Help with a phrase in Indy3 (for a fan translation)

[glorifindel]

Hi, I am translating Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (The Adventure Game) and I am looking for a little help with a phrase of Indy during the dialogue with Donovan in the very beginning of the game:

You'll have to be the judge of that. It seems a bit unfair to catch the lad coming and going.

I don't understand who is referred as "lad" (prof. Mulbray or the geologist/archaeologist?) and what "coming and going" means, it's a english proberb or something like that? Could you tell me this phrase in another way? Thanks.

 

This is the complete dialogue:

Remember last month, Prof. Mulbray asked you to date that expensive Mexican statue he'd bought?

 

Why yes - that cheap imitation. Of course, he didn't believe me until I broke it in half to show him the cross section.

 

That may have been a bit harsh, considering his situation!

 

Why Marcus, have you lost your sense of humor?

 

You'll have to be the judge of that. It seems a bit unfair to catch the lad coming and going.

 

Unfair? How could you say that?

 

You see, we've hired a new geologist who fancies himself quite the archaeologist. He advised Mulbray to buy that statue.

(sorry for my english, I'm from Italy)

[elTee]

'Lad' simply means boy or young man. It's a less formal term. It doesn't have to refer to a younger person as such, but that's the general meaning. Here I think it's used in a slightly (slightly!) derogatory sense.

 

'Coming and going' probably just means that Mulbray isn't an expert (in this instance).

 

Either way what I think it means is a bit of a dig at the guy who knows less about archaeology than Indy and Marcus.

[Gabez]

Buon giorno,

 

I must admit that the diaolougue is a bit confusing. "Lad" is usually used for young people who are lower in status than the speaker, which would fit the "new geologist" and not the Proffesor - but the geologist hasn't been brought into the conversation at that point. My guess, therefore, is the Proffesor, for grammatical reasons alone.

 

As for "coming and going" - I'm not at all sure what this refers to. People use it in a literal sense - for example "the delivery men were coming and going all morning" means the men were kept coming back to drop things off.

 

I also don't know what the Proffesor's "situation" is. I suppose the characters are supposed to be talking about things that the audience doesn't know about, in the way that people often talk.

 

I suppose you could replace "It seems a bit unfair to catch the lad coming and going." with "It seems a bit unfair when he wasn't the one who thought that the statue was old in the first place."

[glorifindel]

Ok, thanks for the explanations, now it's all clear!

[ATMachine]

"To catch someone coming and going" means to profit off of their misfortune. The phrase probably has its origins in highway robbery, when thieves would lie in wait on the side of roads and spring out to steal valuables at gunpoint from passersby. To catch a man coming and going would thus be to literally rob him twice--at the beginning and end of a round-trip journey.

 

Also, "lad" may be used here solely to emphasize Marcus's Englishness.

[Gabez]

Funny - I didn't know that phrase. Has anyone heard it actually being used?

[glorifindel]

Wow, thanks for the clarification ATMachine!!! (and, btw, congratulations for your site, very very interesting!)

[ThunderPeel2001]

"To catch someone coming and going" means to profit off of their misfortune. The phrase probably has its origins in highway robbery, when thieves would lie in wait on the side of roads and spring out to steal valuables at gunpoint from passersby. To catch a man coming and going would thus be to literally rob him twice--at the beginning and end of a round-trip journey.

 

Also, "lad" may be used here solely to emphasize Marcus's Englishness.

 

Brilliant! It's weird that I know this game inside out, a native English speaker and I still didn't understand the quote when I read it. Thanks for the clarification.