I just came off a translation project that covered 35 pages of French legalese and actually I had quite a bit of pleasure doing it. The most entertaining part of the project is that I had time to make it happen and to make it appealing.
The appealing part doesn't happen much.
We translators are just like other professionals. We have job descriptions that are sugar and spice and everything nice on the top front of the blog article. But, at the core of the reality it is rings and dings and no time to sing. Look at that picture and you'll see what I mean. Anything up there about being able to read the original text as well as the old time pharmacist could read doctor scratchings on prescriptions? How about trying to decipher blurry scanned images submitted from a country in a handwriting style that makes you wonder how many ways there are in the world to write the letter "a"? That never gets any press...or any verbal credit. All this is one side of the abilities that a translator has to have. Check out the picture below and you'll get another side of the "skills wanted" sollicitation for help...
Yep, I want it yesterday. Sorry, lady, this is today. One hour is the best I can do for you."Oh, thank you. This shouldn't be too hard, it's a Power Point show that only has 30 slides. Not too many words."
Ha, Ha, Ha, One hour eh? And I have to keep the formatting, right?
"Oh, yes, please."
Hey, lady, what about the fact that the there are 30% more words needed in the language that you want in the show and you want to keep the formatting. Hmmm, and now we have been talking for 15 minutes and the clock is running. Yikes, lady, you gotta cut me some slack.
So the translator gets friendly, no, not THAT friendly. So he gets friendly and he gets some background about the purpose of the translation, the real deadline that she has and the audience for whom it is intended. As it turns out, it is still tight on the clock, but it is doable. So we get friendly enough that I charge her for the minimum one hour and she agrees to come back at opening time in the morning instead of insisting on the hour.
They don't teach you that in school.
The hidden talent that doesn't get any press is the ability to be laser accurate in the art of carrying the meaning from one language to the other in the shortest time possible. This is a constant part of my life. I translate many very interesting documents from many countries, for many different reasons and in many different variations of the same language but I rarely get the opportunity to enjoy what I am reading because I have one eye on the project and one on the clock.
So, this past week I had the whole week to do the 35 pages. The challenge was that the English had to be exactly what the French was. But I had a week! I actually had time to read it, think about it, translate it, read the translation, go back and read the French, reread and edit the translation, compare the two side by side (thank God for computers) and take 8 hours away from it to let it "ferment" a bit in cranium juice. Come back, sip it a little bit, add a pinch of pizazz here and there and the first thing you know, you like it and you still have two hours before the deadline. Now, that is the kind of work that a translator just plain loves.
Too bad there isn't too much of it around.
Now you know some of what I do in my old age.
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