DOING WHAT I CAN TO ENFORCE THE CORRECTNESS OF MY TRANSLATION WORK
As a professional translator, I long ago got used to the expectation of occasionally justifying the correctness of my work to my clients. I want to discuss this here – and I believe that it will require reference to certain things for which a consensus normally cannot really exist no matter how fervent people may be about it.
Now, every so often one comes across a piece of written material which they consciously agree would require no real thought to translate it into another language, and a confident translation at that (depending on who they are and where their interests lie, I suppose). Personally, I think that if we wanted a translation of Tom Green’s Bum Bum Song into another language
…most people would probably write exactly, or damn near almost exactly, the same thing, when you think about it. But the arguments on the “best” solution would always revolve around logic, not around anything more emotionally charged, like the content of conviction or hope or faith. Verily I suggest that so much of that revolves around any and all abstract things / stuff / paraphernalia that you can only arrive at with thinking that is anything but typical. And so, in the matter of translation of this song, there’s little to no fear that you may be required to back up anything with reference to anything that you might end up realising that you don’t remember as well as you wish you did. It may be defined as the realm of argument which depends on conviction for its existence, never mind its credibility.
But, as implied at the beginning, good translations tend to require “real thinking” – define that however you want, if you can. Now, from where I’m standing, it’s probably not worth aiming to define “real thinking” in universal and generic terms (and certainly not casual terms) here, but there’s no better place for me to discuss it than right here. Maybe, just maybe, I will end up looking up a dictionary definition of a word even though I already have a very clear idea of when I’d use it based on my own experiences in life. Like the word “tolerant”, which I found myself Googling recently (6th June 2016). And it can indeed be an annoyance when you look up a (or, according to some people, whom I pity for this reason, “the”) translation of a foreign language word in your mother tongue and the word you get is one you’ve never heard of before, or a word which you actually have heard but have little to no real grasp of its meaning if you’re honest. Then there’s the few occasions when I’ve had mistaken beliefs about the meaning of a word I’ve used in my English translations.
Like “privy”, for example, as in “the features privy to a good solution” (sic). I have mistakenly used “privy” like that before when, according to its Google definition, this word is used properly in the sense of a person “being privy to important information” (i.e. a person who would know such important information) or something like that.
Then there’s that French to English translation project comprised of five files I did in which I saw the word “amélioration” in two separate files in the original. I chose the word “improvement” for one but not for the other in the translation. In one file I translated “Amélioration de la performance opérationnelle” as “Improvement of operational performance” but in another file I translated “Amélioration du chiffre d’affaires” as “Increasing turnover”, for reasons which, I believe, require no clarification, all things considered.
This example is not actually taken from a translation, but I’m going to put it forward anyway. For a long time I thought that defying someone meant setting out to do what it takes to “beat” them after they have imposed something unwelcome on you where it looks like they hold all the cards… and then you’re the one who emerges victorious. But apparently not. Go and Google “defy definition” and the definitions of this word offered are “openly resist or refuse to obey” and “appear to be challenging (someone) to do or prove something.” Things like that.
Some may view the concept of learning a new language as something where you can feel free to succumb to tendencies to be gullible and dismissive of phenomena you would rather reject for reasons best known to yourself (…or maybe not) and it won’t have a negative impact – it may even be conducive in certain circumstances. But, at the end of the day, you simply can’t always hope to translate properly if you’re not awake (in a manner similar to the Buddha sense) and “switched on”. Certainly when research needs to be done, it’s futile to treat it as a “push a button and something will be done to resolve the matter soon enough” solution. I don’t regard translation as a sleepworking job, and never did. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, there really does exist “Things you should never say to a translator” videos on Youtube; watch one and two for yourself and you will see. If you can speak a foreign language, good for you, but if that’s the case then what’s the most challenging material YOU have ever translated (at least, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t most people taught at least one foreign language at school these days?)? In any case, I think we all agree that the lyrics of the Bum Bum Song are very easy to translate, but I think that personal correspondence letters / emails and non-text-heavy menus are examples of texts which are on the same level.
