Ready To Comply: The Google Translate Soldier

Ready to Comply: The Google Translate Soldier

Who here doesn’t like some good old Winter Soldier angst? Raise your hands. Now leave, this post is not for you.

Just kidding. Stay if you want. But be warned: it may get a teeny bit angsty.

Okay, so, we all know The Phrase. We’ve had this phrase destroy our souls again and again, in the canon, in fanfiction, in our unruly daydreams about the beauty and tragedy of a certain brainwashed supersoldier.

Oh god. The feels. But on we go.

I want desperately to use this phrase in my fics for obvious angst purposes, but here’s the thing: I’m a native Russian speaker and a professional translator, and the Russian version of the phrase from the movie is cutting my heart into tiny miserable pieces every time I think about it. (Which is, admittedly, A LOT.)

So, what is wrong with it?

In Captain America: Civil War, we hear Bucky say in an accent heavier than his metal arm, “я готов отвечать” [“ya gotov otvechat’”], after being put into the mindless killer machine mode by a bunch of horribly mangled Russian words and phrases. According to the subtitles, it means “ready to comply.”

Except that it doesn’t. The Russian verb “отвечать” [“otvechat’”] has a range of meanings, from “to reply” to “to account for” and so on. The only context in which it can correspond to the English verb “to comply” is when talking about a gas pipe complying with safety requirements or a rant post complying with Tumblr community guidelines.

So, “я готов отвечать” can mean something like “I’m ready to answer [your questions]” or “I’m ready to assume responsibility [for something],” turning the scene into some kind of an interrogation or an investigation, while we all know that it’s neither.

There’s another version, straight from our dear Google Translate.

(I love Google Translate so much. It always proves that the need for human translators will never cease.)

What’s wrong with this one? Well, “я готов подчиниться” [“ya gotov podchinit’sya”] is much better in terms of word choice. The Russian verb “подчиниться” [“podchinit’sya”] does, indeed, mean “to obey, to submit, to surrender” and so on. The problem is with the verb form.

Verbs in Russian have two aspects: the perfective aspect, which indicates a one-time action, and the imperfective aspect, which points to a more ongoing kind of thing. Unaware of the context, Google Translate uses the perfective aspect, which turns the phrase into “I’m ready to comply, but only just this once, don’t bother me after that.”

The proper form would be “подчиняться” [“podchinyat’sya”] instead of “подчиниться” [“podchinit’sya”] (yes, it’s a one letter difference, but see how huge it is?). The whole phrase would then be “я готов подчиняться” [“ya gotov podchinyat’sya”], which might even pass for an adequate translation.

But there’s one more thing.

The English phrase doesn’t have a first-person pronoun. In fact, it doesn’t have any pronoun at all. It doesn’t indicate the speaker in any way, because the one saying it isn’t supposed to be a person. The ‘who’ here isn’t important. What is important, is that whoever (or whatever) it is, is ready.

Here, have a tissue.

The Russian phrase, however, begins with “Я” [“Ya”], which means, unsurprisingly, “I” and is not syntactically mandatory in this case. Just like in English.

Moreover, it doesn’t figure much in standard military expressions. Why waste precious army time on such meaningless things as personal pronouns? Again, there are no persons here. Only soldiers.

My personal favorite for rendering “ready to comply” in Russian is “готов служить” [“gotov sluzhit’”], which means “ready to serve” as in “to serve one’s country.” Or one’s captors. Take your pick.

Oh wait, you’re not allowed to choose. Sorry.

The pros for this version are: it’s a standard phrase that indicates one’s willingness to obey and submit and is primarily used in the military context. Moreover, it’s a standard Russian phrase, and seeing Bucky utter it like some common Soviet private would be so much more heartbreaking. (Yes, even more.)

The cons are: it’s a standard phrase. As far as I understand, “ready to comply” isn’t standard military lingo, so maybe the Russian version should reflect that as well. Or maybe I’m overthinking it.

In conclusion? Marvel couldn’t splurge on an actual Russian speaker to proofread a couple of sentences, and now I’m forever torn between wanting a phrase that sounds like idiomatic Russian instead of machine translation and wanting to make a recognizable fandom reference.

Fandom life is hard, people.

For the Love of the Game - Masterlist

Pairing: College Athlete!Bucky x Reader

Summary: Bucky Barnes was a menace. NYU’s top baseball player, he was used to girls falling at his feet and could smooth talk his way out of just about anything. You hated him. He couldn’t figure out why. So when the novelty of weekend parties and quick hookups finally wore off—and his feelings for you began to grow—he made it his mission to fix it.

