Help Us And Get Two Books! How Do You Say "The No Asshole Rule" In Spanish?

One of the most entertaining parts of working on The No Asshole Rule is the challenge of translating the title into other languages.  The trick is to find the phrase or term that may not be a literal translation, but that is the best "cultural" translation.   For example, most Germans I know seem to think that Der Arschloch-Faktor  is the right translation, although I did get one comment that the implications were a bit too strong, that asshole is a nastier word in German than in English.

I also had an incredibly fun dinner at the Frankfurt book fair in October with a group of book buyers from Asia. The folks from Amazon Japan had great fun talking about the right term to use in Japanese, and although they considered other words, they agreed that something with the word baka was perfect.  A translator wrote me that it means "horse-deer", and is "the ultimate and all-purpose insult for stupidity." She also suggested hirame (flatfish/turbot/flounder who's eyes rotate to the top side so it can only see above itself, not below), "slang for someone who sees only up the hierarchy."  I know there is interest in Japan, and the English version will be sold widely there, but I don't know if the title will include "baka."  In addition, the French translation rights were just sold, and my charming editor there Geoff Staines tells me that the translation is done, the book will appear in March,  and he will be sending me a cover picture soon (and then I will get to find out what they call it too). The trick here, as you can see, is to come up with a word that translates culturally, not literally, like baka.  This brings us to the Spanish translation.  I got word from my literary agents that:

“Your Spanish publisher is struggling a bit with how to translate the title and has asked how it's been translated in other languages. I'm going to send them the other title translations, and ask our Spanish agent for her thoughts, but if you or Don [she means Don Lamm, my main agent along with Christy Fletcher] have particular thoughts about the Spanish use of "asshole" please do let me know.”  

Don Lamm checked around (he is an amazing guy with about 50 years in the business; Don has only been an agent for a few years and was CEO of W.W. Norton before that), and wrote back “The best street linguist I know in  Santa Fe  came up with this:  Qulone.  It may, however, not carry over from Mexican to Iberian Spanish.”

So that is where we are at right now: Clearly, we need some help. Calling all Spanish speakers! What is the right cultural translation for “The No Asshole Rule?”

I’ll offer an incentive: a free copy of both the English and Spanish versions of the book to the first five people who make suggestions (post the suggestion as a comment on my blog, to get conversation started, but email me your address so I can pre-order your books).

We look forward to your ideas.

Comments

[juan carlos vargas]

ASSHOLE CULERO

LA REGLA DE NO DE LOS CULEROS

THIS WORD IS ONE OFF THE ONLY ONE
IN ENGLISH EN SPANISH THAT MEANS THE SAME

[Bob Sutton]

Diego,

This is astounding. It is like a doctoral thesis. THANKS

Bob

[Diego Rodriguez]

Bob,

I think you should be able to find a Spanish version of the title, but I think you have a challenge in terms of getting the idiomatic fit. I asked a Spanish friend of mine (my uncle), and he said the following:

"Desde luego, absolutamente, para España, no sirve lo de "pendejo".

Si no se quiere utilizar gilipollas, podría usarse la palabra
tradicional de "idiota" o "imbécil".

Curiosamentes, estás palabras, que al igual que gilipollas son ahora
insultos, vienen de una degradación del uso de la palabra médica
"idiocia", de donde se deriva "idiota".

Ahora me entra la duda añadida de si "Rule" se emplea no como "regla" o
"norma", sino como "ruling" o sea, del hecho de "gobernar", "dominar"?

El autor del libro debe asumir, pienso, distintos títulos para américa
latina y para España. En España no sirve "pendejo" que es más bien el
aficionado a irse de juerga, pero sirve "idiota", "estúpido", "imbécil",
y desde luego, si se es más valiente, "gilipollas".
Desde luego, "polla" viene de "cock", y en ocasiones, cuando no se
quiere decir "gilipollas" se tiene a decir "gilipuertas", pero eso ya es
muy, muy idiomático.

