Your translation is exactly right!

By songun on 16 Oct 2005 at 7:14 pm

Absolutely right on the top one. The middle one is “Gay Mechanics Unite For A Better World” and the bottom one is “Wow! I’ve discovered how to make vodka from giant Rice Crispies”.

~Milady
xxx
PS: Glad to have you back. Cook something cool. Now.

By Milady de Winter on 16 Oct 2005 at 8:14 pm

I’m afraid the top one says “Gladly our bunnies cry ‘take us to the laboratories, we are glad to give our lives to SCIENCE!’”

Still, they wouldn’t fare any better with Pep.

By Phoebe Mittens on 16 Oct 2005 at 9:44 pm

I can translate (very) roughly into romanized letters for you. Rabbits:

Doh mangun ttoggi-rul keerucha!

ttoggi means rabbit. Literally ‘tto’ is rabbit, ‘ki’ or ‘gi’ is meat…. my Korean was never that great and I can’t remember (never knew) what the other words are, but I can at least confirm that rabbits are mentioned. Oh and before the pedants arrive, my romanizing of Korean is not standard.

Interestingly Tho in Vietnamese - kinda the same word(ish) as the Korean ‘tto’ but you add a tone of some sort - also means rabbit. I deduce from this that the Chinese, and maybe Japanese, word for rabbit would sound similar.

By pieman on 17 Oct 2005 at 2:56 am

Oh and there’s nothing about the yanks in any of them. Mi-guk means america, mi-guk-saram means American.

Continuing the linguistic lesson a little further. Some scholars believe the term ‘gook’ - widely used as a disparaging term for Vietnamese soldiers during the American war - comes from the American soldiers experience in the Korean war.

The soldiers arrived on the beaches of Korea and all the Korean kiddies came running to meet them shouting ‘Me-guk, me-gook’ etc. The yank soldiers thought they were speaking wank-English and that they were all called ‘gook’. Funny, but thick funny. They didn’t even know the Korean word for their own country…. Yikes.

By pieman on 17 Oct 2005 at 3:11 am

you’re right about the similarity of the word rabbit.

also in chinese(mandarin) - america= mei guo

By Nick on 17 Oct 2005 at 6:02 am

I had one of the native speakers in the office here translate for me…

(1) easy to translate: “Let’s raise more rabbits”

(2) this one is a bit fuzzy, it translates essentially to: “Like ‘Lanam’ laborers, let’s have everything strength and technology by ourselves.”
… the ‘Lanam’ part is confusing, we guessed it is a hangulized name of a place?

(3) literally: “Potato Agriculture Innovation, go on strongly, Let’s do it”

By bemocked on 17 Oct 2005 at 6:23 am

Thanks, bemocked. I’ve no idea what Lanam might be either, but as you say, it probably refers to a location.

By fraser on 17 Oct 2005 at 6:45 am

In case you don’t see comments from RSS I will post here too… I got these actually translated for you….

1. “Let’s raise more rabbits.”

2. “We have the power and technology to identify with the highest ranks!”
(background says “Independent Technological Power”)

3. “Lets all go out there and raise potatoes with the strength of agricultural science!”

My favourite is #3. Sounds like a plan. Cheers. :)

By rich pizor's GF on 17 Oct 2005 at 7:42 am

Woo. Thanks again, rich pizor’s GF.

By fraser on 17 Oct 2005 at 7:51 am

A couple of observations.

To (1) - Why?! Is this some dastardly plot to shove mini nukes up their downy butts and point them in the general direction of the US of A? Or is it simply just an attempt to diversify the DRNK’s mutt-related diet?

To (2) Directly under the wrench: those grey things *have* to be sex toys

To (3) “Raising” potatoes conjures up an interesting mental picture. Spud Creches, anyone? Tatergartens?

Whatever - nice to have you back in the UK, Fras’

By Hamish on 17 Oct 2005 at 10:39 am

I reckon the reason for number 1 has its roots in recent history, say around 1996. Those rabbits are for the pot, or I’m a monkey’s glorious leader. That’ll probably account for number 3 as well. As for number 2, I suppose it just wouldn’t be a proper totalitarian state without rousing propaganda plastered all over the place.

By Ant on 17 Oct 2005 at 12:23 pm

#1 could be a propaganda for heifers. I just so a documentary of heifers in China. who knows. Rabbit stew sounds good too.

By Nick on 20 Oct 2005 at 12:16 am

last One means ATACK Of the giant patatoes~

By Richardince on 21 Oct 2005 at 11:43 am

Picture #1 caption, says “Eat wabbit, get me for free”!

By Ian on 23 Oct 2005 at 3:20 pm

I used to have a Soviet Union propaganda poster on my wall (bought in Kiev in 1982), which translated as “Let us give our country bigger potatoes!” Your #3 brings this vividly back to mind.

By mike on 24 Oct 2005 at 3:24 pm

I love the exclamation marks on these posters!!!!!!

By John on 03 Nov 2005 at 2:30 am

[...] After a quick sojourn to the foreign language bookshop to procure some social-realist posters, we’re finally able to take take photographs of something that, for the more hot-blooded heterosexuals on the tour, has been a continued highlight. With Pyongyang suffering sporadic power outages, traffic lights are shut down during daylight hours, handing control to a team of uniformed girls who spin and whirl and twirl and direct the cars with near-military precision. We’re continually waving at the girls from the window of the bus, but most of the time they remain stern and tight-lipped, only a couple breaking rank and returning greetings. At one point Mr Lee asks what our fascination is with the ‘traffic ladies’. One can only imagine that the novelty wears off after thirty years or so. [...]

By blogjam » Blog Archive » North Korea - Day Four on 13 Nov 2005 at 11:43 pm

Lubbish, the posters say the forrowing

1) Ret us murtipry rike labbits and subtlact rike the brack Yankee dogs !!!

2) The backglound: Ervis is in the buirding !!!

The foreglound: The Gleat Reader is Ervis Plesry and The Dear Reader is Michaer Jackson !!!!

3) The backglound: Juche cleated the potatoe bud !!!
The foreglound: The Gleat Juche potatoe buds makes the leal Budweiser !!

By Mr. Lee on 14 Nov 2005 at 3:51 pm

Better late than never. Number one: Go and multiply like rabbits! We need the manpower!

Or am I just thick…

By MS on 07 Feb 2007 at 8:08 pm

Edit: *being thick… Sorry ghehehe

By MS on 07 Feb 2007 at 8:10 pm

#1 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6250000/newsid_6258100/6258175.stm?bw=nb&mp=wm

Thought you all might like this…ran acrossed it the other day and I’ve been squirming to poste it somewhere. What a fit!

Incidentally, during a trip to N. Korea in 2001, I was told by one of the other linguists that on one of the first trips he had made (1999? 2000?), he and the other linguists found it odd that they could hear no birds out in the country. Times were very tough, indeed…

By Patrick on 11 Feb 2007 at 9:23 am

Very, very nice work! Thak you.

By Carson Brown on 27 Aug 2007 at 5:27 pm

Thank you!

By Gabriel Borges on 28 Aug 2007 at 10:15 am