NOT TO BRAG…
I want debate about what I – and others in my position, for that matter – do as a professional translator to be both frank and earnest. There is plenty of evidence indicating that I am particularly determined to be vocal about the nature of what I do – but, all things considered, can you blame me? That said, I cannot dismiss the idea that professional translation has what can only be described as an element of (alleged) authority to it in all but name… not to brag.
You see, when I do what is expected of me, as I create I know that I cannot always easily expect forgiveness were I to let personal biases get in the way as part of subjective response to material that someone, somewhere has formally entrusted me to translate. If this means anything, it is to support my claim that what (or should that be “whatever”?) I write must be subject to consideration of the “don’t just take my word for it” factor… I must emphasise this, considering how eager I personally can be to create when it comes to exploits in writing or the arts. Allowing subjective and / or invalidated convictions or pretend beliefs to influence translation work – especially when it is professional translation work! – is out of the question, lest it corrupt sound understanding, and the same should be said of things you like to pretend to see…
Like this: look on the page for the character Iskra of the This War Of Mine wiki website (This War Of Mine being the computer game) http://this-war-of-mine.wikia.com/wiki/Iskra , under the “role” headline, what is says her response will be if she is asked to open a barred door, or to clear rubble. While there is nothing wrong with this kind of “play imagination”, what matters in connection with the subject of my article here is that, when this “play imagination” is displayed, those who do so are, in my experience, just about never expected to explain / account for their own unchained imagination that fuels it. Just how would Iskra describe whatever she is pretending to think when she is asked to do these things anyway? You tell me (well, suggest it). Whereas professional translation demands thorough consideration of how, like, anything (!) you put (or indeed, happen to put!) will be interpreted outside of any gated community that you like to identify yourself as a member as – whether you do so genuinely or falsely is not the meat of the matter here.
I can still remember a former client being really, surprisingly upset at me choosing to translate something as “social responsibility” rather than “corporate social responsibility” – enough that she told me that she would not be considering me for any future work, which I found particularly harsh. I took it as over-reaction, especially considering the patience and humble willingness to help that I showed in my emails to her just before she actually went as far as to say something like that.
Still… again, not to brag, but speaking as someone who went to university I would say that I have very good reason to claim that I am what you would call “well educated”. And, me being well educated means that it should not be hard to understand why I would be confident in most of the choices that I make as I do my translation work. It’s basically all about choices that are based on an open mind – and development of an open mind is really what getting a proper education is all about, isn’t it? Those who have fallen victims to cults, or abusive relationships, are victims of them because they have surrendered their lives to them, trapped in a cycle of what can only be described as conditioned thinking at their own expense, all for the unscrupulous benefit of someone else. But, to get back to the topic at hand: I’m saying that a good translator won’t let the decisions in their work be shaped by their own conditioned thinking – or thinking which, while not conditioned, might as well be.
Yes, I would say that, as harsh as it may seem, naivete can jeopardise good translation… and maybe I should befriend a psychologist. Try to understand that the importance that I attach to all this is that, when I translate, I really do decide what makes sense and not, don’t I? When I translate, anyone can be forgiven for believing that the decisions I make in the writing of a new article will (at least in part) ultimately shape the ideas that a future reader of it will “take” from it in terms of what makes sense and what doesn’t… whether or not it actually does. That’s what I meant by the “element of authority” bit at the end of the first paragraph. All of a sudden, professional translation just doesn’t seem like something for the faint-hearted, huh? By this standard, it’s probably only fitting that my approach to my work might as well be characterised by me acting like everything I write is simply to be taken at face value, like it were grounded in proper authority on the subject matter. Because I care about my work. Oh yes I do.
Anyway, thank you for reading this.