“la parole exportée”

A lady is selling her house. This is the beginning of her blog post, the heading of which reads: (Totally) Lost in Translation. What a good start.

I thought I’d share with you some highlights of the rather charming French translation of our house details on the website of a supposedly bilingual estate agency. Read it and weep………

“Pretty ensemble of properties of the stone well hidden near the end of a step through a road with little or no passage traffic”

Would you like to see this kind of ad when your house is for sale? The rest of this hilarious description is here, in French and in (so-called) English, with the lady’s own comments. Have fun…

My conclusion?

It’s not just the realtor’s credibility that is at stake, but so is the seller’s. The realtor may be good in his/her field, selling houses. But not in translation. Of course, in this day and age, prospective buyers will take a look at the pictures of houses, rather than read generally hyped-up descriptions, whatever the language.

Instead of providing an attractive, well-informed ad, targeting the English buyers they are probably courting, this botched-up translation could generate extra, unnecessary questions: What are these sellers talking about? Who are they? Can we trust them? Can we trust this realtor?

That is one big reason why quality matters in translation. You want to establish confidence. In you, in your work, and in your clients. It’s as simple as that.

Quality is an elusive concept in translation. Politicians have “Change”, we have “Quality”. But I can never be sure that my own definition of quality matches that of my client. It’s an endless debate. Likewise, one could  argue that the politicians’ definition of change does not necessarily match their constituents’…

This morning I listened to an interview that reinforced my own definition of translation, hence of ‘good’ translation. I was having a lazy breakfast, listening to the radio. On comes an interview with Mimi Perrin. She’s been for the last 20 years or so the French translator of John Le Carré’s novels.

From what was said, Mimi Perrin’s translation technique (she works with her daughter) resonates with me. For instance, she explains that they do a last reading (as in reading aloud) of their final text in order to pick up repetitions, etc, all kinds of defects that you wouldn’t notice when you’re reading (by the way, she’s a musician). I often do that too. Obviously I don’t do it as a rule for technical manuals, although I sometimes think it should be done too, because what can pass off as an acceptable translation in writing wouldn’t necessarily make it when you actually listen to what you have written; moreover, bewildered users have this innate tendency to read out a badly-translated, or generally badly-written text, while trying to ascertain its underlying meaning. Just listen to yourself as you try to install your home video equipment on Christmas Day. “OK, this goes in here… and then, insert the… what’s that?… into the… oh where is that now?…”

So what, according to Mimi Perrin, is the main quality of a translation?

“while respecting the author’s copy, that it should sound as if it had been written in French. It must be so that nobody can say: this is a translation” (YESSSSSS!!!)

Translators remain in the shadows. Is this a problem?

“yes, YES, it’s frustrating. When you’ve spent several months on a translation, not having your name mentioned is frustrating.” (YESSSSSSS again!!!)

Listen to the interview (in French) here: http://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/chro/espritcritique/

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I must return to my next conference on biodiversity.

My best, or maybe my second-best fan sent me a wake-up call via Messenger today:

‘You don’t seem to be doing anything about your blog these days!’ (or something to that effect).

Well, yes. She’s right.

The problem is, I’m so engulfed in my real work that I can’t find the motivation, or the energy, to think up fun topics to discuss here.

Do you want to hear about how ethanol production is doing in the US?

Do you want to hear about the franchising system of a large retailer?

Do you want to hear about how people in all types of organizations are wondering: ‘with this economic crisis, are we going to meet our objectives, our funding requirements, and so on and so forth?’

I don’t think so. These are topics that you can read about in the press, hear about on the radio, watch on television.

[ADDENDUM] You might want to know about one big translation I did for a good cause. The English website is here: http://www.learnwithoutfear.org/en/

However: I have also been active on Amazon.fr and Amazon.co.uk.

I ordered Warren Buffett’s biography: the Snowball. It’s melting on a shelf next to Barack Obama’s photo.

I ordered ‘Underworld’ by Don DeLillo (at a friend’s recommendation): it’s sitting next to Warren Buffett.

I ordered ‘Jazz’ by Toni Morrison, after reading an interesting article in the Financial Times: it’s being very quiet by my bed, but when I do pick it up, about 2AM, I’m overwhelmed by the rhythm of the language.

And I recently ordered ‘Book Yourself Solid,’ by Michael Port. Why did I do that? Right now the last thing I want is to be booked solid. But in 2009? No problem.

I want CHRISTMAS first. Then I can be booked solid. Actually the way things are going, I might read the book and do the work DURING the holidays.

Oh, one last thing: I never forget to have a good laugh, several times a day. It’s the BEST antidote to lots of frustrations.

Enjoy!

PS To add insult to injury, Twitter Tools is not working anymore… I tried one workaround, but it worked only once. That too will have to wait till 2009…