As journalists who write about a Spanish-speaking country in English, we know we won’t always find the perfect translation — especially when it comes to linguistic oddities that are steeped in Argentine culture and wouldn’t make sense even to other Spanish speakers. 

Sometimes frustrating, often funny and always thought-provoking, here are some of the translation hurdles the team faced this week.

“Acarrear agua para algún molino”

We need look no further than this morning when Chaco Governor Jorge Capitanich said in a press conference that “A police issue can’t be made into a political issue to benefit certain parties and undermine others.” 

What he actually said: “A police issue can’t be made into a political issue to ‘haul water for some windmill’ (acarrear agua para algún molino).” The original turn of phrase is more like “redirect water to their own windmill,” the idea being that someone makes the most of a situation for their own benefit and to the detriment of others.

Props to our new reporter Martina for being patient while this editor tried to think of a decent English equivalent, only to come up dry. Therein lies the lesson we have to learn repeatedly at the Herald. Sometimes there just isn’t a direct translation —not that you can think of in the time available, anyway— and you have to let it go. 

“Remando en dulce de leche”

The literal translation of this one is “rowing in dulce de leche,” a wonderful image of a Herculean effort to make one’s way through a sticky quagmire of Argentina’s sweet confection. But how to capture it succinctly in English? Amy suggested “wading through treacle” — only to be asked “What’s treacle?” by others in the newsroom more familiar with US English.

UK-English to US-English translations — remando en dulce de leche indeed.

“Ni en pedo”

This one came up during the panel discussion at our Open Newsroom event this week. Ni en pedo is a classic emphatic phrase akin to “no way” or “not in a million years.” The more literal translation is “not even if drunk,” but it’s used for so many situations that most of the time, that wouldn’t make sense —with the unfortunate added complication that “pedo” also means “fart” in Argentine Spanish. 

“Not even in fart” in an article? Ni en pedo.

“Sharenting”

Since we’re a bilingual newsroom, the issue isn’t only translating Spanish words into English — who better than translator extraordinaire Agustín to bring up an English word that we struggled to place in Spanish? “Sharenting” is the concept of sharing photos and information about one’s children on social media and coming up with a direct portmanteau in Spanish is a tough one. The lack of a word doesn’t let Argentine parents off the hook, though.

Speaking of social media — share your thoughts and translation hang-ups with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!