Tell me a story

[lombano]

True, Oskar shows a considerable tolerance for weirdness, lucky for Eli. "You smell funny," is being pretty polite actually. Still Oskar knows there is something that ain't right with this child, and his conclusion is that Eli is neglected by her parents, that she is the child of alcoholics or drug addicts.

Yep. 'You're a little strange' was the understatement of the century. Also it's pretty ironic when he considers if Eli's weirdness might be the result of not eating enough - it does have a lot to do with feeding...

[drakkar]

I probably should shut up, but I still have the impression that the dialogue "You smell funny" is not excactly equivalent to the original "Du luktar konstigt".
I may be wrong, but I think "konstig" is a bit stronger than "funny", making Oskar less polite. Maybe I should suggest the word "strange".

[gattoparde59]

I probably should shut up,

No, since I know very little about Scandinavia, and even less about Swedish. You really do need to know Swedish to make some of this out.

There are still degrees and shades of meaning. Bringing up your body odor alone is a breach of manners, but a very 12 year old boy thing to do (and also Momma thing!). Then there is "Jesus Christ! What is that Stench! Is that You! I think I am going to puke!" Which is what Oskar was thinking at the time. My translation (Ebba Segerberg) of the book reads: "Is that strange smell coming from you?" So you are quite right.

[drakkar]

The reason that I considered to shut up was that I'm Norwegian and not Swedish, and maybe should wait and see if the Swedish people here answered this question. There are after all some differences between S. and N.

[covenant6452]

No drakkar! Don't shut up! How would I know I had my signature wrong if not for your help!
There are many instances in the film where the subtitles, (not trying to insult anybody, it's just a difference in interpretation) don't quite match what is being said, however the main intent has been conveyed in the best form for everyone. Now that I have been trying to learn Swedish, I can figure out more of what is actually said by the main characters and know what is missing in translation.
I heard a comment T.A. made about the U.S. messing with the subtitles and he said, and I don't quote but try to imply the same meaning "I don't get it, I thought we did a great job..."

[lombano]

Bringing up your body odor alone is a breach of manners, but a very 12 year old boy thing to do (and also Momma thing!). Then there is "Jesus Christ! What is that Stench! Is that You! I think I am going to puke!" Which is what Oskar was thinking at the time. My translation (Ebba Segerberg) of the book reads: "Is that strange smell coming from you?"

Technically it's bad manners but most 12-year old boys would have said something like "Eeeeeew! Haven't you ever heard of soap before?" I think it reflects Oskar's loneliness (and hence willingness to put up with both Eli's initial hostility and his poor personal hygiene) and his very high tolerance of weirdness.

[drakkar]

Now that I have been trying to learn Swedish, I can figure out more of what is actually said by the main characters and know what is missing in translation.

Three days ago the original (Swedish) paperback arrived
The interpretion level on this forum is way beyond the Norwegian translation...

[StefL]

How would I know I had my signature wrong if not for your help!

If we're to be REALLY detailed it's still not 100% correct. It reads "Du maste bjuda in mig", but should be "Du måste bjuda in mig"
I do realise though that this may be the result of a defective keyboard

[drakkar]

I did tell him that - and then we agreed to omit the "å"

I frequently use double a - aa - to replace the å, and then we get "Haakan" and "Du maaste bjuda in mig", which is more correct than using just an a.

[StefL]

Well if you are able to insert an å, then I can't see any reason to replace it with something else. It's one thing to transcribe for instance names when written in different languages, but when writing an entire sentence I'd still call it an error/misspelling not to use the correct characters. Not that it's particularly important and it's just my opinion