Translations of "Down with Big Brother."
The following are translations of "Down with Big Brother" in assorted
languages. Some of them are literal, some are idiomatic. Some are
slogans purported to carry the same sentiment.
If you have any improvements or additions, please mail
bigbro@nbxa.org.
For each language, I'd like a literal translation, as well as what was
used in the translated text of 1984, if applicable. (I don't think 1984
was ever published in Araucanian.)
|
Language |
Source |
Translation |
Comments |
| Araucanian |
Edward |
Iñchiñ kulpanfi lamagen |
Close, but it has a certain fratricidal ambiguity to
it. |
| Czech |
Laura |
Pryé s totalitou! |
Down with Totality! (revolutionary slogan) |
| " |
" |
Poslední zvonení! |
The Last Ringing for the big brother! (revolutionary
slogan) |
| Danish |
Iluvatar |
Bekæmp systemet! |
Fight the System! |
| Dutch |
HfH |
Weg met Grote Broer! |
Literal. (And as used in Dutch copies of 1984) |
| " |
" |
Weg met Big Brother! |
More idiomatic. Still not good. "Dutch people will
think that you didn't like some tv show that we had going here last
year." |
| English |
George Orwell |
Down with Big Brother! |
-- |
| Esperanto |
Seth |
Frato Granda estas malbona. |
Big Brother is ungood. |
| " |
" |
Venku Fraton Grandan! |
Defeat/Conquer Big Brother! (?) |
| " |
" |
Renversu Fraton Grandan! |
Overthrow/Upset/Invert Big Brother! (?) |
| Finnish |
Aki |
Alas Iso Veli! |
Literal/Idiomatic. |
| French |
Jane |
À bas le Grand Frère! |
Literal. |
| " |
Laurent |
À bas Big Brother! |
I think that Big Brother (in English) was used in
the French translation of 1984. |
| German |
Bettina |
Nieder mit dem großen Bruder! |
-- |
| Hebrew |
Jane |
L'mata im Ach HaGadol! |
-- |
| Hindi |
Nivedita |
Karya Pranali! |
Down with the System! |
| " |
" |
Karya Nished! |
Stop the System! |
| Italian |
Luisa |
Abbasso il Grande Fratello! |
-- |
| Kannada |
Shikaripura |
doDDa aNNana daRpakke dhikkaara! |
1. 'doDDa' means 'big'; 'aNNa'='elder brother'; 'aNNana' means 'of the
elder brother';
2. 'daRpa'='aggressive bossy proud superiority attitude';
3. 'daRpakke'= 'to that 'daRpa' attitude'
4. 'dhikkaara' is equivalent to 'down with' in English; 'dhik' in
Sanskrit
meaning 'we despise it strongly' and 'dhikkara' is a derived Kannada noun
word very suitable and politically popular slogan word to express
'dislike' effectively!
5. Alliteration of words add color to the slogans in Kannada; you see it
in 'dodda' 'darpa' 'dhikkaara' words used here, all within the family of
phoneme 'da'.
|
| Latin |
Meghan |
Fratrum magnum deice! |
Throw down/cast down Big Brother! |
| " |
Seth |
Pereat Frater Magnus! |
May the Big Brother Perish! |
| " |
" |
Delenda est Frater Magnus! |
The Big Brother should/must be destroyed! |
| Morse Code |
Meghan |
-..---.---. .--..-.... -.....--. -....-.----......-. |
Literal. |
| Norwegian |
Øystein |
Ned med Storebror! |
Literal. |
| " |
Loke |
Storebror ser deg. |
The most known phrase from 1984 means "Big
Brother is watching you." The direct translation of "Down with Big
Brother" sounds quite lame in Norwegian. |
| Portugese (Brazil) |
Michelle |
Abaixo o ditador! |
Down with the dictator! (is about the closest I could
think of. All of the anti-oppressive-government slogans that my
co-workers and I could come up with included the word 'ditador'.)
|
| Romanian |
Monica |
Jos Fratele cel Mare! |
Down with Big Brother! |
| " |
" |
Jos guvernele totalitare! |
Down with totalitarian governments! |
| rot13 |
-- |
Qbja jvgu Ovt Oebgure! |
;> |
| Russian |
Elena |
Doloy Starshego Brata! |
-- |
| Spanish (Columbia) |
Carmenza |
Abajo con el gobierno! |
Down with the Government! (literal - there is no
expression 'big brother' because the word 'government' is already
unpleasant due to widespread corruption.) |
| Swedish |
HfH |
Ner med storebror! |
Literal. More widely used. |
| " |
" |
Ned med storebror! |
Literal/Grammatically correct, but sounds awkward. |
| " |
" |
Bort med storebror! |
Away with Big Brother! (Note that Big Brother is not
capitalised in Swedish, unless you are referring to the actual
person in Orwell's novel.) |
| Welsh |
Meghan |
Dymchwelyd ag brawd fawr! |
"Dymchwelyd" literally means "to overthrow" but is
used colloquially as "down with." It is also used in the
phrase "dymchwelyd saesnaeg gorwedd plentyn" or, "Down with the
English bastards!" (Amusingly enough, that translates literally to
"Overthrow the shameful english children of concubines!" :)) |