Well, I’ve just spent another day ensconced in the study in my house doing what I do for a living: translation. It’s quiet, and no-one bothers me. But another day’s work well done. Even if the conditions are anything but tough – when I listened to one of Chris Cardell’s lectures this afternoon, making notes, I was actually lying on my bed – the work itself is far from without challenges.
But it can get very monotonous sometimes, not that I don’t try to avoid adopting routine behaviours and attitudes to excess when I do my work. My readiness to be inventive wherever necessary – or should that be wherever possible? – tends to pay off. I’ve been doing this for four and a half years and there are still times when I feel a little surprised by some of the stuff I read that I am expected to translate. Which is harder: challenging what you know or challenging what you think you know? I can’t tell.
Here’s my latest collection of examples:
German to English
“Alles auf einen Blick – Dinge in der Ostschweiz, die man gesehen haben muss.”
“Everything at a glance – things in East Switzerland which have to be seen.”
That’s the proper translation. Not “which one must have seen”. Every native English speaker would agree that that suggests something else entirely.
German to English
“Das sichere und mit 23 Pistenkilometern überschaubare Gebiet ist wie geschaffen für Familien mit Kindern”
“The secure and manageable area, with 23 km of slopes, is perfect for families with children”.
In the original version, “wie geschaffen” literally means “as if created”, but it’s supposed to be read, so to speak, as “perfect”.
German to English
“Geniessen Sie eine Reise vom tosenden Rheinfall aufwärts an das Bodenseeufer, in den Thurgau mit Obstplantagen wohin das Auge reicht.”
“Enjoy a journey from the thundering Rhine Falls up to the shores of Lake Constance, into Thurgau – your eyes will catch sight of the orchards there.”
This one really had me wondering. Where it says “mit Obstplantagen wohin das Auge reicht”: when I submitted the project in question I had to ask if its real meaning in English was like, “with orchards as far as the eye can see.” I speak German pretty well but to me, this is a good example of a foreign language expression that is beyond me, not because it’s really tough linguistically, but because it just looks like an expression that only a native would use; one that is just too abstruse for a non-native speaker to think of – be it on the spot or if they were preparing a speech in a given foreign language, if you know what I mean.
French to English
“10 techniques pour faire connaître son site et générer du trafic”
This is the title of an article in French I found on LinkedIn, which I would translate into English as, “10 techniques to get your site known and generate traffic.” But there is one thing. If not for the “et générer du traffic” bit, I would definitely have thought that the “faire connaitre son site” bit meant “to get to know one’s site” (and that’s hardly straightforward – likely requiring any number of actions, simple or not so simple).
French to English
“C’est un parcours aux paysages changeants : les formes, les matières et les lumières évoluent au fil du parcours, participant ainsi à la stratégie du jeu.”
“It is a journey into a changing landscape: the shapes, the materials and the lights change across the course, thus contributing the strategy of the game.”
Is that really a correct translation? When you think about it, only the players “contribute” to the strategy of the game. The environment will merely affect it / have a bearing on it (possibly).
What do you think of when nothing makes sense? I say that not as some kind of philanthropist, but as a guardian of quality in my work; like when I need a bit more convincing that my translation of this, that or the other actually will do what is expected of it – and no-one else is going to any such convincing, after all. When this happens, I would say that it challenges what I can fathom in terms of synonym expressions and figurative language; something I enjoy as a perk in my work (usually). These things are surely easy to accept as key aspects of verbal creativity. And, as I write this, I think of freestyle rap battling – ever seen 8 Mile? – and one of the best ones I can find on Youtube is this one of Anecdote and 360 vs Prime and Purpose, in Australia. Not all of their statements are based on actual events or anything, but it’s still nothing short of amazing to think that they didn’t prepare it (as far as I know, anyway).
I would love to be able to do that. But go to 2:00, where it’s Anecdote who’s “spitting”, and he talks about Prime and Purpose being delivered in hearses. Surely it’s easy to think of something that passes as a synonym for being delivered in hearses / what it reflects. He doesn’t talk about Prime and Purpose being dead per se, but I’d say that it’s the case that the only reason he mustered a passable reference to them being dead is that he merely thought about them being dead at all – while it made sense, it was a somewhat irregular statement by the standards of everyday parlance, if you know what I mean; but it was just the rhyming of it that counted. But back to the topic at hand: it‘s hardly that different from saying that, thanks to him, they will soon be “infested by maggots”, or “marked by large stones” i.e. gravestones or whatever.
So what do I really have to say about what I’ve done today? It really does seem that it’s practically impossible for me to discuss fully how my own imagination helps me in my work. But I‘m going to end this comment with a question: what if I suggested that if not even one’s imagination made sense when nothing else does, is a sign of madness?