Book of Days Tales

International Translation Day is celebrated on this date every year because it is also the feast of St. Jerome, the Bible translator who is considered the patron saint of translators. The celebrations have been promoted by FIT (the International Federation of Translators) ever since it was set up in 1953. In 1991 FIT launched the idea of an officially recognized International Translation Day to show solidarity of the worldwide translation community in an effort to promote the translation profession in different countries. So let’s have a little fun with the art of translating.

I have often had the need to translate recipes. Translating a modern recipe in a modern European language is usually fairly straightforward.  But recipes from cultures that are vastly different from Europe, or come from centuries-old cultures, present deeper problems.  Besides basic concerns about translating the text, there are issues such as knowing what the ingredients actually are and if you can substitute (i.e. translate) them for ones you have to hand without doing too much violence to the original. There’s also the question of replicating cooking methods. Take, for example, this 14th century English recipe for roast swan.

11. For to dihyte a swan. Tak & vndo hym & wasch hym, & do on a spite & enarme hym fayre & roste hym wel; & dysmembre hym on þe beste manere & mak a fayre chyne, & þe sauce þerto schal be mad in þis manere, & it is clept:

12. Chaudon. Tak þe issu of þe swan & wasch it wel, & scoure þe guttes wel with salt, & seth þe issu al togedere til it be ynow, & þan tak it vp and wasch it wel & hew it smal, & tak bred & poudere of gyngere & of galyngale & grynde togedere & tempere it with þe broth, & coloure it with þe blood. And when it is ysothe & ygrounde & streyned, salte it, & boyle it wel togydere in a postnet & sesen it with a litel vynegre.

The language itself is reasonably easy to understand.  You just have to look up a few words such as “dihyte” (prepare), “enarme” (lard), and so forth (as well as understand that the letter “þ” (thorn) stands for “th”).  Otherwise the roasting part is simple, even a bit longer than it need be. I mean, what’s to know? Gut the bird, lard it, put it on a spit, roast it, then carve it.  There is, of course, the minor question of where to get a swan to roast in the first place. In a sense this is the “untranslatable” part of the recipe.  Any bird you choose, such as a goose, will not be right. The larding is also not fully clear.  Swan would be dry and tough, and therefore would need some additional fat injected into the meat. Nowadays you would thread bacon strips with a larding needle. You could also make deep slits and push in fat pork. The instructions here are not clear.

The sauce represents a different sort of challenge.  You can replicate the ingredients well enough but can you make it anything like the original (assuming that the innards of a duck or goose have a similar taste to a swan’s)? The basic ingredients are giblets, salt, broth, bread, ginger, galingale, blood, and vinegar. Galingale (or galangal) is related to ginger and is used commonly in SE Asian cooking. It’s not hard to find.  Blood is a bit harder to come by.  Here in Argentina I can buy undressed fowl, so there is usually enough. I don’t think it is so important anyway; it seems to be mainly for color. However, without knowing the ratios of the main ingredients it is impossible to know whether this should be a thick sauce, like bread sauce, or thinner like a gravy, or somewhere in between.  Here’s a stab at it:

Chaudon

Ingredients:

1 set of giblets plus whatever blood there is
2 pints chicken stock
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp galangal
1 cup white breadcrumbs
2 tbsps vinegar

Instructions:

Simmer the giblets (and blood) in the stock until tender (1 hour or more).

Remove the giblets and chop them very fine. Return them to the stock with the breadcrumbs and spices. Simmer gently again for at least an hour, until the bread and stock are fully incorporated and smooth. Add salt if necessary.

Add the vinegar just before serving.