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**ehib8yPc** · 07-05-2008, 11:42 PM

Irene, if I'd have known that, I'd have translated it like that. But as I've never seen the film, I stuck to the French. If an Estonian author (who spoke no French) didn't translate it - and French is more exotic for Estonians than for Brits - I thought I'd leave it in French. But I didn't check it up, and that was fatal, hence Page 43.

Your question is not off-topic. I'm sure Warburton would have been pleased to be asked too. If someone pays me to translate Warburton's book, there are enough things there said about matters that don't involve specific languages, to make it interesting.

The banal answer to your question is that I find translating business & technical reports by the semi-educated boring (I've done it) and I'm crap at legal translation (I've done it), as you have to be extremely exact, using terms that must be precise and leave no room for imagination, or any gift you may have fostered and developed in an artistic direction. I have, however, found that I am not only reasonably good at translating literature, but I like doing it.

Whereas I was more or less thrown out of my legal translation job in Estonia (translating Estonian laws into English before EU accession) in 1998, though I was glad to go, I have won two literary prizes for translating novels from that very same language. As long as I can survive financially, I will stick to literature. But it is a precarious career money-wise.

As regards layout, I want the publisher to worry about that. Yes, spelling, paragraphing, spacing, punctuation and many other things have to be kept under control, but I want the publisher's editor there as a safety net, not to be getting frantic about these matters at the expense of the translation work itself. And if it's parallel text, and the text has to be squeezed in, as you say, you've got problems.

Another pertinent point you make is when you work with others, or share a job. You have to be on the same wavelength and agree on common terminology right from the start. Otherwise you get into fights.

Actually, a postmodernist novel isn't that bad, as long as there aren't endless layers of puns and allusions, which are essential for the translation. I wouldn't like to tackle the foreign equivalent of Finnegans Wake!

07-05-2008, 11:42 PM	#5
ehib8yPc Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 564 Senior Member	Irene, if I'd have known that, I'd have translated it like that. But as I've never seen the film, I stuck to the French. If an Estonian author (who spoke no French) didn't translate it - and French is more exotic for Estonians than for Brits - I thought I'd leave it in French. But I didn't check it up, and that was fatal, hence Page 43. Your question is not off-topic. I'm sure Warburton would have been pleased to be asked too. If someone pays me to translate Warburton's book, there are enough things there said about matters that don't involve specific languages, to make it interesting. The banal answer to your question is that I find translating business & technical reports by the semi-educated boring (I've done it) and I'm crap at legal translation (I've done it), as you have to be extremely exact, using terms that must be precise and leave no room for imagination, or any gift you may have fostered and developed in an artistic direction. I have, however, found that I am not only reasonably good at translating literature, but I like doing it. Whereas I was more or less thrown out of my legal translation job in Estonia (translating Estonian laws into English before EU accession) in 1998, though I was glad to go, I have won two literary prizes for translating novels from that very same language. As long as I can survive financially, I will stick to literature. But it is a precarious career money-wise. As regards layout, I want the publisher to worry about that. Yes, spelling, paragraphing, spacing, punctuation and many other things have to be kept under control, but I want the publisher's editor there as a safety net, not to be getting frantic about these matters at the expense of the translation work itself. And if it's parallel text, and the text has to be squeezed in, as you say, you've got problems. Another pertinent point you make is when you work with others, or share a job. You have to be on the same wavelength and agree on common terminology right from the start. Otherwise you get into fights. Actually, a postmodernist novel isn't that bad, as long as there aren't endless layers of puns and allusions, which are essential for the translation. I wouldn't like to tackle the foreign equivalent of Finnegans Wake!
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