RECOGNISING AND REITERATING A TEXT’S PURPOSE AND FEEL – IS THERE SUCH A THING AS “TRANSLATING FROM THE HEART”?
Starting point: don’t we agree that there’s an art to translation – whether or not we could elaborate on this idea? Yes? Good. Also, bear in mind that, while this article is more than 2,000 words long, I don’t provide any examples of “translating from the heart”, as I see it, until in the last paragraphs. I’m sure you will understand eventually. Although, at this point, I think I should mention that a likely pre-requisite to “translating from the heart” is “explaining / clarifying from the heart”.
That said, while this is a blog aimed at promoting myself as a professional translator, I don’t actually want to proceed to discuss translation or anything I do / have done in this job personally straight away. Now… I find it easy to believe that there are some professions where people who do not do them tend to have rather rigid and obstinate ideas about the kind of person that those who do them “should” be. Basically they believe that they tend to dress alike, speak the same way, have largely the same personal priorities and ambitions and all the rest of it, while probably not intending to make friends with a person who practices such a job in their life. It’s like stereotypes, I think.
And then there are the kinds of professions where, if you’re serious about doing them, I would strongly recommend that you consider your very status and worth as a member of society and your presence in it before you even start considering how you would make a success of yourself doing such a job. And they are by no means strictly categorised, as you’ve probably guessed. After all, if you’re a teacher, it’s not limited to merely informing your students about what is correct in the subject you’re supposed to be teaching, or even being attentive enough to understand where and how they have ended up confused. Police officers are certainly expected to take charge of things, but to do so in a way that assures public confidence. And if you work in an office and get promoted to manager, you can expect to be told that your duties won’t just include “more of the same old typical carry-on, only lots more of it, and enough to try the resolve of a lot people.” Indeed, in all three, who would argue that an important part of it is being prepared to set an example to people you don’t even know? Even bar staff are expected to show the right kind of judgement and sense of duty when a drunken brawl breaks out; and however fond a lapdancer may be of performing, she couldn’t possibly fail to realise that her social skills will be put to the test again and again.
But I think about celebrities as well – singers in particular, for some reason. The idea of being famous has its allure even for someone like me, but at the end of the day, if I were ever granted the opportunity to be famous, I’m sure the only question that would really matter is what I would make of it (note: it was barely possible for me to decide whether it would have been better to say “would” or “could” there; I just thought it was worth pointing that out). Oh, it would be nice if I had that kind of looks and charisma and got paid loads for rousing crowds hungry for excitement and an excuse to be loud… then again, it has to be said that sometimes you get a singer or group of singers who change an individual’s life forever by doing what they do; but you knew that already, didn’t you? Now, being stuck in front of a computer doing what I do is hardly glamorous… but the thing is that I too have plenty to say which isn’t just of relevance – and not fickle relevance – to me “on stage” (or, in my case, when I’m communicating with customers in relation to my work), but also off it, nay even when I’m not actually looking forward to being on one.
As I already mentioned, I myself am a translator, and as such I don’t really think I need to care about my public image THAT much… but I am as keen to promote myself as I have ever been (hence this blog, for that matter). Mind you, while most people DON’T do a job in which they make good use of creative writing skills and not much else, I’m self-employed – if I don’t find out (let alone implement) what it takes to remain in this position, then who will? How far can I go, anyway? And, as easy as it is to regard a job like mine as boring, it’s not like it’s straightforward and plain sailing all the time: the practices of translation may remain the same, but even something as fundamental as language can cause division given its versatility. When I take on a project, I hope to find an attachment with the original material without getting too absorbed by it, if that makes sense.
That said, I’m very much ready to be honest and frank; I think I’m very lucky to be doing what I do today, and I’m sure the pride I place in it is evident enough. Perhaps unrelatedly, I remember how, during my childhood, I was sure that, when I became an adult, I eventually would become someone that I never knew I could be. Today I am 33 and it is an assumption that has been proven correct, which doesn’t surprise me at all. But I’m very pleased that it has not made me far angrier than anyone could ever hope to make me (well, intentionally and on an opportunistic level, anyway). Personally, I can’t help feeling that if you’re pretending to be something you’re not while not even really knowing or caring what that thing is… then you run the risk of going crazy. Love yourself for what you are; love yourself more for what you could be; love yourself even more for what you will be. That’s how I find it works.
