Foreign Languages In The Indiana Jones Trilogy

This may have been posted before, but I speak very fluent Hindi and a smattering of Chinese and, believe it or not, it's only JUST occurred to me staggering amount of foreign language is in the "Indiana Jones" trilogy and how it isn't subtitled!

While it is totally apparent that people don't NEED to know what the non-English-speaking characters are saying to enjoy the film, I would have say that the amount of cool non-English dialogue in the movies means that many fans do miss out!

For instance, the when Mola Ram orders Indy and Short Round to be whipped in "Temple of Doom", his dialogue is: "maro maro suar ko, chamdi neecho peelo koon" which translates (literally) as "strike and strike that pig again! Tear his skin and drink his blood!".

In fact out of all of the movies, "Temple of Doom" amazes me in that it has very long sequences with absolutely no English at all. Of course I've only JUST realized this because, previously, I was always able to understand ALL of the dialogue in that movie!

Just something interesting I've realized. I'm quite amazed and impressed at the guts it takes to make three films with so much non-english dialogue and still make the story clear and understandable.

Fantastic filmmaking!

 

Cool post. I'm very interested in what some of the other dialogue might be.

 

There are some great posts in this thread by Jedi_Humaira_Blaine regarding the language(s) In Temple of Doom too.

 

That's a very interesting thread! Actually the post is half-right! The language isn't all Shingalese. Some of the actors in the village speak the Sri Lankan dialect, but a couple actually speak Hindi and all of the languages spoken in Pankot Palace and in the Temple of Doom is in Hindi.

There is a slight crossover in vocabulary between the two languages however which probably explains I can understand SOME of the Shingalese dialect.


When Mola Ram is about to pull out the sacrifice-guy's heart:

"Bali mangthi Kali Ma! Shakti degi Kali ma! Kali Ma! Kali Ma, Shakti Deh!"

"Mother Kali wants a sacrifice! Mother Kali will give us power! Mother Kali! Mother Kali, give us power!" Incidentally Kali means "black" in Hindi.


What the sacrifice victim is chanting:

"Om namah shivay! Om namah shivay! (repeated)"

This is basically a prayer to Shiva and one of the most basic prayers in Hinduism. In terms of the context of the scene, it would be the same as someone chanting The Lord's Prayer as a final last ditch defense against evil. The prayer is broken into three parts - "Om" which is the most holiest word in the Hindu/Sanskrit culture (Hindus believe Om is the vibratory sound that occured during the Big Bang and that molecules in the universe oscillate at the same frequency as that sound), "Namah" which is a holy punctuation very similar to "amen" and "Shivay" which is a stylization of the word "Shiva" which of course is the Hindu god of Destruction and the God that the villagers in the movie pray to.


Indy telling his elephant guides to stop when they come across the Kali statue:

"Abhi Roko!"

"Stop for now!"


Elephant guide freaking out at the Kali statue:

"Vinasya! Maha vinasya!"

"Protect us! God protect us!"


When Mola Ram is hanging off the bridge and instructing his men to fire on Indy.

"Mere sipayos! Isko patheerda chalao!"

"My soldiers! Fire arrows at him!"


Words spoken by Indy when Indy and Mola Ram are battling for the stones on the fallen bridge.

"You betrayed Shiva! Thum Shiva Ke Vishwasth Karthe Ho! You betrayed Shiva!"

"You betrayed Shiva! You believe in Shiva! You betrayed Shiva!" This may be a strange sort of thing to say I suppose, but I think the intention is that Indy is accusing Mola Ram of not only betraying Shiva, but taht in betraying Shiva he acknowledges Shiva's power, which I suppose could be enough to activate the stones.

 

Cool, I always wondered what wass being said in those scenes and the translations you gave give a better understanding of what was happening...I second Gobi-1, great post!

 

I always wondered what the diggers in the scene where Indy and Sallah found the Ark...it always sounded like to me that they were saying 'allah Ark to Berlin' or something like that...does anyone know what I'm talking about?

 

You may have to find someone who speaks Egyptian to translate that for ya. Are you referring to the digging-song?

 

yeah, that's the one.