Traduire l’argot français ou le dernier des Sullivan // Translating French slang or the last of the Sullivans

Abstract

Slang is certainly one of the aspects of language that are the most difficult to translate, even if we do not agree with those who consider language or even slang as untranslatable. In this paper we will present the case of the Hungarian translation of BorisVian’s last novel published under the pseudonym of Vernon Sullivan, Elles serendent pascompte. The main the difficulty for the translator consisted in expressing in contemporary Hungarian the essentially playful French general slang used by Vian towards the end of the 1940’s.

Keywords

• slang
• translation
• untranslatability
• Boris Vian
• argot
• traduction
• intraduisibilité
• Boris Vian