Let it flow, or not

                                                      Photo by Ezra Comeau-Jeffrey on Unsplash

Languages develop rich vocabularies when they are needed.  The United Kingdom is defined by water, either in standing bodies around and in it or coming from the skies above it or rising from the earth below it. As a consequence of this state of wetness as well a propensity for going to distant foreign lands, the English language has an incredible number of words describing bodies of water, flowing or standing.

One criterium distinguishing the terms is size. Going upwards, a rivulet is small indeed, rare to see and almost ignorable as is rill or streamlet.  A brook being a tad bigger and more conspicuous. Getting wider, a stream or creek or in some places in the northern UK a burn will definitely get your shoes wet unless you jump over it and probably has some small fish. At some point, the water volume increases and becomes a river, a powerful current that requires swimming to cross. By the way, the legendary (for Christians) “mighty Jordan River” is more like a stream than a river but everything is a bit exaggerated in the Middle East.

For standing bodies of water, nature creates puddles, which are tempory and longer term water holes, which are okay for finding drinking water but not much more than that. With better conditions, it can be a pond, a nice place to go on a hot summer’s day. When the ideal land and water combine, a lake is formed, filled with fish and boats. Regarding holy overselling, the Sea of Galilee, otherwise known as the Kinneret, is actually a lake. Once you can no longer see the other side, it becomes a sea, deep and dangerous. Finally, the largest bodies of water are oceans, impressive by all criteria.

Alas, this basic vocabulary only just scratches the services as bodies of water are defined by their environment and their function in it. Rivers can be tributaries or distributaries, depending on whether they feed into or from the main river. They can be rapids, with clean and white water, or deltas, slow and muddy. They can flow once when it rains, as a wadi, or have a constant flow of organic material, as a bayou, a word used in the U.S. South. Human beings can create trenches or runnels to allow water to flow in a field.

Likewise, a water hole with man-made improved access for drinking water is a well or, on a larger scale, a reservoir. Flat land areas that are periodically covered with water are called tidal zones or flood plains, depending on the frequency and cause of the invading water. You can find a channel between two large bodies of land. A lagoon is cut off from the adjacent body of water while an estuary is connected. The Scots would call either a loch but theirs are colder and deeper. Marshes has a lower level of water and grasses while swamps have deeper water and trees. Together they are called wetlands.

English and water or inexorably connected as any conversation in London will remind you. This intimacy requires a rich pool of words to describe its nuances. The physical environment does have a huge impact on language. To massacre that famous Dean Martin song, “let it flow, let it flow, let it flow.”

Hebrew legalities

As a professional legal translator, I often have to cite Israeli laws, specifically their name, articles or both. Just to make it clear, Google translate is of no use here in this language combination. The reason is that that certain idiosyncrasies typical of Hebrew affect some basic elements of the legal language and require some cross-cultural thinking in order to produce a proper translation

The first striking difference is the name of the law, specifically compound noun constructions. In English, if two nouns are joined together, the s for the plural is only added to the last noun, e.g., party conventions or Board of Director meetings. By contrast, Hebrew grammar allows either noun to be plural as relevant. Since a country can name its laws, including in English, in any way it wants, granted “informally”, the recognized English name of many Israeli laws sounds strange to English ears.  A few examples are the Companies Law and the Animals Manure Law. The translator is thus obliged to search, either through the Israeli Ministry of Justice or other site, and accept the recognized name, however awkward that may sound in English.

The name of the law is always followed by the year of its enactment, which presents its own issue.  In Israel, there are two calendars, the Hebrew, which is lunar based, and Gregorian, which is sun based. To make matters more interesting, the Hebrew year begins sometime in September or October on a varying basis. Accordingly, the name of the law in Hebrew notes both years, e.g. 5779 – 2019, in that order.  Having the identical ending digit is not automatic as a law passed between October and December could carry a Latin calendar year with final digit one less than the Hebrew one, admittedly a rare occurrence. The bigger problem in translation is what to do with the Hebrew year. Outside of Israel, nobody cares about the Hebrew year. Some translators insist on writing it, probably due to due diligence. I personally ignore it and only write the only one that a foreign audience will understand and need to know, the Gregorian one.

The numbering of articles and subsection within the law is a bit tricky due to Hebrew use of letters for numbers. To explain, each letter in Hebrew has a numerical value. The first nine letters are 1-9, the next nine digits are 20-90, etc. As an example, יד [yud-daled] is 14, i.e., ten and four. When a law in Hebrew has a short series of subsections, the first nine Hebrew letters, the translator has to choose which English equivalent to apply, letters or numbers. Is ד (daled] 4 or d?   Afterwards, it become easier to choose as the Hebrew will be marked as a number or letter, as in יד or נ [nun].  Generally, the letters are translated as letters but sometimes numbers may be used if lower level subsections exist, which require the use of the letters, i.e. Article 26(a) as compared to Article 26(1)(a).

