The practice of translation

LET’S WEIGH THE PRACTICE OF TRANSLATION AGAINST THAT OF FICTION WRITING

In addition to several non-fictional works, many works of fiction have been translated into other languages. I don’t mind stating publicly that I would like to get into translating books at some point. But then, I won’t neglect stating that certain literary and creative writing styles abound. Many modern industries have their own terminologies – I wonder if some people think that the (supposedly) most obvious option market to someone wanting to be a generalist (or should that be “bog standard”?) translator would be the translation of literature. I can’t tell.

Either way, there is one key skill common to translating and fiction writing: making stuff up. Of course, who knows how many people there are who think that they can do either or even both of these things but just can’t. Making stuff up as part of telling a lie doesn’t always require having to justify it with any kind of argument or logic, empirical or absolute. But there is no way you would get away with adopting that kind of approach in translating – as far as translating is concerned, I think of finding appropriate expressions to write in the new language that will pass for valid equivalents of the words in the original material, as “making stuff up”, so to speak – especially when it’s professional translating. After all, haven’t we all heard of the phrase “lost in translation”, and / or read the odd strange or “funny” translation on the odd occasion? In this age of digital communication and immense travel around the world, you have to wonder if these notions are alien to anyone of adult age at all. Either way, it is simply not wise to buy into the first idea that runs into your head and adopt it while supporting it – your decision – with the sole and untested argument that the one reading your translated product (whoever they might be) will “basically get it and therefore accept it”. Why? Purely out of how satisfied they will be – well, should be – that they have a version that they can read? If that is how you think: Get a grip and wake up! Now! Just one example: any name of something may indicate that thing or be an instrument of metonymy. And even if you wanted to write any sort of fiction that is as detached from reality as anything you’ve seen in World of Warcraft, Tom and Jerry, Downfall parodies on Youtube, whatever, you wouldn’t want people to feel hopelessly lost or bemused or frustrated or anything similar purely as a result of how you wrote the damn thing, would you? In my business, translation, literacy is everything, but then so is coherence – the coherence of someone else (who you probably don’t or won’t even know) – huh?

You know, having said that, maybe I should elaborate: one key skill common to translating and fiction writing is making up stuff that other people just can’t. If you have good reason to believe that you have sound creative skills (which include being highly literate) and get a buzz out of finding solutions which are far from straightforward but which really would appear to be the best answers to given problems (and which don’t necessarily involve having to do things like take perilous risks or enforce the co-operation of others), then you might enjoy translating and / or being an author. How many people out there have been known to have done both? Maybe someone can write and let me know?

I can’t and won’t pretend that I am the only one who has ever touched on the finer points that exist between the topic of writing and the topic of translation. As I was writing this comment I Googled “translator author” and on the first page there was a link to something called the Swansea Author-Translator Conference – even though it happened all the way back in 2010, it lasted FOUR DAYS! I mean, it does make you wonder exactly what they talked about on the subject that is the link between authors and translators, doesn’t it? How so much? Meanwhile, there’s some group on Facebook called “Authors & Translators”, which describes itself as “A blog for authors who talk about their translators and translators who talk about their authors, i.e. a blog about literary translation.” And there are plenty of authors and translators with plenty to say on http://authors-translators.blogspot.co.uk/ Could prove interesting to someone like me…