“Keep Your Heart,” “Expensive Principle,” and More Odd Google Translate Renderings of My Book Titles from Other Languages

Last updated on: April 29, 2019 at 8:30 am by Randy Alcorn

“Keep Your Heart,” “Expensive Principle,” and More Odd Google Translate Renderings of My Book Titles from Other Languages 2019-04-10T15:08:28-08:00 Randy Alcorn

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

One of my great joys is to see my books translated into languages around the world. To date, there have been translations in over seventy languages (see the full list).

Heaven for Kids in Korean It’s always interesting to see the different covers that the publishers choose, some of which are wildly different—and also sometimes better—than the original English version. Years ago I blogged about some of these covers, including the Korean Heaven for Kids, which portrays me, as the author, as an old man with a cane speaking to children. The Indonesian translation of the same book has green children on the cover.

I’m also fascinated by the titles the translators choose, wondering what exactly they mean to those who will read them. Out of curiosity, I had a couple of our EPM staff try plugging some of them into Google Translate to see what they came back as in English. Some titles are insightful, while others are downright humorous. Of course, Google Translate is a great program that can be helpful, but it can only translate words literally; it isn’t good with distinctive cultural idioms and can’t accurately convey their meaning. If you know the language you may wonder why in the world it was translated that way back into English!

The Purity Principle, translated into about twenty languages, gets some interesting results. The Turkish title translates back into English as Sexual Minority Theory; the Czech as The Principle of Cleanliness; the German as Keep Your Heart. The Indonesian title came back as the unfortunateWhat’s Wrong with Sex? (Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with it! God created and designed sex for the sacred union of marriage, and reserves it for that union. When it takes place in its proper context, God is definitely pro-sex.)

Why ProLife? in Serbian My book Why ProLife? also had some interesting translations. The Serbian title is fitting: Abortion: Right to Choice or Murder? So is the Turkish title: Do You Have a Right to Life? The translation of the Faroese (a North Germanic language with about 66,000 first-language speakers) title is Who Protects Lives?; the Estonian unfortunately came across as Why The Egg Is for Life. (Prolifers are sometimes asked, “Then why isn’t it murder to destroy a sperm or an egg?” The answer, as every scientist should know, is that there is a vast and fundamental difference between sperm and unfertilized eggs on the one hand, and fertilized eggs, or brand new unborn children, on the other. Of course, I have no idea what an Estonian reading the title in his own language would think—it might be a far better title than Google Translate makes it seem to us!)

The Treasure Principle has sold over two million copies in English and has been translated into thirty languages. The Danish title translated as Save Up in the Sky; the German as Where Your Sweetheart Is; the Latvian as Thorny Principle (another translator said Expensive Principle!).

One of my favorites is the Italian title for my novel Lord Foulgrin’s Letters, inspired by C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters. Google Translate renders it The Letters of the Count Grin of Putrid.

TouchPoints Heaven in French The French title for my small book TouchPoints: Heaven came across as Feet on the Ground, Eyes to the Sky. (Sort of an abridged version of what I’ve written about how it’s possible to be both heavenly minded and of earthly good!) I also like how the Dutch title of The Goodness of God translated as A Good God in Evil Days; or there’s the Korean title for my book Heaven, which in English is Heaven Is Like This.

What’s the point here? This is just a glimpse into the complex world of language and culture, and the fact that single words and especially word groupings are far more complex and idiomatic than dictionary definitions account for. And in every translation, there are always expressions, figures of speech, and illustrations which need to be altered, to make them culturally relevant and understandable. In fact, I’ve been contacted by a number of translators asking me if they can try to come up with their own illustrations when the English ones just don’t make sense in their culture. I always say “By all means!”

By the way, our ministry has translated lots of articles into other languages, including over 100 resources in Spanish, as well as some in French, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, and several other languages (see the full listhere). If you know someone who speaks these languages, or ministers to others who do, we invite you to share them!

“And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

Previous Post

April 25, 2019

What Does It Mean That We're "Hidden with Christ in God"?

Next Post

May 2, 2019 What About Quoting from Someone You Disagree with in Some Areas or Who Had Personal Moral Failures?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category About Me Animals Books Books and Resources Christ Christian Life Christians Past and Present Church Creation Culture and Worldview Doctrine and Theology Eternal Perspective Ministries Fun Grace and Truth Grief Happiness Heaven Marriage and Family Missions Money and Giving Persecuted Church Politics Prayer Prolife Salvation Sexual Purity Sovereignty and Free Will Suffering and Evil Uncategorized Writing

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz