WHEN A CAMEL IS NOT A CAMEL

Mistakes in translation are nothing new.

Some of the “less fortunate” choices have endured for centuries and have become imprinted and even became anecdotal, with minor consequences. However, some others have had devastating effects, contributing to the outbreak or escalation of social and military tensions.

An example of the former is the famous passage from the Gospel of St Matthew 19:24, where Jesus said: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”. It just so happens that in Greek there are two words that look and sound very similar, but which have entirely different meanings: “kamilos” (a thick rope fishermen use to tie up their boats) and “kamelos” (camel). Although the latter was much less likely, that was the word chosen by St Jerome when he translated the Gospel.

An example of the former happened at the Potsdam conference on 26 July 1946, when the Allies demanded Japan’s unconditional surrender, with the alternative being its “prompt and utter destruction”. Japan’s Prime Minister at the time, Kantaro Suzuki, called a press conference at which the response was: “No comment. We will continue to ponder”.

The problem was that Suzuki used the Japanese word “mokusatsu”, which can mean “no comment” or “under no circumstances”. The Allies took the latter meaning as the reply and ten days later dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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