Spotted: “Inside Steve’s Head”
1:07 am, March 31st, 2009, Nicole Martinelli
Came across the Italian edition of CoM founder Leander Kahney’s book on Steve Jobs (”Inside Steve’s Brain“) the other day in a shop in Milan.
The title in Italian has been translated as “Inside Steve’s Head.” Perhaps the idea of being in his brain was considered a little too graphic?
It looks like the Spanish edition took the same route…Curious to see if there are any other differences in title translations, if you spot any, let me know…
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Apple, Cult of Mac, News, Quickies, Steve Jobs | Comment on this article
It has been translated as “Nella testa di Steve Job’s” ’cause in Italy, Brain and Head are often used as synonymous.
Roberto Mauro, on March 31st, 2009 at 1:59 am
Hi folks,
Yes, in italian a literal translation sounds like a splatter movie title or a neurology essay
I’m surprised that most italian newspapers published an article about this book. Since the birth of the iPod, Jobs has become more and more familiar to the italian press (he and Apple were absolutely nothing before that, totally not-considered despite a quite good market share). News about him and Apple became even more accurate (meaning that now at least sometimes they are correct).
Previous books by Kahney are translated in italian too, but this is the first time that I see Jobs considered as a public figure, well known by the readers (and the book to be more than something for geeks).
Cristiano Maria Gaston, on March 31st, 2009 at 2:01 am
I’ve bought Turkish version a few days ago. It’s translated as “How to be Steve Jobs”. I have no idea why they did it this way.
Merve, on March 31st, 2009 at 2:04 am
https://www.level.lt/lt/knygos/apple-smegenys-steveo-jobso-verslo-paslaptys/
looks like all european editions of the book took the same route.
this is a lithuanian one, title in english would sound smth like “brain of apple: business secrets of steve jobs”. Plus a little coincidence – book’s publisher is called “apple” too.
Ignas, on March 31st, 2009 at 2:39 am
Hi, I’m italian,
the translation is correct because in italian “the brain” is a anatomic part.
“nella testa” mean what the Steve think.
Bye
Cesare
Cesare, on March 31st, 2009 at 4:03 am
“Curious to see if there are any other differences in title translations, if you spot any, let me know.”
From any language to any other language, translating each word literally will result in a really poor translation.
Joseph, on March 31st, 2009 at 4:48 am
In Brazil, they let go this idea of inside his mind and the tittle is simply “The Head Of Steve Jobs”: http://www.submarino.com.br/produto/1/21426791/cabeca+de+steve+jobs,+a
Jorge Viani, on March 31st, 2009 at 4:50 am
Hi! I’m a frequent spanish reader of ‘Cult of Mac’
Spanish edition of “Inside Steve’s Brain” took the same route as the italian one: “En la cabeza de Steve Jobs” can be translated as “Inside Steve’s Head”; but spanish title it’s a correct translation: in spanish, talking about ‘head’ also refers to ‘ideas’ (I’ll bet it’s the same on italian: spanish and italian have same roots)
P.S.: spanish edition also has a subtitle: “La mente detrás de Apple”=”The mind behind Apple”
XabiK, on March 31st, 2009 at 5:11 am
or maybe there just isn’t any figure of speech “inside x’s brain” in italian and spanish?
Cment, on March 31st, 2009 at 6:14 am
I’m Italian and I’m reading the italian edition of this book!! it’s fine!! I like that!! In Italy we consider “Testa” just like head but like brain too!! it’s not to much different! it’s a figurative spoken lenguage!!
bye
Riccardo Carnevali
chairman of ArsConvivium http://arsconvivium.altervista.org/
kitchen professor at secondary italian school
Journalist Publicist
member and councilor of local journalism association Assorolandi http://www.assorolandi.it/
secretair of italian cooks federation
CEO of PaviaMACgroup http://paviamac.altervista.org/
riccardoCHEF, on March 31st, 2009 at 6:27 am
who cares?
staaf, on March 31st, 2009 at 8:07 am
…and here in Brazil the publishers took: A Cabeça de Steve Jobs, or “Steve Jobs’s Head”. Without the “Inside”. Head, not brain. It’s nonsense.
Moyzes, on March 31st, 2009 at 10:05 am
The translation into spanish is perfect because in our language, getting into the head of somebody means trying to understand his way of thinking, while getting into the brain of somebody is only allowed to surgeons like Derek Shepherd
emilcar, on March 31st, 2009 at 10:49 am
Translations are seldom done word to word as expressions vary from language to language. For example in my mother tongue being inside someone’s brain would not work because nobody says it that way. We’re in someone’s head in Finland unless we’re doing brain surgery. Most likely it’s the same thing in Italian and Spanish then.
Tonio, on March 31st, 2009 at 11:55 am
In portuguese as well, it was translated to “A Cabeça de Steve Jobs” or “The head of Steave Jobs”, it would sound in english as “the mind …”, meaning what he thinks. In a literal translation, people would think it would be about his actual brain, the anatomic part.
Alexandre Costa e Silva, on March 31st, 2009 at 8:03 pm
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