English to French translation

Why England lost against Croatia

November 23, 2007

Stop blaming the coach, the bling generation or even the terrible pitch. Blame language. Tony Henry, who sang the Croatian national anthem, made a simple pronunciation mistake, which ultimately led to England not qualifying for Euro 2008.

The line in which Henry slipped up should have been mila kuda si planina (You know my dear how we love your mountains). But what he actually sang was mila kura si planina which means "Dear Penis, you are a Mountain" or "My Dear, my penis is a mountain".
Croat players like Manchester City's Vedran Corluka and Arsenal target Luka Modric started looking at each other and grinning when they realised what he was singing.

Croat fan websites have been calling for Henry to be given a medal of honour for helping the players relax, they also want him made an official team mascot for the tournament.

(via Ananova)

Comments

Whoever wrote this article in Anova would have done well to check with a Croatian speaker first. Yes, there was a hilarious mispronunciation, but 2 out of the 3 Croatian "translations" are not even close. It's annoying to see this mistake being repeated by so many media outlets.

First, the lyric "mila, kuda si planina". Literally, this means something like "my dear, what mountains you have!" (with poetic license). The (admittedly lame) translation from the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is "Dear, we love your mountains". But there is no "you know" in the lyric.

Secondly, "mila kura si planina" could be translated as "dear penis, you are a mountain". But I have no idea how you would get "My dear, my penis is a mountain" from this. In this translation, "Kura" is third person, even though the verb "si" is second person. Someone, presumably non-native, must have been trying reason by analogy, which doesn't always work with translation.

In any case, I'm sure it was one of those "you had to be there" moments. Even on print, it's pretty funny. I wonder if the singer has gone into hiding...

http://www.mvpei.hr/MVP.asp?pcpid=953

Fabulous. I wasn't entirely sure this story was true and I was hoping a Croat speaker might be able to deny/confirm. Thanks!

"The Croatians think it's great, and they've invited him to come over and sing at Euro 2008, and asked if he will be their mascot."

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