Sometimes I get worried that my dedication to accuracy in my translation work makes me just a little crazy, but then I think I do it for good reasons.
Compare the following:
– “They knew that if they were caught, they wouldn’t be properly punished.”
– “They knew damn well that if they were caught, they wouldn’t be properly punished.”
The difference between the two statements above is, of course,the presence of the expression “damn well” in the latter. I just wonder: if my native tongue were something other than English and I was translating these statements into my native tongue, for the latter would I necessarily be writing the exact same thing as for the former only with an additional phrase representing the “damn well” bit?
Then there’s the consideration of the actual voice that statements are made in. For example, what if you actually read the former of the two statements above somewhere and failed to notice that there should be an emphasis on the word “knew” i.e. “They KNEW that if they were caught, they wouldn’t be properly punished.” If that’s the case, then it would surely make more sense to view it just as you would the latter.
I continue to do well enough in my career as a translator, but not without having to deal with a compulsive worry about misunderstanding or omitting things, or explaining something in a way that misleads – I actually wonder if these are fitting symptoms of OCD.
I did a contract project (French to English) over the weekend, and this is some of what I wrote in my translation: “If, on the day that the Tenant returns the keys, there remains in the premises any furniture, furnishings, amenities or equipment, they shall be presumed to be of no value and abandoned by the Tenant; with this, the Lessor can freely avail himself of them as he sees fit, with the Lessee being entitled to no recourse in connection with the same.”
I really don’t call that reflective of my best work by far. I sort of feel as if that’s the sort of thing that someone whose mother tongue is not English would write (strictly an educated person whose mother tongue is not English). The kind of person who writes things in English that are actually easy to follow even if the English-mother-tongue person reading it is not particularly bright, even if individual uncommon words do appear with notable frequency and that sort of thing. I strongly believe that most people would not write “with this” in their translation of a contract if they could help it.
I am really tired of seeing adverts seeking translators literally asking how much they charge per page with no mention of how many words there are on each flipping page!