MetaChat - How would you say "dark forest" in other languages?

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20 June 2008

How would you say "dark forest" in other languages? →[More:]Thank you for enabling my self-preoccupation.

post by: DarkForest at: 19:36 | 29 comments

En francais = le foret noir

posted by Lipstick Thespian 20 June | 19:54

Literally--"गहरा जंगल: Gehra Jungle".

posted by hadjiboy 20 June | 19:56

arkday orestfay

posted by box 20 June | 19:58

In French it could also be les bois noir, which is kinda cool since it resembles bête noire.

posted by BoringPostcards 20 June | 20:05

गहरा जंगल

Thanks, hadjiboy. I like exotic fonts (it's exotic to me anyway). Maybe I should practice signing my name that way.

posted by DarkForest 20 June | 20:29

暗いな森

kurai na mori

(Japanese)

posted by gomichild 20 June | 21:19

тёмный лес - tyomni les (Russian)

pime mets (Estonian)

posted by Daniel Charms 20 June | 23:17

I'd go with la forêt ténébreuse in French... more of a shadowy, creepy connotation, no?

But if you went with bois it would be le bois, singular in this context... and forêt is feminine, so la forêt.

posted by loiseau 20 June | 23:28

In Spanish, it's coño peligroso.

posted by Eideteker 20 June | 23:44

Oops, excuse me. Ruidoso, not peligroso.

posted by Eideteker 20 June | 23:45

I'd go with la forêt ténébreuse in French

Hmmm, an Italian movie I like is called Tenebre and I never knew exactly what it meant... these all being romance languages, do you think the title means "Darkness"?

posted by BoringPostcards 20 June | 23:47

Schwarzwald in german, I think. (lit. "black forest")

posted by Meatbomb 21 June | 00:12

I think it's mörka skogen in Swedish. And perhaps bosco oscuro in Italian, unless you want to allude to Dante, in which case, selva oscura.

posted by misteraitch 21 June | 01:46

Schwarzwald in german, I think. (lit. "black forest")

Another translation would be der Dunkelwald (lit. "dark forest").

posted by cmonkey 21 June | 01:57

Het duistere woud = Dutch

posted by jouke 21 June | 02:02

Greek:

σκοτεινός δάσος

skotinose dasos, maybe, transliterated

SkohteenOSE THAHsose

(pronounce the "Th" as soft - as in "the")

posted by taz 21 June | 02:26

In Hungarian, literally sötét erdő but sűrű erdő (thick forest) is a stock phrase you find in fairy tales and songs.

In Russian, тёмный лес, which is literal (and also a stock phrase in tales.)

In Finnish, tumma metsä.

posted by Wolfdog 21 June | 05:33

Hmmm, an Italian movie I like is called Tenebre and I never knew exactly what it meant... these all being romance languages, do you think the title means "Darkness"?

Yup. For example, Il Principe delle Tenebre would be "the Prince of Darkness".

My first thought was la foresta scura, but if you're going for the more mysterous, hint-of-evil connotation, it would be la foresta tenebrosa I think.

posted by romakimmy 21 June | 05:37

unless you want to allude to Dante, in which case, selva oscura

Actually, I was thinking of exactly that when I chose the name.

Midway in the journey of our life
I came to myself in a dark wood,
for the straight way was lost.
Ah, how hard it is to tell
the nature of that wood, savage, dense and harsh --
the very thought of it renews my fear!

Yeah, that's me all over. So selva oscura it is.

Thanks, everyone!

posted by DarkForest 21 June | 05:38

Plate of Beans Addendum: Il Principe delle Tenebre literally would be "the Prince of Darknesses or maybe "the Prince of All Darkness(es)", since tenebre is plural; tenebra is the singular form.

posted by romakimmy 21 June | 05:41

(Or in Finnish pimeä metsä, more sort of darkness-of-night dark rather than deep-thick-and-dark and more the stock phrase; I see now on preview that Daniel Charms has already been there, essentially.)

posted by Wolfdog 21 June | 05:44

In Spanish, it's coño peligroso.
posted by Eideteker 20 June | 23:44
Oops, excuse me. Ruidoso, not peligroso.
posted by Eideteker 20 June | 23:45

that's not very nice. coño definitely doesn't mean forest. asking for coño when looking for the rainforest is a good way to get your ass kicked.

In Spanish, bosque is forest so dark forest would be bosque obscuro.

posted by birdherder 21 June | 07:45

latvian: tumsa mežs (toomsa mej, with the j as in Jolie)

posted by UbuRoivas 21 June | 08:28

Thanks for the flag, birdherder. Fortunately I was able to cancel my t-shirt order for "coño peligroso". I had to look it up on google translate to see what it meant.

posted by DarkForest 21 June | 08:43

Floresta escura in Portuguese, literally.

posted by msali 21 June | 08:49

a coño peligroso sounds like fun, but it's all coño obscuro at the moment.

posted by UbuRoivas 21 June | 08:56

wolfdog: In Finnish, tumma metsä.

holy shit, did the finns & latvians both borrow from the russian, or something? because they're completely different language groups. *PAGES LANGUAGEHAT*

posted by UbuRoivas 21 June | 09:02

In Chinese, black forest is 黒森林 (hei¹ sen¹lin²)

posted by casarkos 21 June | 09:36

Spanish: it's actually spelled bosque oscuro, no b in the second word.

posted by Stewriffic 21 June | 13:39

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