As Mr Neville, my English teacher, was fond of saying: Irony, it's good for your blood.

(Stephen King, Fairy Tale, 2022)

Auch in Carpe Jugulum gab es wieder einiges, das schwierig und mindestens eins, das meiner Ansicht nach unmöglich zu übersetzen ist. Ich lasse mich allerdings gerne belehren.

'Oh, I don't know, I really don't,' said Nanny. 'I mean, it's flattering and everything, but I really don't think I could be goin' out with a man with a limp.'
'Limp what?'
Nanny Ogg had always considered herself unshockable, but there's no such thing. Shocks can come from unexpected directions.

(Terry Pratchett, aus: Carpe Jugulum, 1998)

Natürlich wimmelte es in 'Pyramids' wieder von Wortspielen, von denen mindestens zwei ziemlich unübersetzbar sein sollten:

There was always someone back home who wanted to be certain that deposed monarchs stayed that way. It was usually a case of heir today, gone tomorrow.
.
(Priests were metal-reinforced overshoes. They saved your soles. This is an Assassin joke.)

(Aus: Terry Pratchett, Pyramids, 1988)

"Good. There are a few matters to which you must attend. In my secretary is a secret drawer."
Here we must interrupt to make it clear that this usage of "secretary" referred to a sort of desk, not the individual who had just left the room and whose drawers, secret or otherwise, form no part of this history.

(Steven Brust, aus: The Baron of Magister Valley, 2020)
.
.
Okay, das Wortspiel ist vielleicht halb übersetzbar - der Teil mit dem Sekretär ist ja kein Problem. Aber bei 'drawers' wäre ich ratlos. Vielleicht "Laden"? Aber dann wäre es nicht mehr so witzig ...

Wiedergelesen:

Lawrence Block, A Long Line of Dead Men

Das Buch mit dem vielleicht ungewöhnlichstem Plot von allen fasziniert mich immer wieder, auch weil die Identität des Mörders so unerwartet und doch so logisch erscheint. Und auch der Schluß ist völlig anders als zu erwarten war und lässt das Buch vollends aus der Reihe tanzen. Diesmal schaffte ich es von Anfang bis Ende bei meiner Taschenbuchausgabe zu bleiben. Leicht war es aber nicht.

Einen unübersetzbaren Witz wollte ich endlich mal hier festhalten, neben einem anderen Zitat:
.

"God, it's such a guy thing," Elaine said. "Thirty-one grown men sitting around wooden tables eating meat and checking for chest pains. You can just about smell the testosterone, can't you?"
"I'm beginning to understand why they didn't tell their wives about it."
"I'm not putting it down," she insisted. "I'm just pointing out, how intrinsically masculine the whole thing is. Keeping it all a secret, only seeing each other once a year, talking solemnly about Important Subjects. Can you imagine the whole club composed of women?"
"It would drive the restaurant crazy," I said. "Thirty-one separate checks."
.
We were in our apartment now. "I don't know," she said, slipping both arms around my waist. "What's the difference between mashed potatoes and pea soup?"
"Anybody can mash potatoes."
"I already told you that one, huh?"
.

(Lawrence Block, A long line of dead men, 1994)

(Frank setzt sich in seinen Sessel und steht direkt wieder auf)

Frank: "AUGH! I'm covered in CAT Hair!"
Mooch: "That's why it's called FURniture."

(Patrick McDonnell, "Mutts 9 - Dog-Eared", 2004)

Also den Job die Mutts Comicbände zu übersetzen möchte ich um keinen Preis haben. Auch in dem neunten Band jagen sich die Wortspiele und unübersetzbaren Insidergags - wer sich das nicht im Original antut, ist selbst schuld. Ich bin schon glücklich, daß McDonnell es immer noch schafft die Serie weiterhin so witzig zu halten ...

Mary Crawford kommt in Jane Austens Mansfield Park ziemlich schlecht weg, aber dafür schreibt sie recht witzige Briefe:

"..From all that I hear and guess, Baron Wildenheim's attentions to Julia continue, but I do not know that he has any serious encouragement. She ought to do better.
A poor honourable is no catch, and I cannot imagine any liking in the case, for take away his rants, and the poor baron has nothing. What a difference a vowel makes!
If his rents were but equal to his rants! .."

(Jane Austen, "Mansfield Park", 1814)