And that’s the way it is. Reality is reality. And surely reality should be appreciated and embraced by anyone serious about doing any sort of translation work properly. Talking of which: cultural factors play a role in translation, right? Then consider this: it’s not like I don’t cherish certain personal memories from my past to this day. I’m sure we have all had episodes in our lives that we don’t remember as well as we wish we did. But traditions and legacies continue to mingle and rival with firmly held attitudes, hopes and aspirations of the present day to form what we call a culture; and culture’s not even the only thing to bear in mind in translation work; although, of course, that’s well known already. And anyone who wants to learn more about me will, I think, be pleased to hear that I have plenty of fantastic tales and roller-coaster rides from my own life which I would be very likely to include in an autobiography. Just as Google defines culture as “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively” and “the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society”, my past surely makes me who I am. How about this: I remember when I learned that Vanessa Carlton has an album called “Be Not Nobody” and I got to thinking that by that she meant, “Don’t try to be ‘the true you’; seek to be ‘a true you’!” (I certainly think she’s a singer worth the name, in case you forgot what I said in paragraph 4.) I was impressed enough by this to state on my personal Facebook wall that she was my idea of a real woman and that however much I’ll never know, I was no longer afraid. I even remember writing a later comment in which I said that she had read what I had said about her and sent me an email saying that it was because of what I wrote that however much she’ll never know, she’s no longer afraid; “OK, I made that up, but I do wonder.” But, in all candour, things change (of course they do). Ever since I posted those comments about Vanessa Carlton I’ve learned of the quote from George Bernard Shaw which reads “Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself.” Given the meaning of that quote, that was when I realised that Vanessa Carlton is not the only one who’s ever thought of it (if she ever did); but you can be sure that I still listen to her! I’ll say it again: things change… and I don’t always “get it” so easily; but I’m still pleased with myself for what I manage to learn in the long run – along with the occasional harsh yet inevitable realisation that comes with it, of course. Maybe these days I should be saying that however much I WILL know, I’m no longer afraid.
True, I enjoy the comfort of my study, a quiet space where I can be sure of not being bothered by others. On the other hand, I would define underestimating the weight of my job as habitually getting things done “somehow” and – perhaps not unrelatedly – explaining the things I do and the decisions I make on but a “basically” level. It has been said that the aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together – that their very nature cries out for the goodness in men (Charlie Chaplin’s Great Dictator speech). If an essential part of translation is taking the time to understand culture and societal values (obvious or tacit), shouldn’t one say that translation is also supposed to accomplish this?
Now comes the funny bit. Have you ever known of a time where you or anyone else tried to translate something that just didn’t make sense? To be fair to you, you probably think that I’m not making sense by saying that. But what passes for a good definition of text which “doesn’t make sense”, anyway? I haven’t forgotten the time I wrote that blog in which I thought of translating (or rather, trying to translate) “Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?” Other examples of written information I can think of which I find make no sense by my interpretation include the badger song on Youtube and the Big Brother conversation in which Jade Goody brought up “East Angular” and said that she thought it was in Tunisia for some reason. But I’m not going to stop there. I’m now going to write 50 words of something in English of my own creation which I would say doesn’t make sense, followed by my best translation of it in French:
“It’s a shame that squirrels don’t go water-skiing because I think that would be very funny. And it would be so cool if the moon was green rather than white. But I would especially like to be able to walk along ceilings, even though I couldn’t juggle when doing that.”
“Il est triste que les écureuils ne font pas du ski nautique – je pense que cela serait très drôle. Et il serait si cool si la lune était verte plutôt que blanche. Mais j’aimerais en particulier être capable de pouvoir marcher sur les plafonds, même si je ne pouvais pas jongler quand je faisais cela.”
You can decide how good my French translation of this is, or have a French native speaker decide. My point here is that I find it easy to be confident about translating things like this precisely because they have no purpose and I don’t have to worry about what I write “making sense” in real terms. Does that sound close to home? Either way, I certainly can’t and won’t dispute that people look to / depend on me to make sense in the translations that I write, just like any other professional translator.
Finally, about my actual translation work… I recently translated a contract in which I wrote the following sentence in the translated product: “The start and the end of the season are clearly stated in the seasonal confirmation of the Serbian Association (Annex 5 of the application); from which it can be determined that the 21st birthday of the player (14th July 2012) falls in the season 2012/2013”. I realised that I made a wise choice of words which suggested “it can be deduced from this contract that…” rather than “according to this contract…”. Those two things don’t mean exactly the same thing i.e. what does a given contract actually intend to make clear from the outset, compared to what could be understood from it with the right kind of critical examination? Maybe this is the kind of thinking that makes one a good detective / lawyer / judge. And this is what I dare to label this as “translating from the heart”.
Example 2: in another recent translation project (German to English), which was also a contract, I translated “Kommt eine Partei einer ihr obliegenden Instandhaltungs- oder Instandsetzungspflicht trotz Mahnung und Nachfristensetzung nicht fristgerecht nach” as “If any party fails to satisfy any [given] maintenance / repair obligation of theirs on time despite the provision of a warning and an extended deadline”. About the word “given” in square brackets: I originally didn’t think of including that, but then I wouldn’t want it to be “supposed” to mean (on a purely pedantic level) essentially “If any party failed to satisfy ANY maintenance / repair obligation of theirs”, as if to imply that failing to satisfy not all of them from a list of them was OK. They say “the law is a ass – a idiot” – I think much of the meaning behind that quote refers to how lawyers sometimes choose to interpret the intended meaning of the law and “justify” it with an “excuse” which is nothing more than selective logic.
But at the end of the day, when it comes to the translation work that I do for a living, I just know that I should be on my guard against misreading and misunderstanding things and understanding what simply isn’t there, and when I actually write what I write I do what I can to avoid miswriting things and encouraging an understanding of something which is either wrong or, well, doesn’t exist. One could argue that this requires the application of something like zanshin (the Japanese martial arts term – and I have a purple belt in jujitsu, by the way): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanshin