how to translate the right way

[Tetsuo]

Hello,

I'm from Germany and I've the problem that I do not really know how to translate words like 'Höllenschlund' which, seperated, means in English:
Höllen = hell
Schlund = gullet, abyss or throat

And how could I put the two words together or isn't it allowed? Some people told me to do it that way:
1) looking for an explanation / translation in English for both words
and then:
2) put them together that way: 'hell-gullet'

Right or wrong?

Thanks in advance,
Tetsuo

[Casiopea]

From a German rock group called "Teufelshunde":
Drum Mensch tu' recht und sei nicht schlecht; sonst holt der Teufelshund Dich in den Höllenschlund.

Translation
So do right and don't be bad; otherwise the Devil Dog will drag you into the jaws of hell.

"jaws" refers to a dangerous opening/entrance;e.g., the jaws of a shark.

Hope that helps.

Source: http://german.about.com/od/culture/a/germyth13_2.htm

[Tetsuo]

Well, that helps. Thanks!

[rewboss]

I translate professionally, and stuff like this can sometimes cause real problems.

What you should never do is try and translate word-for-word, because what you end up with nonsense. The classic book English for Runaways (the German for "runaway" is the same word as "advanced student") demonstrates this perfectly.

A native speaker, incidentally, would tell you that "hell-gullet" sounds faintly ridiculous. Luckily, in this case, English already has a very good idiom -- "jaws of hell" -- which expresses exactly what is expressed by Höllenschlund. Sometimes, though, you are not so lucky and then you're really stuck. Very often you will have to recast the sentence.