On The Difficulty of Translating Plant Names
Many years ago, I was lucky enough to work for a couple of French publishers, translating books on various ‘real-life’ subjects. Gardening was one such topic and I translated a few on tree-pruning, flower-planting, vegetables… One I particularly liked was on how to use colorful plants in your garden. I had just moved to a house with a garden, so I was happy to test some of the advice too!
Philadelphus, or mock orange, or seringa (the last being its French name too), was one of the easiest plant names to translate, if you overlook the fact that it has two spellings, namely ’seringa’ or ’seringat’ in French. But I remember a book on medicinal plants that was more of a challenge.
As ever, when translation is concerned, your own knowledge of the general background is invaluable, and it helped me that my parents had a passion for Botany and had exposed me to all sorts of plants and plant names from a very young age. Not a total country bumpkin, I do have links with Nature! Nowadays I run across urban people who have no idea what a lime tree (Tilia, tilleul) is. Some of them have encountered it in the herbal tea section of their supermarket, but my neighbor has been the source of nightmares around my lime tree, that no herbal tea could cure!
Challenges are said to help you grow. Probably true, at least in the case of the translation of plant names. Faced with a mass of unknown names and species and varieties, I quickly had to find a way around the problem. In the days of real dictionaries and books, no Internet available, I decided that the way to go was to find the plant’s Latin name, and search its accepted French name, bearing in mind that people in different regions may use different names, so it was necessary to sift and choose the most widespread ones. The Internet now makes this task much easier.
My Philadelphus above didn’t have the honor of being planted by me, but it’s been offering a mass of white blossom year after year. Today it’s just having a shower and I wanted to capture this moment. But most of all I wanted to give it recognition for sending a sea of deep, rich fragrance into my office.
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Tags: botany, Translation
June 13th, 2008 at 1:13 am
Nadine, thank for you for sharing some of the challenges you face as a professional. I am terrible with botany in spite of my mother’s attempts to educate me. I once ghostwrote a book for a UK client about France. I had to write it in British English, include french language and translations on La Secu, health information, driving, etc.. It was the most challenging project I have ever done. My rusty french was sorely tested and at the end I was barely able to speak or write US English!
Karen Swims last blog post..What I Learned from Bullies
June 13th, 2008 at 10:11 am
This doesn’t sound like a problem you had with translating words, but presenting the culture of a country.
Culture and language are intertwined, and when you write about something that has to do with culture, you run up against difficult translation, i.e. word issues; concepts such as the ones you are mentioning are the most difficult to translate.
One solution –not necessarily the most satisfactory– is to find an acceptable suitable translation, and to explain the concept behind it.
But of course if you are a perfectionist, translating the word ‘cake’ or ‘bread’ is a problem, as I learned in my first year at interpreter’s school. Also see this excellent post by Ilaria, an Italian translator, about ‘hot chocolate’:
http://airy-eel.blogspot.com/2007/12/cup-of-translated-hot-chocolate.html
June 13th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Hi Nadine and thank you for quoting my post!
I consider myself lucky, in that when I had to translate a booklet referring to many plants used in aromatherapy, Internet helped me a lot. On the other hand, some previous knowledge of the field meant that I knew who to ask for more information. And yes, these challenges are very useful, if not because you are somehow forced to build your own glossaries, which save you much time in your future works!
OT on a romantic note: this is the time when lime trees are in bloom and the smell is absolutely wonderful! In fact, April through June the air is dense with flower scents…
ilarias last blog post..Bilingual dictionaries? Yes, please!