Ordets magt

Sjældent får et enkelt ord så stor betydning som det engelske ord might har haft i de seneste dages debat.

Som endnu et argument mod Christoffer Guldbrandsens 'Den hemmelige krig' tyer Forsvarsminister Søren Gade nu til at kritisere tekstningen i filmen. Han mener, at de røde lejesvende på DR fordrejer den sagesløse danskers mening ved bevidst at undlade at oversætte ordet might i sætningen "The unique Danish flag might have been seen in the prison camp - bringing in prisoners - five, six times".

Oversættelsen lød "Det særegne danske flag blev set på soldater, der afleverede fanger - fem-seks gange".

Anklagen lyder, at man ved at undlade det danske ord måske i oversættelsen får det til at lyde, som om de helt sikkert blev set.

Jeg var ikke sikker på, at jeg kunne stole 100 % på Søren Gades engelskkundskaber, så jeg skrev denne mail til Professor Charles Lock på Københavns Universitet:

Dear Professor Lock,

I believe you have told me that you would be of assistance again, should I need it.

And now I do.

"The unique Danish flag might have been seen in the prison camp - bringing in prisoners - five, six times"

This sentence is being debated heavily right now in the media. The Danish Minister of Defense argues that this sentence should be translated using the Danish word 'måske' (maybe), and not like the subtitles in the film 'The secret war':

"Det særegne danske flag blev set på soldater, der afleverede fanger - fem-seks gange".

My question is this: Does the word 'might' indicate that the Danish flag might not have been seen at all? Or does the 'uncertainty' of the word only emphasise that the speaker is not sure whether it was five or six times?

I have tried to look it up in different dictionaries, but neither could provide a clear answer, and that's why I turn to you.

I will be using this for my personal language blog, pudsigkat.dk.

Thank you very much,

Vinh Prag.

Hans svar var:

Dear Vinh,
It is a matter of placing, and getting the modular uncertainty near to the object of uncertainty. As the sentence stands 'might' might be
ambiguous: the English sentence is not well-constructed! Try this as a
paraphrase:

'The unique Danish flag was seen in the prison-camp perhaps five or six times -- whenever prisoners were brought in.'

The phrase '-- bringing in prisoners --' suggests that the flag was the agent actually doing the physical work of bringing the prisoners in.

or

'The unique Danish flag would have been seen in the prison-camp five or six times -- whenever prisoners were brought in.'

I hope that this is of some use.
Yours,
Charles

Næsten det eneste, man kan udlede af dette, er, at Chris Hogan, der i 2002 var amerikansk chef for forhørslederne i fanglejren i Kandahar, ikke har været superskarp i sin formulering, og at man derfor ikke rigtig kan bruge citatets ordlyd på hverken den ene eller den anden side af debatten...

DR's nyhedsdirektør, Henrik Keith Hansen, som Nyhedsavisen mente havde "erkendt fusk i film", udtaler sig her om sagen.

Følg den meget spændende debat (læs: mudderkastning/skænderi) på David Trads' blog, hvor også Christoffer Guldbrandsen selv udtaler sig. Her melder den yderligere debat sig om, at Guldbrandsen har klippet flere ord ud af sætningen, som oprindeligt var med endnu flere forbehold.