This is a map of the Stockholm Metro, with the original Swedish names of all the stops translated into English. Literal translations often make for funny reading, and this map is no exception. My favourites are:
Awful Village Hospital
Exhale
A Spoon Farm
Big Bog
Clog Mountain, and of course:
Rock Star
This map was sent to me by somebody from Denmark (my mail address is in the right hand side column, suggestions are very welcome). As is well known, Danes will grasp every opportunity to ridicule their Swedish neighbours…
My vote goes for Sharp Nude.
Comment by Terry — June 4, 2007 @ 2:14 am
“Rock Star” isn’t a very literal translation, it is unlike most of the other names on the map more what the station name sounds like. “Manta Town” might be a better literal translation.
However, several subway station names do sound funny in Swedish too. I imagine most kids in Stockholm has wondered why there is a station named “Exhale”. I also note the map maker, perhaps in the interest of decency, has missed one of the more rude ones.
Comment by pompe — June 4, 2007 @ 5:08 am
Although the person that linked you to the map is Danish, the map was made by a Swedish news site (thelocal.se) with a rather interesting sense of humor.
Comment by Darrell — June 5, 2007 @ 6:25 am
[...] when you take another subway map and translate to English? Strangemaps found that if you take the Stockholm Metro map and translate to English you get some very ‘Allo, Allo’ style translations such as Baker’s Bog, Bog [...]
Pingback by aaknowledge.com » Blog Archive » Stockholm Metro Literally — June 5, 2007 @ 9:02 pm
One of the rude names pompe (comment 2) thinks of is, I presume, “Fittja” (Meadow on the map). “Fitta”, without “j” is Swedish for cunt.”Fittja” is said to mean “[damp] meadow close to water”, and it’s sometimes said that the two words have a common origin, but “fitta” is probably, less poetic, related to the word “fett” (fat).
Btw. Coffin is “Kista” in Swedish, and “kista” means coffin, but the place name is another word: Ki-sta, “sta” meaning “place (same word as English stead. What “Ki[s]” stands for I don’t know.
Comment by mats — June 7, 2007 @ 6:34 am
Corrextion: “Fittja” is Marsh on the map.
Comment by mats — June 7, 2007 @ 6:37 am
This rather spoils playing the Mornington Crescent variant with Stora Mossen as objective (and “in Spoon” is ambiguated).
Comment by nnyhav — June 8, 2007 @ 4:53 pm
The funny names are equally funny in original Swedish, except for some that are a very far stretch or incorrectly translated, like “Rock star”. I used to muse myself reading the Stockholm subway stations back in elementary.
Comment by Fredrik — June 13, 2007 @ 2:21 am
I live at Huvudsta…..Headtown.
Comment by Kuntal — June 13, 2007 @ 11:45 am
Yes, I would be happiest at Sharp Nude as well !!!!
Comment by redracer — June 16, 2007 @ 2:20 am
[...] Translated station names for Stockholm Metro. My picks are Pigeon Nest, Headtown, Clog Mountain, Raspberry Mountain, Parch Ant, Exhale, Fathertown and Sharp Nude. [...]
Pingback by Worthy Links for 20 Jun 2007 « A Mind of My Own — June 20, 2007 @ 1:28 am
Finnish people too!
I mean, ridicule swedish.
And I’ve heard that swedish make fun of norwegians.
Or. Something. Like. That.
Maybe should make something like that from the Helsinki’s metro map. (We have only 10-something stations.) (So it would be an easy job.) (So i’m not going to make it.)
Comment by P. Tusa — July 6, 2007 @ 1:10 pm
Love it. Makes me think of – I think it was a Terry Pratchett book – where he writes something like, “When explorers went out and mapped new places, they grabbed the first person they saw and pointed at landmarks, asking for the name. As a result, maps are full of names that, in their native language, translate to things like ‘I don’t know’, ‘A mountain’ and ‘Your finger, you fool’.”
Comment by Meryddian — August 23, 2007 @ 6:38 am
Actually, there is quite a tradition of this sort of thing. Beowulf, which should be Bjoeulf, is set in Denmark, Sweden, and “Geatland” (Goetaland) a country in between). We have only the Old English version of this tale, in which all the names are altered into Old English. Of course, Old English and Scandinavian weren’t as far apart then as English and Scandinavian are now.
Comment by Howard Ahmanson — September 13, 2007 @ 12:52 am
Brilliant!
As an Uppsalian rather than a Stockholmian I found this amusing. As someone said before me, Stockholm’s got really strange place names in Swedish too.
Comment by Daniel Kjellén — January 2, 2008 @ 10:11 pm
[...] für „Danderyds sjukhus“). Den ganzen Beitrag mit der übersetzten Karte gibt es hier: → Big Bog, Rock Star and other stops on the Stockholm Metro. Zum Vergleich kann man bei den Stockholmer Verkehrsbetrieben auch die → originale Karte als [...]
Pingback by Jan kann Bahn fahrn » Blog Archiv » Himbeerberg und Rufstein — March 1, 2008 @ 2:00 pm
thanks alot
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 2:49 am
thanks for this map..
good
luck
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 7:39 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 5:25 am
teşekkür ederim
Comment by yory — June 12, 2009 @ 9:35 pm
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 6:58 am