Translation Difficulties
In German, this French word became associated with the characters in German fairy tales who are cannibals (adult-eaters) or specifically child-eaters. Foreign, especially English-speaking, authors do not realize this, and translation of their works into German has to use some other description to avoid association with cannibalism, which would render the characters incapable of being a figure of fun, or an incidental character type to a fantasy story or game, at all.
The most well-known example is the animated feature film Shrek, whose name comes from the German, but whose localized subtitle translates back into "The Foolhardy Hero".
The word ogress has been adopted as well for fierce female characters of the mythology of non-European countries, such as the Matrika Putana killed by Krishna, the Japanese ogress Kijo (鬼女), ogress Sanda Muhki, who offered her own breasts to the Buddha, and the sea ogress of the Thai folklore story Phra Aphai Mani, among others.
Read more about this topic: Ogre
Famous quotes containing the words translation and/or difficulties:
“Translation is the paradigm, the exemplar of all writing.... It is translation that demonstrates most vividly the yearning for transformation that underlies every act involving speech, that supremely human gift.”
—Harry Mathews (b. 1930)
“Only a great actor finds the difficulties of the actor’s art infinite.”
—Ellen Terry (1847–1928)