Finally, the modal of legal necessity does not exist in Hebrew. English has an historical, albeit misused, word shall and a simplified modern word must to express the legal duty of a party. Hebrew uses the future tense in most cases. When translating statures, the translator must avoid the trap of maintaining the Hebrew structure and apply the English structure, i.e., the police must (shall) submit an indictment within 48 hours of arrest, not the police will submit an indictment within 48 hours of arrest. The future tense is a false friend in this case.

Thus, the job of a translator, legal and otherwise, is to transmit the words and culture of one language to another vocabulary and culture, not always a simple task. It is possible to disagree on the manner of doing it but all translators recognize its necessity. In legal translation, where precision and understanding are vital, the details make the translator.

Camping out and in

This week, I took my annual camping vacation, one night, at a spot I discovered last year, an organized camp ground on the Dan River in northern Israel.  When not occupied by some urgent activity, like making dinner, I spent most of my time sitting in the river and contemplating my navel.  I personally had a wonderful time.

Among my thoughts were how unpleasant camping could be for the those without a preinclination to enjoy it. The arranging of the gear and purchase of food takes a lot of time.  Packing the car is a logistical challenge especially if you don’t own a SUV and insist on having use of your rear-view mirror.  The drive, around an hour, was pleasant enough.  However, on arrival, in this case, it is necessary to haul all the gear to the camping site.  Picking the right spot can be daunting because, as in all important matters, every niche has a drawback or two. After getting hot and sweaty arranging the camp ground, temperature management becomes an issue as the midday sun in Israel is hot and always seems to be heating up the place where that was relatively pleasant a half hour ago. Being by a river encourages over social flies in the day shift and mosquitos in the night shift. Lunch was easy but requires a bit of improvisation as I insist as a matter of pride in bringing only the essential kitchen items. The afternoon nap is rendered a bit challenging by those same flies and rising heat.  The post-nap coffee is black coffee, not expresso.  Of course, we did not bring our computer. So, entertainment was limited to cards and backgammon, not to mention the previously mentioned river bathing.  Dinner involves getting smoky due to the grill and sharing with the flies, at the peak of their activity.  The showers (and toilet) are rather primitive and a short walk away. The day ends when the sun goes to sleep, except for those activities a lantern or flashlight allow. Sleep is on the hard ground, albeit with a mattress, watched over by insects, some of which can sting as we discovered. At this time of the year, the sun rises at 5:30 and wakes me up even if it has not yet warmed the air. As this was for only one night, in the late morning, I had to pack up everything, haul it and load the car, drive back, dump the gear outside and go to my afternoon work. As a final send off, everything had to be cleaned and put away for the next trip.

However, life is a matter of perspective. I get excited, even nostalgic, seeing my camping gear from which I have been separated for a year. Planning the menu increases the expectation. The car loading is a chance to show my skill, granted nothing special, in logistics. The adrenalin makes the hauling child’s play even though it has been many years since childhood. I use my intuition (or my daughter’s whose intuition is better) and seize the best place, which by definition is great since it was chosen. The heat and flies are part of the experience and add pleasure to sitting in the river. As for the nap, it is, like all sleep when camping, whatever it is with no expectations. I love sweet black coffee on camping trips, especially with almonds to accompany it.  What male does not enjoy getting stinky by the fire especially when the running water of river and shower will wash it away later. Backgammon is real fun when I am not in a hurry, a rare phenomenon that mainly occurs when I go camping. I am rather tired by the end of the daylight. I have to admit that I now take a sleeping pill when camping so I can function properly the next day.  I love the early hours of the morning and sights and sounds of the running river, not to mention the birds seeking their breakfast. Much better than even the best TV show. The packing up, driving home and going to work is a bit of a bummer but there is next year. Maybe I can stay for two nights! 

Camping is not a neutral experience. For those who don’t click with the experience, it is a lot of effort for very little enjoyment. However, for its enthusiasts, the effort only enhances the enjoyment. For me, camping is always in.

Ode to a wonderful country

Good comedy is hard to write, period. To keep it up for an entire TV season takes talent and effort. To maintain its freshness and bite for over a decade is rare genius. Israelis, like Egyptians, love to mock their politicians.  Many a TV program in Israel has targeted its leaders, often justifiably.  In my opinion, none has done it better than Eretz Nehederet, literally “a wonderful country”, a satiric news program that has been running since 2004, some 15 years. The secret to its success, most curiously, is not its aggressiveness and distain but its understated naivety and empathy, a strange formula for political satire.