You see, if someone wants a translation of something which is formal and elaborate – in that you can be SURE that it delves into the subject it covers comprehensively without letting any and all subjective views get in the way of things; and not necessarily just from the author’s point of view – by default, their best hope would be to turn to a fully-fledged professional translator, rather than just someone who speaks enough of a given foreign language to “get by” in it and accomplish simplistic tasks in it (without wishing to sound belittling: see how they delight in ordering things in a restaurant or bar abroad in that language. I remember doing that sort of thing when I was very young.). Google defines the word “treatise” as “a written work dealing formally and systematically with a subject.” It’s not necessarily a book that’s supposed to be read from start to finish and that’s the end of the matter; one who writes a treatise may fully expect readers of it to come back to it later for future reference after they’ve read it to their heart’s content the first time round – and why it not, if it pertains to a subject whose details are by no means going to be static / set in stone? Hence my claim that even professional translators would agree that taking on translation of something like a treatise is a bold thing to do, even after one is given all the opportunity they want to put forth all the language / translation qualifications that they have, in all the detail they want (even if the content of it would, in whole or in part, only come to them on the spot i.e. they consciously think that no-one would be particularly likely to guess that the definitions in question had been established beforehand. No PBAs – see my comment dated 14th June 2015).
I think that provides an idea of the true extent of the challenges of my work. In view of how much I care about accuracy, reliability and just plain appropriate register / “feel” in the translation material that I write, I could probably start a social media phenomenon with the simple question “What have you only learned pending a mistake (a mistake which has not necessarily been identified, let alone defined, heretofore)?”
For the time being, I have indeed put forward examples of the challenges I have encountered in my translation work to date – “work-related anecdotes”, as I have referred to them in previous comments. In recognition of how people want to be confident about my translation work and agree that it’s reliable: I want it to be articulate, I want it to be to the point, and… I want it to feel like it was done by a translator worth the name.
So tell me, do you agree that every bit of this looks like the work of a translator worth the name (it’s a French translation of a certain song)?
“Mon cul est sur le rail
Cul est sur le rail
Passe regarde à moi
Mon cul est sur le rail
Mon cul est sur l’homme
Cul est sur l’homme
Il fait beaucoup d’amusement
Quand on se met le cul sur un homme
Mon cul est sur le seuil
Cul est sur le seuil
Ne tombe pas du seuil
Tu pourrais te blesser le cul
[…]
Et cela n’est pas très amusant
Si tu tombes et te blesses le cul
J’aime me mettre le cul sur des trucs
Il fait de l’amusement pour tous
[…]
Mon cul est sur le fromage
Cul est sur le fromage
Si je suis chanceux
J’attraperai une maladie
Mon cul est sur le suédois, suédois, suédois, suédois
Mon cul est sur le gum
Mon cul est sur le gum
Je peux souffler une bulle
Avec mon cul cul cul
Mon cul est sur le navire
Le navire cuirassé
J’espère qu’ils ne tireront pas le canon en mon cul
Avec un jaillissement de caca partout
Caca…
Et cela n’est pas très amusant
Quand ils tirent un canon en ton cul
J’aime me mettre le cul sur des trucs
Il fait de l’amusement pour tous
[…]
Mon cul est sur le chien
Mon cul est sur le chat
Mon cul est sur le phone
Mon cul est tout seul
Le rail est tout seul
L’homme est tout seul
Le suédois est tout seul
Mon cul est tout seul
1, 2, 3, 4
Mon cul est tout seul
Mon cul est tout seul
Mon cul est tout seul
Mon cul est tout seul
Mon cul est tout seul
Mon cul est tout seul
Mon cul est tout seul
Mon cul est tout seul
Mon cul est tout seul
Mon cul est tout seul
Mon cul est tout seul
Mon cul est tout seul
Que quelqu’un enlève le caca de mon cul
(Enlève le caca…)
Il faut que le caca soit enlevée du cul
Je dois enlever le caca de mon cul
(Caca…)
Je veux entendre le canon
Je veux entendre le canon
Non, non, non, non, pas l’idiot
(Cul est tout, cul est tout…) Je veux entendre le canon, je veux entendre le canon (pas l’idiot)!
[…]
And that’s the end of this comment.