Warnings: Mentions of alcohol/drinking, Mild language, Angst, Minor injury, Smut (Minors dni, marked with **), Enemies to lovers trope!

a/n: This series is now complete :)

✶ Part One ✶

✶ Part Two ✶

✶ Part Three ✶

✶ Part Four ✶

✶ Part Five ✶

✶ Part Six ✶

✶ Part Seven ✶

Drabbles/One-shots (chronological after the main series, excluding the prequel)

Bucky realizing he’s falling in love. Prequel one-shot.

First time**

The fight

Bucky gets injured during a game

Going pro

What You’ve Got

In seven years

💙⚾️Playlist by @buckystarlight

8K notes View Post

s0larst0rm555

3 years ago

This is your friendly, very firm daily reminder that the tags ‘no archive warnings apply’ and ‘creator chose not to use archive warnings’ are NOT the same thing.

‘No archive warnings apply’ means that your fic does not fall under the category of R*pe/non con, Graphic violence, Major character death, or Underage relationships.

‘Creator chose not to use archive warnings’ means that either you do have one of the four official archive warnings that apply to your fic and you didn’t want to spoil it, or you’re not sure whether your fic falls under any of the official warnings or not.

If your fic has underage, r*pe/non con, a major character death, and/or graphic violence, DO NOT TAG AS ‘NO ARCHIVE WARNINGS APPLY.’ Even if you want to avoid spoilers or you added the warnings in the tags, this is still the wrong thing to do. People that get triggered (or just plain and simple don’t want to read content that falls under the warnings) filter by ‘No Archive Warnings Apply’. They want to avoid a situation where they hurt themselves because they consumed certain content. AO3’s phenomenal filtering system helps with this tremendously, so authors, let’s actually use it, please.

Simply put: do not ever tag something that might fall under an archive warning as ‘no archive warnings apply’. ever.

‘But I included trigger warnings in the beginning notes.’ is something you need to to do in addition to properly tagging it. There is no reason for you to want to tag it ‘no archive warnings apply’ when they do apply.

‘But the warning (ex: major character death) will spoil the fic!’ Okay. Here is what you do: you tag it as ‘Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings.’ Next, add ‘read notes for trigger warnings’ to the Additional Tags section. Then, in your end notes, explain the trigger warnings. In your beginning notes, say ‘Read end notes for trigger warnings (contain spoilers).’ AO3 automatically has a link for people to skip the fic and go to the end notes and check. People can choose for themselves if they want to walk in blindly or have the warning first. They can exit if they see something that bothers them. This avoids spoilers and yet takes the precautions of avoiding triggering your reader.

It’s not that hard. Be courteous.

800 notes View Post

s0larst0rm555

3 years ago

not sure if you could do this but could you write headcaons or just a list of things that loki finds attractive about his y/n

Ok had to do this one right away

Things Loki finds attractive

He likes how you think his magic is amazing no matter what he does

He likes it when you lead the way

He likes it when you teach him new things

When you still look at him and only him even in a room full of people

He loves how proud you look when you introduce him as your lover

When you try to get his attention all the time

When you kiss him good luck before any mission

He loves how you take care of him when he shifts into tiny beings

When you caress his face gently

Your scent, your natural scent when you just woke up and he can’t just get enough of it

He likes that you care for his opinion

When you play with his necktie

When you play with jewelry/accessories he gift you because it means you’re thinking about him

When you let yourself be vulnerable with him, completely trust and relay on him

When you call him beautiful or breath taking and actually mean it

When you look him in the eyes with those soft soft looks that make him weak

Your giggles at his jokes or sarcasm

When you latch onto him if something frighten you or call for his help {he likes to be the hero}

The way you take his teasing but easily can shut him down with praise and kisses

333 notes View Post

s0larst0rm555

3 years ago

There’s fanfiction…. And then there’s FANFICTION. The kind of shit you happen upon at like 3am or some other ungodly time because you were trying to find a fix for ur fixation at the time and you are just SUCKED IN and every sentence feels like a line of cocaine and it has quotes and imagery that permeate your brain and it’s the shit that sticks around in your consciousness forever and it never goes away and it’s always going to be one of Those Fics.

62K notes View Post

s0larst0rm555

3 years ago

Lol we finally came out the official introduction

Tizzberg is an online social community website for people who have untold stories in their heads. By pretending to be one of the characters you created, we talk and share our inner worlds, engage with others’ stories, and explore ourselves through our imaginations. We commit to building a warm and nice community for every solitary soul - Welcome to Tizzeberg!

18 notes View Post

s0larst0rm555

3 years ago

in batman 2022 bruce wayne's parents were killed in 2001 he would have been like 10? i think. the black parade was released in 2006 when he would have been ambiguously high school aged and obviously very emo and unpopular. what i'm saying here is that i think battinson heard the lyrics "when i was a young boy my father took me into the city to see a marching band he said son when you grow up will you be the savior of the broken, the beaten, and the damned" and decided to become batman then and there.