He leido algunos de los ejemplos, y lo que definen ahí como asshole, más
que un gilipollas es un "hijo de puta", "son of a bitch", pero eso ya es
muy fuerte."

So, something like "pendejo" won't work in Spain, but might work for Latin America. He suggested "gilipollas" as the term in lieu of asshole, but it's stronger, maybe too strong. If you can localize (and there's a strong argument for that move), you could put pendejo for the Americas and gilipollas for Europe.

Are you open to changing the cover art? A great suggestion from a wise person I know (of Cuban and Venezuelan extraction) would be to put "gilipollas" or whatever the word is on the cover with the international "no" symbol (as in Ghostbusters) over it.

Did you hear the one about the guy who entered an asshole contest? The best he could do was a distant second place, because all the judges felt he was such an asshole!

[Bob Sutton]

I want to thank everyone, I have learned a huge amount from all the comments, you have all been so thoughtful.

I have a question: What do people think of Alejandro's suggestion that my Spanish publisher just call it "The No Asshole Rule" or keep the word asshole somehow?

[Alejandro Fritz]

...late to get the books but anyway.

1. Slang is always local (at least in spanish). So, there will be no single way to translate it nicely for more than one market.

2. It is always *much* nicer to have a rather neutral translation (even if it misses the point a bit) than the perfect local one for a country that is not yours. This goes in the direction already mentioned of estúpido, tarado, idiota, etc.

3. English is welcomed in most of the spanish speaking countries business communities, is part of the business culture, and everybody knows what an asshole is, why not keep the english word somehow?

p.d. I am argentinian, live in Spain and travelled most of latin america.

[nraynaud]

Les > "Il pète plus haut que son CUL"

"cul" means "ass" simply.

"connard" is an insult, nothing to do with body part.

I wish you "suerte" in your search for a spanish title, I won't propose anything since I learned spanish in Argentina albeit I'm French.

[Les]

The Hirame bit above had me recall some of the (limited) French terms I use well (basically, I speak restaurant in most languages and have had reason to call upon this phrase in discussing a waiter's behavior to the management). "Il pète plus haut que son connard" I believe translates as "he farts higher than his asshole"

[PlanMaestro]

A politically correct option and I think works in most countries is "Cretino"

[Troy Richardson]

I like "Sin Pendejos", but the alliteration part of me would go for:

Pendejos No Permitido.

Maybe one is closer than the other, but I believe the one is implying there are none and the other gives more of a directive of non allowance.

webregs [at] gmail [dot] com

[PlanMaestro]

Pendejo is too strong in Mexico, and means something else in Chile (annoying boy).

[Maureen Rogers]

Roberto - I believe that pendejo is the operative word.

Que lastima (what a shame) as we used to say in junior high spanish, that I am not among the first five in responding. But I will be buying the book -in English - anyway.

When I was hitchhiking through Spain many years ago, a key expression was "que pendejo" - what an asshole. I think that's the word you're looking for.

[Bob Sutton]

All,

THANK YOU. If you haven't sent me your address yet, please do so. Thanks!

[rob clark]

sin pendejos would be the best translation for the title

[Pascal Venier]

I could only offer my take on French, my mother tongue.

"Trou du cul" would be the literal translation of ass-hole in French, but would not convey the same nuances. "Con" would be much better. Its literal translation in English would be "cunt", but it is nowhere has rude a the English term and has come to mean something very close to asshole or jerk.

Please do pardon my French! ;^)

[Federico]

Pendejo might be a bit too strong for some but I guess the same goes for asshole. Other alternative translation could be estúpido, idiota or asno but those lean more towards dumb rather than asshole.

As for the whole title, LA REGLA DE NO A LOS PENDEJOS sounds awful. Perhaps just simply 'SIN PENDEJOS' or 'NO A LOS PENDEJOS' or any other variation using the previous suggested translations for asshole. LA LEY DE NO TENER PENDEJOS?

[David Bachman]

"Pendejo", without a doubt. It would certainly work in Latin America.