Translating an Idiom: «آبرو» and the Limits of Literal Rendering
An HSC candidate is translating a Persian sentence into Odia and English: «او با کارش آبروی خانواده را برد.» The four options are: A «He took the family's water with his work»; B «He disgraced the family by his action»; C «He earned water for the family»; D «He carried the family's reputation with his work.» The candidate chooses D, reasoning that آبرو means «reputation» and بردن means «to carry», so the sentence should be «carried the family's reputation.» The teacher marks D wrong and B correct. The candidate protests that D preserves both dictionary meanings and sounds more formal. The passage context is a neighbour's comment after a son refuses to repay a small loan, so the family's social standing is damaged, not transported. The candidate has eight minutes to revise and must give one Odia and one English version.
1. Why is B correct despite D's apparently accurate word meanings?
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Because آبرو را بردن is a compound idiom, not a sum of dictionary meanings. «آبرو» means reputation or face; «بردن» as a light verb here means to take away or destroy, not to carry. The idiom means to disgrace or to ruin someone's reputation. D treats «بردن» literally as «carry» and reverses the idiom's effect: carrying a reputation suggests preserving or bearing it, while the context - a refused loan - shows damage. B captures the idiomatic meaning and fits the neighbour's judgment.
2. Explain the false-friend trap in D and how a candidate can avoid it under time pressure.
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The trap is reputation + carry = plausible English, but Persian compound verbs often select a light verb whose literal sense is misleading. The test is the object: «آبرو» is not a physical thing that can be carried; it is a social value that can be taken away. A candidate should check whether verb + abstract noun forms a known idiom, and use context: a refused loan produces shame, not transport. When literal and idiomatic readings conflict, the context decides.
3. Give one Odia and one English translation that preserve register.
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English: «By his action he brought disgrace on the family.» Odia: «ସେ ତାଙ୍କ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟ ଦ୍ୱାରା ପରିବାରର ମାନସମ୍ମାନ ନଷ୍ଟ କରିଦେଲେ।» Both versions keep the public, social sense of «آبرو» and the causal force of «با کارش». They avoid the literal «water» and the misleading «carried» while preserving the formal register of a neighbour's moral comment.