Sometimes when I’m doing a translation project I’m compelled to ask about a given word / expression in the original material – I include my best attempt at translating it in the translated material where I can (with a note explaining that this is something that needs looking at), for guidance. It’s all part of delivering a translation of the original material which is complete but also… well, correct. Now I have to say that, based on personal experience, relatively few failed translations actually fail to convey the correct message of the original material or at least make it understandable even if it does require a bit of extra thinking on the part of the reader. As an example, I don’t think many people whose mother tongue is English have seen many English “translations” as incomprehensible as this:
Ad for Japanese noodle bar:
“The noodles of a phantom with the resistance to the teeth of boast our shop. The exquisite rainy season which repeated trial and error and was completed. Colourful red pepper of Asia. Domestic careful selection pork with little fat of female liking is used. It has healthy vegetables with salad feeling fully.”
But whatever the situation is when you’re doing a translation job, there is little hope of delivering a piece of translation work which is correct if the truth is not embraced. When I do a translation job, pleasing the client means respecting the truth of the original document that its writer would have me (well, someone at least) identify and remember, and then spread (and not necessarily solely to a specific readership). However… this probably won’t come as much as a surprise, but the truth doesn’t always speak for itself.
In a nutshell, the truth is not always a one-liner. How to elaborate on what I mean by that? Well, for a start, I think we all know that people often disagree on the best way to do things or how to get the best results in any kind of scenario, if you’ll pardon such an over-generalised statement. That said, there’s no denying that people often long to know the truth about possibly difficult and/or awkward matters – relationship issues and the like. But you never know when you’ll inadvertently come across something that explains the answer, the truth about something that you’ve never quite properly understood; which could be something of a quite mundane nature. This includes language and word awareness as much as anything else. Recently I was briefly scanning over the headlines of the day’s newspapers when I saw one of them – the Daily Star – mention that it provided the latest “News, Goss, Pics and Showbiz”. I could see that “goss” here is short for “gossip”, even though I’d never heard of the term “goss” myself until then – I just think that, had I seen or heard “goss” anywhere other than, say, amongst the words “news”, “pics” and “showbiz” like I mentioned above, then I would have been slow guessing that is indeed short for “gossip” (certainly in my younger days, but that’s another story).
But I’m not just a linguist; I’m a professional linguist. That’s a given. And I think it’s a good thing that the concept of the truth and its elusiveness is something that I’m sensitive to in the domain of business as well. I want to quote this from an email sent to me by Chris Cardell:
“The late Earl Nightingale used to say ‘don’t compete… create!’
What did he mean by this?
Well, it’s simple. The moment you try to compete with your competitors… you set yourself up for a ‘price war’. And you’re immediately susceptible to your products and services being ‘commoditised’, like a pint of milk or a packet of generic aspirin.”
I honestly think that, had I heard the name “Earl Nightingale” prior to reading this comment, I would have labelled him as “some royal figure of the past”. Even after I did actually read it, what I originally thought was that he was “some royal figure of the past who was a significant entrepreneurial figure in some way”. But no – I looked him up and apparently he was some American guy who was not royal at all (Earl being his first name, like my first name is George), who was an acclaimed motivational speaker and author. And I would not necessarily have ever known what was meant by Earl Nightingale’s quote if not for an explanation of it such as that provided by Chris Cardell here.
Getting back to the link between the truth and my work and as a translator: as it is, I still get most of my work from translation agencies throughout the world and this means that, with most projects that I am awarded, I don’t know the identity of the client. And if the thing that I am required to translate for somebody could be of a confidential nature, like a business agreement or a lease (and I’ve done plenty of both of those)… well, within the bigger picture (i.e. its agenda) it’s done of my business; but I’d better affect to embrace the truth of it even though I’ve never “been there in person” / “seen it for myself” and can’t expect ever to be so!
The Avril Lavigne song “Keep Holding On” includes the lyrics, “There’s no other way when it comes to the truth”. I couldn’t have put it better myself. Well, when it comes to people understanding / endeavouring to understand the truth about a matter that is something real life and important in some way, surely 99 times out of 100 they would want everyone to agree on exactly what the truth is. And that is all the more reason for me to be careful with regard to the words that I choose and use in the production of the translated documents that I produce. Basically, the wording must be clear, because that is the only thing that lets the message be clear; and that’s the only thing that lets the truth be clear.
I think the situation is pretty clear. When I do a translation job for someone, a commitment to the truth is required. But let me carry on discussing this. It does seem to me that most people only associate the word “commitment” with lofty goals: like acquiring a gold medal, or learning how to cook something that is gourmet (maybe to impress friends). And once such a goal has been achieved, it’s usually all followed by a load of applause and celebration before blandly moving on (like, “what’s next for me?”). What I mean to talk about here is explicitly “commitment to the truth”, like when you practice a religion based on some personal acceptance/conviction (clear or otherwise) that it makes you realise things and that this will help make you a better person. After all, sometimes when I do professional translation work, it really does feel like I’m being denied the truth: a truth about something that the to-be-translated document is supposed to refer to (directly or indirectly). I tell you, however much talent I’ve evidenced in my career as a professional translator, sometimes it still feels like I’m being denied the truth, and I think that that is so cruel.
Now, I’ve heard of the saying “the truth shall set you free”. But when you put yourself in my shoes, when you are writing a translation of something, you could say that it’s the other way round. Of course I understand that state what they know to be the truth all the time in everyday speech and writing. But: do you remember in Men In Black 3, very near the end, where Will Smith sees the white guy (if it’s not Tommy Lee Jones then it’s definitely Josh Brolin) talking to some young black boy after that after other black guy – the high-ranking armed forces guy and the boy’s father – has been killed, and then J learns the truth about why K was so distant as a partner like right at the beginning when K made that speech? Like, the boy is actually J when he was much younger (he probably is actually Will Smith’s real life son, like in After Earth and other movies). Because right now, as I write this, I’m having an imagination of myself explaining to myself much younger that, when I have been assigned to do a translation job, the truth is literally in my hands – even if I’ve not been briefed about it from the beginning. I may not have the power to change anything major, but I do have “the power”. Translation isn’t just about writing messages that are correct on a linguistic level; I have to devote SOME consideration to the actual material for what it is. Thus, letting the truth speak for me is irresponsible in this respect. On the contrary, I should commit to the truth, and SPEAK FOR THE TRUTH – does that make sense? I mean, I really have started to think that if it is true that the truth shall set you free, then it is also true that you can let the truth speak for you too much and with this it will imprison you.