In the program, the host, Eyal Kitzis, interviews various impersonated newsmakers, mainly political and cultural leaders, regarding the week’s events. The impersonations are physically a bit exaggerated but rather faithful to the personage in terms of tone and language. The humor and bite come from the answers to the apparently simple questions that are asked, such as “Why do you want to have a second round of elections?”. The answers in the show are much closer to the truth than the words that these people actually use, similar to the column in Canard Enchainė entitled Interviews that almost occurred. In other words, unlike political commentators like Stephen Colbert, the interviewer asks the questions that need to be asked so that the politicians can hang themselves. Moreover, Kitzis has no specific political agenda, stinging both the left and right. Finally, he treats all persons with respect, neither belittling nor dismissing them, but emphasizing their human foibles. The bite comes the characters, not the interviewer.

The other part of the program consists of various filmed short outtakes with various characters presenting average Israelis and their world views.  These characters include a Tel Aviv cab driver with an opinion on everything; a Russian supermarket cashier who insists on being treated with respect; two sales clerks who are outstanding in folding but much less so in service; two nouveau rich Tel Aviv couples one-upping each other in purchases and ignorance; a group of men discussing the world at a coffee shop, known as “the Parliament”, a pair of gay policemen dressed in pink shirts getting ready for the Eurovision;  and my favorite, the religious Reuben trying to explain and apply Jewish law to issues in modern life while using and distorting the language of the Halacha, the religious law. These are just a few. These characters are only slightly exaggerated and quite believable. As such, the criticism of Israel society is through the common attitudes they express, not because they are bad people.

Thus, at the end of the program when the host reminds people that we have a “wonderful country”, it is both sarcastic and sincere, which is how most Israelis feel about their own country. That is the magic of Eretz Nehederet even after all those years.  

Translating instability

I have been a freelance translator for 15 years and have learned one thing about the business: it is dynamic. Specifically, the complex base through which translators ply their trade is in constant change, forcing us to try to understand and adjust to the best of our ability. These changes are reflected in four different areas, at least, that affect our livelihood for better or for worse.

Technology is a major cause of change. Computer-aided translation (CAT tools) utilities with their attendant term memories (TM) have been disputed and implemented for over a decade but have irrevocably changed the manner of translation and project management. Simply put, translator agencies in many cases expect translators to use these tools and accordingly produce more. While there are areas in which TM’s are much less practical, CAT tool use is now a norm.

More recently, neural translation (NT), a form of machine translation (not Google Translate), has shaken up the market. Without getting in the details of how it works, NT can produce understandable text from tens of thousands of pages at significantly less cost and time than human translation in certain cases. Depending on the area, the text may be far from Shakespeare but in many cases the reader will have no issue comprehending it. This automated translation is acquiring an ever-increasing market share and squeezing out certain translation sectors. On the other hand, it is creating a huge market for people to edit the NT output to make it readable. Given the fast pace of improvement of NT, it is hard to predict which niches will be available for translators in five years.

At the same time, the business structure of translation is rapidly changing due to agglomeration and public stock offering.  Once an industry based on small, local agencies, more and more large international business agencies are being created through purchases and mergers. To finance these moves, these large companies are going public, effectively transferring their ownership to the public. The impact of these two trends is to lower translation rates due to the reduction of competition and greater market knowledge of the large agencies on one hand and the need to produce profit to the shareholders on the other hand. To paraphrase Ralf Lemster, a leading German financial translator, we need to either master the technology to increase productivity or hone a specialty to attain high rates.  The middle ground is rapidly shrinking.

In the background of the transformations are local legal developments. For example, changes in patent law eliminated the need for translation of certain documents. By contrast, EU regulations have created a vast need for translation in previous small markets, such as Czech or Gaelic. Likewise, regional or national certification modifications ease or render difficult entry into these markets, affecting the rates. Various ISO and European standards have increased the need for proofreaders. The legal background is truly a wild card for a translator.

A slower but no less powerful force is the ebb and flow of a language itself. Translation into English is one of the few stable markets as few changes have occurred in the demand for documents in that language in the last decade. However, the use of some languages has increased due to economic development, such as Chinese and Korean, while others have declined, such as French. That said, regardless of how small the segment, the demand for transcreation, the localization of a source text into a seamless local version, is increasing and providing good rates for more creative translators of all minor languages.

To be clear, these changes are neither to the complete benefit or detriment of the translator. They both reduce and create opportunities. For example, while the market for translating contracts has definitely shrunk, the demand for editors and transcreators has increased exponentially. The challenge we face is to match our talents, both current and potential, to the opportunities at hand. This effort requires constant, active testing of the market to ascertain what the current situation is, not a simple task in the “fog of war” world of freelancing. “Plus ça change, plus ça reste la mēme chose” does not apply here because the only true constant in business (and life) is change even if we are unaware of the scope of its forces.