has a association with distance, such as a rapid advance, rapid transit, etc. There a musical use of the word veloce associated with rapid. From a translation point of view, quick and fast are both single syllable words, veloce has three, rapid is a bit closer with two syllables
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Well, it depends on what you want translation to do. Are you trying to convey the thought in the original language, or are you trying to adapt it to the second language.
If it's the latter, then for "veloce" you can use "fast", "rapid", "swift", or "quick", and I would argue (though not strenuously) that the syllables don't matter much unless you're translating poetry.
But if you're thinking in Italian (as in, what did Alfa mean when it used the term "veloce"?), then "veloce" translates best as "fast", for which other words in Italian don't really exist.
As was previous noted, "quick" doesn't work well in this context. In Italian, "veloce" can indeed translate well as "quick", as in "veloce di pensiero", which would probably translate better as "quickness of thought" than "fast thinking".
In this case, however, we're talking about cars, and in Italian you wouldn't think "the car is quick". You might indeed think "the car is rapid", bit if you did, the word in your mind would probably be "rapido". Similarly, you might think "the car is swift", bit the word in your mind would probably be "celere" (same root as "accelerate").
And that's why I wouldn't agree that 'rapid has a better association with veloce' and it's why I come back to "fast" as the best translation. But, as I say, it depends on what you're looking for in a translation; some people like to play it [you'll pardon the expression] fast and loose.
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Ed
1970 Lancia Fulvia 1,6 HF
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