Margarine

[Stefan Diös]

Halsten:

>The Norwegian version of WDC 165 also has Donald working in the margarine 
>factory (first published in Donald Duck & Co no 6, 1955).
>Just like in Sweden, it has for a long time been considered a fact that 
>Donald works in the margarine factory (whenever he doesn't do something 
>else). So much so, that the expression "working in the margarine factory" 
>is sometimes used as a joke in real life. Most people will recognize the 
>phrase as originating from Donald.

OK, so Norway, too... Thanks! This edition (DD 6/55) is obviously newer by 
four months, so we might guess that the Norwegian translator again was 
given a Danish or Swedish text to work from. Did anyone check what's in 
Danish AA 2/55?


Don:

>A margarine factory? I don't get it. Barks' "skunk oil"
>factory sounds funny... like, why would anyone want skunk oil?! But to
>American ears "margarine factory" isn't the least bit funny. Margarine is a
>blend of vegetable oils used as a butter substitute. Perhaps a translator
>who didn't know what a "skunk" was made a wild guess that it was some type
>of a vegetable? Or is there something funny about the word "margarine" in
>Europe that is not translatable here?


You are right; there's nothing inherently absurd with a margarine factory 
the same way as in "skunk oil". Of course I can't say why the translator 
originally made that choice, but he/she might have reasoned that skunks are 
not Scandinavian animals. Today, most of the readers would know what it is 
and that it smells terrible, but maybe that wasn't the case in the 50's. So 
a literal translation of "skunk oil" might seem absurd in another way than 
was intended: more uncomprehensible than funny.

I'll be quick to agree that the substitution with margarine is a 
"normalization" of a kind that can be a dangerous step down from the 
imagination and humor of the original. If we delete all the absurd and 
funny things in favor of dull, everyday counterparts, nobody would want to 
read about Duckburg at all. In some translations, and indeed in some 
original stories, that sad trend is just too obvious.

On the other hand, an overzealous struggle to translate word-for-word at 
all costs can be even more dangerous. There has to be some sort of balance, 
and what has to be lost in one place can be regained somewhere else. In 
this case, I could argue that "licking gummed tape on cardboard boxes" is a 
more creative job description than Barks' "delivery boy". A far worse 
solution was used when the story was reprinted in Sweden in 1972, now with 
a completely new translation. Here, nothing at all is mentioned about 
Donald's occupation, just that he is an unknown nobody (obviously 
unemployed). This, of course, is the whole point, and it doesn't take 
anything away from the storyline; but the imaginative way to put it is all 
gone. (A comparative study between the two translations of this story was 
published as early as 1977 in the very first issue of the Swedish 
Donaldistic fanzine NAFS(k)uriren).

And, hey... the margarine worked! In all its dullness, it was inventive 
enough for readers to remember it years afterwards. Otherwise, would 
someone take the trouble of reusing it in all those new stories 20 or 30 
years afterwards?


Finally, I noticed that my last post was signed a little more personally 
than I had intended. If I can push the right button this time, it should be 
more complete now:



Stefan Dios
Malmo, Sweden