What is Translated

Most of the material people want translated is not high culture. I have translated materials ranging from articles in medical journals on deep vein thrombosis to bearer’s bonds. The longest translation project I ever did was a 65,000-word book; the shortest, a two-word phrase.

Outsiders to the profession generally see translation as a slow and expensive process which most businesses and organizations would rather avoid. One client told me that translation was, and I quote, "A f*cking pain in the Go**amn #ss." They prefer not to go through the hassle of calling some agency, sending them the material, waiting for a bid, bargaining and haggling over price, form and date of delivery, and then waiting to see if they get something they can use. Very little of what businesses do is worth translating. So what they do translate has to be important to someone somewhere. And therefore it has to be important to you to do it right, especially if you want to get more work from that client.

What might seem stupid to you could be worth a lot to someone. I’ve translated lost traveler’s checks surveys, interoffice memos, and advertising copy for car care products. None of this is high culture. But someone wanted it, so I did my absolute best. Remember, the only way to survive as a translator is to do a good job. You will be judged primarily if not solely on your work.

This said, materials to be translated come in all sizes and shapes. Often you have to deal with hand-written material. Someone scrawled out some message to someone else and this twenty-five-word chit of paper is now Exhibit A in an international patent infringement lawsuit. You probably won’t know that, but it could happen. When I was working in-house as a translator for the City of Kawasaki in Japan, my supervisor plopped a short letter on my desk and I translated it. I later found out that Prime Minister Takeshita took this letter to President Reagan during the Summit meeting in 1988. You never know.

When translating, no problem is too small, no term too minor to be ignored. The people who read your translation don’t know the source language. If they did, they wouldn’t have hired you. It’s easy to see why an article describing a surgical procedure must be done very accurately. It might be harder to see why the comments of a Japanese co-ed on an airline survey would be important, but they could affect future policy of that carrier. You have to take it all seriously if you want your clients to take you seriously.